Supporter Upgrade Monthly + Plans

[TomFulp]

We've just released an update to the Supporter System!

You can now pay what you want (minimum $25) to be a supporter for one year but you also have the option to pay what you want (minimum $2.99) monthly for supporter status.

As a supporter you can browse NG without ads, access some secret content, upload an animated forum signature and you get a supporter badge on your user page and forum posts.

Our big hope is that we can get a large number of regular monthly subscribers to provide a stable, predictable revenue flow that doesn't fluctuate the way ads do. This will be especially helpful in the first quarter of 2016, when ad rates are their lowest.

If money is left over after NG expenses, we intend to regularly sponsor content like we did for years prior, only we'll be more aggressive with the marketing NG gets in return.

For example, if we sponsor an animation, it will premier on Newgrounds ahead of YouTube, with an exclusive window just for supporters (similar to what we did with Phoenotopia last year). We'll also expect artist social linking to the sponsored NG version, whereas right now most social linking goes to YouTube when new content is released.

Current goals for 2016, assuming we are covering base NG expenses / rebuilding our long-lost safety-net:

$4,000 per month - Supporters will be covering our hosting expenses. We'll celebrate by commissioning an original site skin each month. This could be from a popular artist who can promote their work to their social media fans, or a really great artist could create a skin themed after the work of a popular artist, who could then agree to promote the work among their fans.

$6,000 per month - We'll also sponsor an original animation each month from a popular artist who can promote the work to their social media and YouTube fans.

$12,000 per month - We'll get rolling with game sponsorships that use our new API (currently in private beta).

Our sponsorships will encourage collaboration with Audio Portal musicians and voice actors when possible.

Goal #1 is 100 monthly recurring supporters. When we hit that number, I'll update everyone on our supporter count and how much money has been committed!

Current annual supporters can't jump right into monthly; you will have to wait until your annual period expires. You can, however, gift supporter status to other users, or even make a straight-up donation here!

If you experience any confusion or bugs while trying the new system, please PM me with a report! You can include your browser info as well if it's a bug.

Other News

We've decided to end support for .unity3D uploads. Chrome doesn't support them, Firefox is ending support and they are creating a backlog on the judgment list. If you have an AMAZING Unity3D game that can't export as WebGL (which NG accepts), please notify me to talk about it.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 01:43 PM, Voltage wrote: You know what I thought would be neat? "Supporter of the Day," kind of like that...
strange, rather obscure feature of the BBS... the "User of the Day."

That WOULD be a nice perk! HMMMMMM

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 01:47 PM, RealFaction wrote:

At 10/22/15 01:37 PM, TomFulp wrote: We've just released an update to the Supporter System!
lots of cool stuff

This is a good idea. I like the goals. This could definitely get NG more on track! :)

I'm hoping to hit those goals with lower numbers but didn't want to be TOO optimistic in case ad revenue alone doesn't cover everything else. It would be really exciting to see it all work, though.

[Intrapath]

Exciting stuff, Tom! Can't wait to see how sponsorships and such go if the revenue meets expectations. It's a little sad to see Unity games struggling, but it's understandable.

[Radaketor]

At 10/22/15 01:37 PM, TomFulp wrote: Goal #1 is 100 monthly recurring supporters.

Shouldn't be too hard, right? Will donations help reach goals as well or is that exclusive to monthly supporters?

We've decided to end support for .unity3D uploads.

Oh god yes.
What about games that've already passed judgement, though? Will they be removed or do they get to stay?

Good luck with everything.

[LucidShadowDreamer]

This sounds like a cool plan!! :D
I hope that a lot of newer people will start to give their support too :3

It'll be really interesting to see how this plays out

[FOST3R]

This is really great!

[jonthomson]

At 10/22/15 01:37 PM, TomFulp wrote: We've just released an update to the Supporter System!

You can now pay what you want (minimum $25) to be a supporter for one year but you also have the option to pay what you want (minimum $2.99) monthly for supporter status.

I'm not sure on what payment processors you use, but for such a small amount I've got to think that you're going to be losing a decent percentage on processing fees. I wouldn't have thought there's too many people that would be put off by setting it at $5/60 days, after all what's five bucks, and I'd also think that you're not going to be losing much at all, if anything, once you take expenses into account (plus you lock people in for a two month period bwahaha). Sure you've looked into this already, but just a thought

We've decided to end support for .unity3D uploads.

PRAISE THE SUN

[aListers]

Do yearly subscriptions help towards these goals or only monthly? I mean, with these perks it seems like monthly subscriptions are prefered over the yearly one. I'd be willing to switch over to monthly at the end of the year if it's better for newgrounds though.

[squidly]

Finally, a monthly plan.

Wanna consider putting up a 'meter' for supporters like Roll20 used to?

Also is the secret content coming or am I missing something.

[Bit]

I like the new automatic renewal feature. Right now, I simply have it marked on my calendar so I remember to renew my Supporter status immediately after one year. Automation is better.

I did notice that the monthly subscription slider was a bit fiddly. All of the numbers on the low end are so close together that it's difficult to select a specific amount. Moving from $2.99 to $5.99 is only like three pixels of mouse movement. Would be nice if the slider was a @Bit finer on the low end and coarser on the high end.

And how do you plan on implementing Allegiance badges? Right now, they go by year. Will they only be available for users who have a yearly subscription or will users on the monthly system get the badge if they are subscribed for the entire year?

[liljim]

At 10/22/15 02:18 PM, Bit wrote: And how do you plan on implementing Allegiance badges? Right now, they go by year. Will they only be available for users who have a yearly subscription or will users on the monthly system get the badge if they are subscribed for the entire year?

You'll get the badge automatically after 12 payments.

[Bit]

At 10/22/15 02:20 PM, liljim wrote:

At 10/22/15 02:18 PM, Bit wrote: And how do you plan on implementing Allegiance badges? Right now, they go by year. Will they only be available for users who have a yearly subscription or will users on the monthly system get the badge if they are subscribed for the entire year?

You'll get the badge automatically after 12 payments.

That makes sense.

I'll be switching after my year is up. If monthly payments are better for Newgrounds then I want to do my part.

At 10/22/15 01:37 PM, TomFulp wrote: Other News

We've decided to end support for .unity3D uploads. Chrome doesn't support them, Firefox is ending support and they are creating a backlog on the judgment list. If you have an AMAZING Unity3D game that can't export as WebGL (which NG accepts), please notify me to talk about it.

99% of the Unity3D submissions were just templates/tutorial projects, anyway.

[radiodark]

Oops, does that mean I waited too long to retroactively buy a supporter upgrade for a missed year like you'd mentioned was possible? (I was really broke in 2014)

[MysticSkillz]

Love everything about it! I just made a donation for the year Tom! Let me know if it went through.

[Hyptosis]

I like what I'm hearing! Keep it up man! Great work guys!

You've probably covered this Tom and I've just missed it in my absence, but has Newgrounds ever thought of trying an itch.io situation? Allowing people to download games and offer donations to support them via the site? Like Patreon or something.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 01:57 PM, Radaketor wrote: Shouldn't be too hard, right? Will donations help reach goals as well or is that exclusive to monthly supporters?

Donations will help us cover expenses and hopefully build financial padding, so all of that will get us to sponsoring faster.

What about games that've already passed judgement, though? Will they be removed or do they get to stay?

Existing Unity3D games will remain. We would like to hide them from users who don't have support for it but that's a pretty big filtering project to apply all over the site. Will also be trying to get devs to replace them with WebGL versions, as some have successfully done already.

[DBuck-Eye]

I like the sound of this! Is there gonna be a push to have more monthly supporters than annual supporters? I only ask because the goal seems to be interms of monthly subscribers only.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:13 PM, squidly wrote: Finally, a monthly plan.

Wanna consider putting up a 'meter' for supporters like Roll20 used to?

Also is the secret content coming or am I missing something.

Secret stuff is at the top of your account page... Would like to make that a larger thing as well. And would like to have a meter so people can get all amped.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:05 PM, jonthomson wrote: I'm not sure on what payment processors you use, but for such a small amount I've got to think that you're going to be losing a decent percentage on processing fees.

If someone pays $2.99 a month, we get $2.57. Would love for people to choose to pay a little more but trying not to force too much on them.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:11 PM, aListers wrote: Do yearly subscriptions help towards these goals or only monthly? I mean, with these perks it seems like monthly subscriptions are prefered over the yearly one. I'd be willing to switch over to monthly at the end of the year if it's better for newgrounds though.

A monthly subscription does pay out more over the course of a year and is nice for the monthly consistency, however yearly will also be getting us ahead, we'll have to find a good way to calculate it out on a monthly basis if we make a goals meter for sustaining specific programs.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:25 PM, lovingthedark wrote: Oops, does that mean I waited too long to retroactively buy a supporter upgrade for a missed year like you'd mentioned was possible? (I was really broke in 2014)

Yup, I should have posted a reminder... Retroactive badges are no longer available :(

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:35 PM, Voltage wrote: out of curiosity Tom, whatever happened to the old NG banners users could make on their own page?

We plan to bring back user page banners when user pages switch to the mobile adaptive layout.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 02:38 PM, Hyptosis wrote: I like what I'm hearing! Keep it up man! Great work guys!

You've probably covered this Tom and I've just missed it in my absence, but has Newgrounds ever thought of trying an itch.io situation? Allowing people to download games and offer donations to support them via the site? Like Patreon or something.

Selling games directly is something I wanted to do for a while, since Steam was still really hard to go on and NG was known for simplicity / lack of gatekeepers. Now that sites like itch.io are around it feels less necessary, although it's still tempting.

The Patreon model is also tempting, there are a lot of things that could happen if NG itself grows a successful subscription system.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 03:07 PM, Piggler wrote: Can we have daily supporter upgrades instead?

I'd rather spend 10 cents a day than 3 dollars a month.

Now THAT would be tough to pull off with Paypal fees.

[The-Great-One]

At 10/22/15 03:00 PM, TomFulp wrote: We plan to bring back user page banners when user pages switch to the mobile adaptive layout.

So happy!

[Bit]

At 10/22/15 03:30 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 10/22/15 03:07 PM, Piggler wrote: Can we have daily supporter upgrades instead?

I'd rather spend 10 cents a day than 3 dollars a month.

Now THAT would be tough to pull off with Paypal fees.

Have you considered integrating with Amazon Payments?

It's apparently the same 2.9% + $0.30 fee as PayPal, but it might entice more users to become Supporters. When eBay was big, PayPal was big, but eBay is not the platform it once was and many people don't really have an incentive to open a PayPal account. Pretty much everyone I know has an Amazon account these days so you might see increased Supporter rates if you give users the option for PayPal or Amazon.

[Hyptosis]

At 10/22/15 03:07 PM, TomFulp wrote: The Patreon model is also tempting, there are a lot of things that could happen if NG itself grows a successful subscription system.

Yeah, with how I generally enjoy making many small short games, many a year when things are going well. I've pondered trying to make a coop of types, similar to adult comics sites like slip shine, where a certain amount of guaranteed content is produced for a subscription. I used to be big into creating webcomics, and while I never saw anyone 'get rich' I did see some success in this model. Never heard of it for small games though. I've yet to mess with Itch.io but I like what I'm seeing as far as how it functions.

[TomFulp]

At 10/22/15 03:38 PM, Bit wrote: Have you considered integrating with Amazon Payments?

It's apparently the same 2.9% + $0.30 fee as PayPal, but it might entice more users to become Supporters. When eBay was big, PayPal was big, but eBay is not the platform it once was and many people don't really have an incentive to open a PayPal account. Pretty much everyone I know has an Amazon account these days so you might see increased Supporter rates if you give users the option for PayPal or Amazon.

Do you know of a monthly subscription option with Amazon that we could tie into? I don't immediate see a reference to one, not sure if it's hidden.

[Bit]

At 10/22/15 03:54 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 10/22/15 03:38 PM, Bit wrote: Have you considered integrating with Amazon Payments?

It's apparently the same 2.9% + $0.30 fee as PayPal, but it might entice more users to become Supporters. When eBay was big, PayPal was big, but eBay is not the platform it once was and many people don't really have an incentive to open a PayPal account. Pretty much everyone I know has an Amazon account these days so you might see increased Supporter rates if you give users the option for PayPal or Amazon.

Do you know of a monthly subscription option with Amazon that we could tie into? I don't immediate see a reference to one, not sure if it's hidden.

On this page, under "Automatic payments", it says

Offer subscription and recurring payment options to your customers. Go beyond the transaction and start establishing long-term, ongoing payment relationships.

So it looks like it will work for what you want to do.