Happy New Year, and Hello, 2025!
Hello, friends of the internet, and Happy New Year! Your support and engagement mean the world to me, and I'm excited to share my reflections and goals for the upcoming year with you.
It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. Over the past month, I've taken some much-needed time away from Austin B Media to reflect on 2024, consider the lessons learned, and prepare for what's next. Watching films like Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, MaXXXine, and Conclave, as well as TV shows like Shrinking Season 2 and Creature Commandos, reminded me why I started this journey in the first place: a passion for storytelling and a love for sharing it with all of you.
These goals include increasing the quality and quantity of content, improving the website's performance, and expanding the coverage of film festivals and screenings.
Looking Back at 2024
I'll be honest with you. While I had a fun 2024, it fell well short of my expectations. On my Patreon, I had more cancellations than ever before; I struggled for months to publish anything on time, saw less than 100 movies, and saw an over 80% decrease in visitors to my website.
That may sound harsh reading it back, but I'm nearly five years into this gig. If I don't execute goals that are perfectly within my grasp now, they could become habits that make me lazy or complacent another five years from now. But I've learned from these challenges and am committed to doing better in 2025.
So, let's review. Despite the challenges of 2024, I'm determined to make 2025 a year of growth and improvement.
Patreon Observations
This one isn't in my control, but I want to discuss it anyway since this is a crucial part of my business. First and foremost, one of the first things that stood out to me was offering too many benefits. The sheer amount of benefits I had to fulfill overwhelmed me, preventing me from delivering on the promised benefits. It distracted me from my strengths in producing quality reviews, podcast episodes, and interviews.
The other thing I noticed about my Patreon and Patreon, in general, is that I spent much time relearning how to use the website with each new feature. I'm sure this exists everywhere, but on top of Patreon's fee structure, which is rapidly approaching 20% of my monthly income, as The Japanese House says, Something Has to Change. I plan to phase out Patreon as a membership option and move towards a self-hosted membership on my site. It may not have everything I'm looking for, but at least I'll control what new features get added. Stay tuned for updates throughout the year.
Decreased Website Traffic
As I mentioned earlier, I saw an over 80% decrease in visitors to my website in 2024 compared to 2023. The decrease wouldn't bother me if it were a minor percentage, like 20% or less, but a drop of over 80% indicates significant problems.
So, what happened? Outside of some very technical changes, Google made to how it presents search results outside my control; I did notice how infrequently I posted on my website. Somehow, Patreon became the defacto hub for Austin B Media, and I want to fix that in 2025. From now on, all content published on Patreon will be available on the site. I don't know exactly how that'll work with Squarespace, but I'll make it work.
Limited Opportunities for Coverage
In 2024, the job opportunities available to me were limited and more difficult to find. Some of that was my own doing when I decided to stop attending press screenings. Still, I could only publish 17 reviews, including A Real Pain, Kneecap, and Food Inc. 2. And that's with attending Slamdance and Tribeca this year, where I saw films like On the Way Home and Griffin in Summer.
So, at the end of 2024, I only saw about 83 films released in 2025. That's rough, considering I'd seen anywhere from 119 to 235 films per year in previous years at Austin B Media. To combat this, I've already sent out applications to cover Slamdance 2025 and got accepted to cover SXSW 2025, with requests for other festivals drafted and ready to go, like Austin Film Festival and Bentonville Film Festival, as well as tons of coverage request emails for January and February, are already on their way to publicists. Fingers crossed that they say yes!
Editorial Calendar Boost
Before I wrap up the 2024 section, transitioning from monthly editorial calendars on Patreon helped provide clarity and transparency for me when I open my laptop each weekday.
However, they often took too long to create, so I still need to tweak the process so that making the monthly editorial calendar doesn't take my focus away from publishing my work.
Changes to Patreon
In 2025, I'm streamlining Patreon to simplify it for you and me. My goal is to create a system that mirrors the timeless structure of newspapers and magazines: clear, accessible, and impactful.
Moreover, I turned off the Patreon Shop feature and am transitioning all the products to my site. Not only is Patreon's fee structure out of control, but it also doesn't make sense to continue using it, considering I only publish one digital product monthly.
Patreon Tiers for 2025
For 2025, I've made some changes to the membership structure. I've retired tiers like Knives' Crew and Subspace to focus on quality over quantity. I've also added a financial support tier for anyone who wants to support my work financially at a lower barrier to entry. It doesn't come with any perks, but every little bit helps! Outside of that, the Scott's Sidekick tier loses the appreciation post benefit, and the Wallace's Warriors tier loses the Behind the Curtain post benefit.
Here are the new Patreon tiers for 2025:
Tip Jar – $1/month: Support Austin B Media and help keep the lights on.
Scott's Sidekick – $3/month: Early access to everything, exclusive posts, monthly editorial calendars, and dedicated Discord channels.
Wallace's Warriors – $10/month: Everything above, plus uncut podcast episodes.
All of my public Patreon posts will be published on my site. This change ensures everyone can access everything while allowing me to prioritize meaningful content creation.
Goals for 2025
Now, here are my New Year's resolutions for Austin B Media. If you've read this far, you probably know what they are already, but to keep me accountable, here they are:
Publish 52 reviews in 2025.
Watch 208 movies in 2025.
Gain membership in the Critics Choice Association and Rotten Tomatoes.
Increase website traffic by 30% and grow annual revenue by 25%.
So, why these goals? As I said, these are the four pain points I experienced in 2024. Accomplishing goal one is the base requirement for most critics' guilds and associations, so that's knocking two goals down in one stone. Accomplishing goal two will help me be more knowledgeable about 2025 releases and movies, in general, come this time next year. Finally, if I can achieve goal 4, I'll be on the right track for 2026.
With that said, here's to an incredible 2025. Let's make it the best year yet!
Until next time,
Austin
