Funded (Patreon)

Well, for the first time we've actually cracked our goal to sustain Mae and myself full time.  This is huge and I want to explain why.

The show, as you know it, has been operating with me burning roughly 80-90 hours a week for 4 years.  Mae pitched in another 10 or so in addition to a full time outside job.  In that arrangement the total house income was actually fairly good. (by the end of 2018, not the whole time)

The problem is I was starting to lose relationships, my health has been hard to maintain, and more obviously my weight, just from being so stationary working all night.  Mae also wasn't super keen on her day job.

So we evaluated having her full time, which meant a loss of her income + taking a chunk out of what I finally started pulling in for the show.   Hence the push to bolster Patreon.   Basically Mae coming full time was a ~30-40k annual loss on income.  However, I might live to see 40 and we keep the show.

Project Lightening was supposed to pull over more viewers, and to a degree it did, but it had almost no effect on Patreon or overall funding.  Just a temporary bump in ad revenue on YouTube, which is always poor regardless.  

So right now C&Rsenal is, financially, about where it was in year 2.5-3.  We're in the black but having to be cautious.  This obviously comes at a time when YT, the only viable platform (and yes we've tested the rest) is in another flux, along with most social media.  C&Rsenal is a neutral show, but we often get censored along gun content lines.  

Now you all have already solved the BIG problem: you've chosen to directly fund content you enjoy.  In this regard you have already won, the show is now funded and, until that marker falls off, stable.  I'll leave the current goal up for a few months before setting another, with consideration as to how much and why, because we often see losses at the end of each month.  But, overall, I'm feeling very good that there does exist a big enough base to carry this programming.  

Where do we go from here?  I've had a lot of suggestions about this platform or that, and yes we can use them as backups but without growth we are doomed.  We will lose patrons every month and need to replace them.  We've also tried traditional advertisers but we can't seem to get a good one locked in and it was a lot of overhead to plan.  With Mae on board I can probably try that again in the coming months.  

Honestly, if you think about it, most non-patron fundraising is a distraction from the core product: the show(s).  So my goal for 2020 will be to introduce two new shows WITHOUT interrupting Primer.  The way to do this is for us to produce one smaller one, and involve at least one outside party (like how Anvil is done) to host another on our channel.  I have one very surprising idea in the works, but it needs more shake out before I can share it.

The hope here is to double the viewer base.  That way patron donations stabilize at least above the line we have now and we have a larger audience to sell product to roughly twice a year.  With a larger audience we don't have to burn a lot of hours chasing smaller sums, we can just put energy into high-impact fund raising and take the extra time to make more content for you all.

Also, final note in regards to the shotgun series.  There have been some concerns we may ruin a discount market by sharing how cool these things are.  So you have my promise that patrons will have first access to the episodes, giving you time to seek out your desires BEFORE the general public.  We actually want to do the same with Primer, but pulling ahead has been difficult. 

Thanks again for all your support and here's hoping for continued growth together!