Goodbye Patreon, Hello Substack

Yes, friends, I am now in the process of deleting my Patreon page and have chosen to use Substack for subscriber-only services and additional free content for the forseeable future. I have decided to call this new page, Taking Up More Room.

Why get rid of Patreon? Well, I’ve been on there for almost a year without getting a single subscriber. It’s kind of depressing, really, but I don’t take it personally. The platform seems better geared for video creators than writers, plus only 0.33% of all creators have more than 2,000 subscribers anyway. It’s no shock that my page couldn’t get any traction.

Not only that, but I didn’t have a clear vision for the Patreon site. I felt a little funny even being on there because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do until I started seeing some action. While I could have put up some trivia quizzes or something, I wasn’t about to play to an empty room. No one likes that.

Substack, while not perfect, is very straightforward. Members write pieces and publish pieces. People subscribe. Or not. There’s plenty of free content to keep everyone busy. And it sees a lot of traffic. My Coming Soon blip chalks up a few views almost every day and I haven’t really done anything yet.

There are cons, to be sure, but I don’t see them as dealbreakers. While I’m not a fan of Substack taking ten percent of each subscription payment and their payment service, Stripe, taking out an additional percentage, it’s to be expected because everyone who uses a credit card pays credit card fees whenever they buy something. That’s just life. In the end it’s not bothersome enough to keep me away.

What will I be doing on Substack? Well, as those of you who read Taking Up Room know, I review current movies and TV now and then, and I’m surprised at how much I like it. These posts are quick to write and provide a nice change of pace from my usual takes on classics and bad movies. Problem is, these reviews don’t really fit in on Taking Up Room–they’re too much out of left field sometimes.

On Substack, I will be flipping the ratio to mostly current movies and TV with some classics and bad stuff thrown in on occasion. The majority of the posts will be for subscribers only, but I’m shooting for two free articles a month, at least to start.

And if anyone is worried about what this is going to do to Taking Up Room, don’t be. I’ll still publish here on a regular basis, because again, “More Room” is meant to supplement “Room.”

I’m excited, to be honest. Taking Up Room and Substack might be a good fit. And, depending on how things play out, I will be using money I make from Substack to upgrade Taking Up Room. I’m also hoping for a lot of cross-traffic between the two sites. I’m not above using one to promote the other, either, if I do shamelessly say so. 😉

So yeah, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting tomorrow, I will be posting content on Taking Up Room’s annex, Taking Up More Room, in addition to keeping things going here. I hope you’ll check it out and consider subscribing. And if you haven’t subscribed to Taking Up Room, what are you waiting for? Let’s make this official, y’all.

All right, see you tomorrow with another review. Thanks, everyone…