State of the Patreon

This Patreon page is almost 2 and a half years old now. It's been quite the roller coaster.

When I launched this page, it was partially because I was looking for some form of income after I was laid off during the pandemic, in late 2020. However, I also wanted to take a more serious approach with my art, after being out of the game for several years and still having an affinity for it.

While Patreon money has allowed me to generally "break even" with my meager living costs, it doesn't provide benefits and doesn't provide enough for me to live on my own. During the time I've been unemployed, I have been applying for jobs that I'm qualified for and interest me. Many of those applications resulted in auto-rejections, and many more were met with deafening silence. Only two of the applications progressed to the interview stage, and I bombed both of them so badly that they didn't even bother telling me that they hired someone else. As the months dragged on, the dismay from the constant job rejections and lack of growth with my artwork weighed more and more heavily upon my mind. I started to fear if it was always going to be this way.

Then, in late February, I finally had a reprieve from a downward spiral when a place offered me a job. It isn't a dream job, but it's full-time work that I'm qualified for, and correlates to my job experience. I start about a week from now. It will break a chain of 29 months without employment.

This will be the first time I will have a job while running a Patreon page. I plan to run it through the month of March as normal to see how it goes, when I start having weekdays devoted to a real-life full-time job. If I can't juggle it with art, I will have to dial back my Patreon responsibilities, as holding that job will be absolutely vital for me. However, I also want to avoid totally shutting down my Patreon, as I never know what the future holds and I'll always want to continue making art. Stepping away from Patreon now would severely damage whatever foothold and momentum I currently have. After all, my dream would be to work on art full-time and earn a comfortable living from it. If I can keep up with Patreon while working IRL, there's a chance it could grow to where it provides all the income I need, and I won't have to work elsewhere. If I shut it down, then there's no chance of that happening.

Whatever happens, I'm grateful for the loyal patrons I've had these past 2+ years and you guys are the primary reason I've been continuing to producing art at this frequency and level. Much of the stuff I've posted would have simply not existed if not for Patreon. What's been particularly enjoyable with this line of work is the international recognition, reaching out all the way to places like Germany and New Zealand... pretty nifty for some shut-in from backwater West Virginia.

However, I also have to face the reality that my numbers for the past year or two have been rather stagnant, both here and elsewhere, while I've been hoping to expand my reach. All around me, I see my peers continuing to grow and grow their "brands" like it's no big deal. I see new artists appearing on the scene and promptly eclipsing my numbers. I don't blame the "algorithm" or anything like that for my stagnation. I haven't done well enough with my work or with how I've presented it. I haven't been getting work out quickly enough and I'm behind on my obligations. I haven't been marketing myself or forming "connections" effectively, and I haven't been trying out new venues for posting my work. Part of me feels like this is all a lost cause, that I peaked around 2008-10, that I'm a "relic" and a "has-been", that I "had my time" and the community has moved on. For better or worse, however, I'm too stubborn to admit that I've truly "lost".

So, for now, I'll be soldiering onward with my art, and continue trying to improve.