As part of our first birthday giveaway, we asked you a one-question survey about how we can make this channel sustainable. For us, that means covering the basic expenses of running this operation and somehow finding a way to hire a part-time video editor. We really need some help in that department for Little Wars TV to have a future, and you gave us lots of great feedback. This lengthy post digs into the responses you gave and sheds some light on our next steps.
Why We ASked You
When we first started Little Wars TV, it was intended to be a limited, 10-episode series. That ballooned into 70 videos, followed by a 30 video "off-season," followed by a second season that no one here really expected to do. The bottom line is that the channel has taken on a life of its own, and now we have to decide what the heck to do from here. If we do continue into 2020 and beyond, we will need help. This survey was designed to see how our community might be able to do that.
Survey results
There were four possible responses to the survey, including Patreon, Kickstarter, a subscription-based content paywall, and "no thank you." By and large, the results were not terribly surprising, though we did not predict the winner to be so much of a landslide.
| We expected a season-based Kickstarter campaign to be running neck-and-neck with Patreon, but the results of the survey decisively favored an open-ended Patreon. Only 22% of you preferred Kickstarter, while over 60% said Patreon. | 61% support PATREON |
In fairness, many of you wrote in to say that you would entertain supporting either of those two options. There were some critical comments about Patreon's past practices of discriminating against content creators with certain political leanings, and while that kind of censorship does bother us, we aren't a political-based channel here. In fact, we actively try to avoid talking about politics publicly.
Bringing up the rear, a mere 5% of you voted for a subscription-based paywall. This is nice to see, as we were naturally inclined against this particular model. Restricting access to our videos would defeat the purpose of the channel--growing the audience for historical wargames through great online videos. To grow the audience, we want our content to be accessible to discover.
Finally, 12% of you said that while you enjoy watching the channel, you would not be able or willing to support it financially. Some wrote it to explain why they couldn't--either because they are too young, out of work, retired, etc. If you're in this camp, please know that there's no need to explain. We realize the majority of our viewers won't support the channel financially, and that's ok. You can still support us by watching, commenting, and sharing your favorite videos.
Bringing up the rear, a mere 5% of you voted for a subscription-based paywall. This is nice to see, as we were naturally inclined against this particular model. Restricting access to our videos would defeat the purpose of the channel--growing the audience for historical wargames through great online videos. To grow the audience, we want our content to be accessible to discover.
Finally, 12% of you said that while you enjoy watching the channel, you would not be able or willing to support it financially. Some wrote it to explain why they couldn't--either because they are too young, out of work, retired, etc. If you're in this camp, please know that there's no need to explain. We realize the majority of our viewers won't support the channel financially, and that's ok. You can still support us by watching, commenting, and sharing your favorite videos.
Merch, Ads, & Sponsors
We received a wide variety of other suggestions in the optional response box. Some of your ideas were quite funny--we particularly liked the idea of distilling and distributing our own Scotch--but there were plenty of serious suggestions.
Selling Little Wars TV branded merchandise was among the most commonly offered ideas. This is something we've considered before and may still decide to do. But for those who may not be familiar with how online fulfillment and distribution work, using third party suppliers to sell merchandise is a very, very low margin opportunity.
This is equally true for enabling YouTube ads--a step we have not yet taken. Ads are annoying and up until this point, we felt our channel was better served by giving you ad-free videos to enjoy without distraction. YouTube's CPM model typically ranges between $1-$4 per 1,000 views, but Google takes about half of that amount for itself. Given the size of our channel, this makes ads something we may start enabling on some videos, but that alone won't be nearly enough at our current size.
Working directly with sponsors is a more viable option, and it's one we're already exploring. For our second season, some great companies and organizations stepped up. HMGS and Fife & Drum Miniatures would be prime examples, and we owe them a big THANK YOU. Sponsorships are absolutely going to be in our future calculus, but bear in mind that they are often "one off" opportunities, and in our small niche of a hobby, not always a sustainable long-term solution.
Selling Little Wars TV branded merchandise was among the most commonly offered ideas. This is something we've considered before and may still decide to do. But for those who may not be familiar with how online fulfillment and distribution work, using third party suppliers to sell merchandise is a very, very low margin opportunity.
This is equally true for enabling YouTube ads--a step we have not yet taken. Ads are annoying and up until this point, we felt our channel was better served by giving you ad-free videos to enjoy without distraction. YouTube's CPM model typically ranges between $1-$4 per 1,000 views, but Google takes about half of that amount for itself. Given the size of our channel, this makes ads something we may start enabling on some videos, but that alone won't be nearly enough at our current size.
Working directly with sponsors is a more viable option, and it's one we're already exploring. For our second season, some great companies and organizations stepped up. HMGS and Fife & Drum Miniatures would be prime examples, and we owe them a big THANK YOU. Sponsorships are absolutely going to be in our future calculus, but bear in mind that they are often "one off" opportunities, and in our small niche of a hobby, not always a sustainable long-term solution.
Crowd-Funding
There are other options, of course. Several of you noted our Age of Hannibal rules as a future source of revenue for the channel. While we do have some long-term plans for more rules and products, those take time to develop and we aren't in the habit of rushing anything out for the sake of a few fast dollars.
Crowd-funding directly from our most passionate fans and viewers strikes us as the most realistic option today for the current size of the channel. Based on your feedback, Patreon is the path we are most likely to consider. There is no timetable for proceeding right now. Sometime around the end of the year, the club will likely convene to discuss whether we want to do a third season, and if so, how we would fund and organize it.
Thank you for responding to the survey and giving us a lot to consider. And congratulations to our 10 lucky winners from the 850+ responses!
Crowd-funding directly from our most passionate fans and viewers strikes us as the most realistic option today for the current size of the channel. Based on your feedback, Patreon is the path we are most likely to consider. There is no timetable for proceeding right now. Sometime around the end of the year, the club will likely convene to discuss whether we want to do a third season, and if so, how we would fund and organize it.
Thank you for responding to the survey and giving us a lot to consider. And congratulations to our 10 lucky winners from the 850+ responses!
