Money matters -- Patreon, anyone?

[robotech_master]

I'm in the process of arranging my finances, consolidating some old credit card and other debts along with the money I owe for the condo I live in. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the monthly payment I'm going to end up making on that, combined with the payment for my student loans, is not going to leave me with a whole lot of money left over to spend on anything else.

So I'm starting to look seriously at other ways of bringing in a little extra money. In particular, things I can do from home without having to spend a lot of extra time and energy going somewhere else and dealing with people (since I already do that all day). I'm open to suggestions.

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One option that seems reasonably attractive to me is trying to start some Patreon campaigns. There are a few things I do that have attracted audiences over time, and I'm hoping that the audiences might be big enough to support me doing more of them in return for money.

Here were my thoughts:

1. TeleRead

I used to get paid for writing for TeleRead.org. Not a whole lot, but enough to provide a good secondary source of revenue, especially when I was unemployed (and enough to make me end up owing money to the IRS at the end of the year). When I was getting paid, I wrote long and often, because I knew I had the responsibility to provide my employers with their money's worth. Since I've stopped getting paid for it, I really haven't had the urge to spend my extra time writing much. But I'd like to.

What would be reasonable rates for such a Patreon? For each $50 per month I get, I guarantee at least one article per week? What sorts of things could I offer as individual bonuses for people who donate a certain amount per month?

And there even that many people out there who care about my opinions? I suppose I can post an article over there discussing the idea and ask what people think.

2. Space Station Liberty

And then there's my Robotech podcast, which I used to do a lot more regularly than I've been doing lately. At some point it just became too much trouble to do that often, and finding guests was hard, and there just wasn't much Robotech-related news. But I've come back to it again recently, finding a few more guests and a few more things to talk about. I could probably do so even more, if I got a little bit of Patreon funding as an impetus.

TalkShoe actually used to pay some small amount for people who listened to the podcast, back in its early days, but it soon stopped that as it apparently burned through all its venture capital without turning a profit in return. At least it stopped in time to be able to afford to continue going for free.

What would be reasonable rates? At least one guaranteed podcast per month for each $50 per month? What could I offer as individual incentives?

And would Harmony Gold get mad at trying to get paid a little for my time and effort on such a thing? (Not to mention, would enough Robotech fans think it was worth paying a little extra to have it more often?)

3. Fiction writing

This one isn't exactly a sure thing, but I've written some Internet fiction in shared settings (the FreeRIDErs and Paradise settings) on a transformation-stories forum that has picked up a few fans over the last few years. Would there be enough fans of it that they'd be willing to pay me to write more?

Of course, I really should see about writing something fit for actual real publication (or self-publication-for-money), and I've started kicking a few ideas around on that score (nothing like a little desperation to get the creative juices flowing!) but whether and how much money something like that even takes in is something of a gamble, especially considering how long it would take to write. What would be more useful to me at the moment would be something that would take in a little money now.

So, maybe guarantee I'd crank out one at-least-5,000-word story per month for every $50 per month I get? That's only a penny a word, but it's a penny a word more than I've been getting posting it for free. And I'm pretty sure I could do a short story or two per month without even breathing hard. But again, what perks do I offer people who kick in a few bucks? Early access to the stories might be one thing—maybe have some kind of private server where I host them for a month or so before they hit the main site on Shifti.

But again, this gets into the question of whether enough people would even think it was worthwhile to pay me. Which is by no means guaranteed.

Apart from the patreon, I wonder if anyone would be willing to commission me to write stories for them? Pay me some small amount per word to write a short story to order for them? Hey, if artists can sell their artistic talent for money, why couldn't I?

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And those are the extent of the few feeble ideas I've had so far. If anyone knows of any other good way by which I could turn a little extra writing time into a little extra cash, I'd love to hear them. I think I'm just about to find myself in a severe budget crunch.

Comments

Patreon

[bryce glover (from livejournal.com)]

     I've heard good things about Patreon and have an account there myself, but haven't gotten anything out of it yet. That last, however, is mostly due to my lack of output so far, along with any relative obscurity that's probably involved. In any case, I say you should go for it.