Patronism, Part 2

I have decided to start an Ate Up With Motor Patreon page. I set up an Ate Up With Motor shop, which currently offers author’s notes for the electronic fuel injection, “Turbos for the Turnpike”, and rope-drive Tempest articles. The logic is that the articles themselves remain freely available, but people can buy the bonus content separately, which is also a way to support my work. I also set up an option for recurring payments (which Patreon calls “membership”), at $5 USD a month; at present, I’m not sure about multiple tiers or anything like that, but given the severity of my financial predicament, it seemed a reasonable place to start.

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  1. I bought the notes on the rope drive Tempest article, and it was $8 well spent. I’m new to Patreon. On the upgrade page it says, “If you’d like to support my work and research, and get access to Patreon-exclusive bonus content.” Can you elaborate on what the bonus content would be?

    1. Well, as an example, the item to which I alluded the other day about the NHTSA report on the Corvair will shortly go live on the Patreon page. (I’m thinking I will eventually run that here as well, but not before June 1.) The plan at this stage is for Patreon-specific content to be somewhat shorter than the typical Ate Up With Motor history (the NHTSA article is only 4,000 words), focusing on more editorial or discursive material comparable to (though not the same as) the author’s notes. The idea is that the Patreon content will supplement the regular articles, and in some cases perhaps preview them, but that the “main” history articles will remain available here for free.

      1. If I pay for a month of Patreon, does that mean I get access to the Patreon-specific content for that month? I assume the month runs from whenever I sign up for it, whatever day of the month it is?

        1. No, it’s essentially an all-access pass for a month to any/all Patreon-specific content, at least of that membership tier. (The Patreon platform gives the option of setting up multiple tiers of membership where each succeeding tier has access to additional exclusives, but I have not done that, and don’t presently anticipate doing so, in part because for me to use that option, I would have to commit to a higher tier of Patreon membership that gives Patreon a bigger cut of any revenues I make there.) Obviously, in some cases, there is some overlap — since I just set it up in April and haven’t posted there this morning, there’s currently only content posted in April — but member access isn’t date-limited in that way so far as I know.

          It appears the length of the month is determined by the sign-up date. I have heard there is an option to set it to rebill on a specific day (e.g., first of the month) rather than the anniversary of the original billing date, but I haven’t yet figured out how to do that, and it may be another of the “premium” features for which I haven’t yet signed up as a creator.

  2. I wouldn’t pay for this. Sponsorship is the way forward, not charging or pay per view

    1. Well, you aren’t obligated to — I’m not looking to move Ate Up With Motor to the Patreon platform, and I don’t want to bury the site or the articles behind a paywall either. I’m trying to find alternatives to doing that. Sponsorship in the sense I assume you mean isn’t a possibility, though, and the main alternative is obnoxious pay-per-click online advertising, which if anything I want less than any of you do.

  3. Congrats on getting this setup and getting some subscribers. FWIW, as I said before I am happy to support. I’ve gotten a lot of great reading from your content over the years.

    I think your current About page sells you a little short. I know you have gotten press in the past from just about every major automotive site. I’d consider throwing some of that in there.

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