How Beneos Battlemaps, a TTRPG creator, increased his earnings by over 25% with subscription billing

Ben never intended to start a tabletop role playing games business. He only started making battlemaps as a way to make his games more immersive and fun. But when his friends noticed how talented Ben was, they encouraged him to share his work with the world. Within a year, Ben quit his full-time job, making his company Beneos his main focus. With that shift, he decided to switch to subscription billing to better support his growth.

Deciding to switch to subscription billing

What is subscription billing? Subscription billing is when members get charged on the day they sign up and that same day every month going forward.

When Ben first started his Patreon, creating wasn’t his full-time job. “I had no plans to change that,” he says. “In fact, I didn't even know if this niche was something people would be interested in.”

He initially chose a per-creation billing model (where members were charged per “pack”) to make sure he had the freedom to release work on his own schedule. It was right for him at the time, but when subscription billing was released, he decided that switching would be more beneficial to his business.

“I do not exaggerate when I say that switching to monthly billing was one of the most important business decisions of my early years,” he says. “There were only benefits, no downsides. In fact, the benefits are very significant for me and my business.”

Here’s how Ben shared the news with this members:

When he switched, Ben also posted a FAQ to make sure his members knew how it would impact them.

From Ben’s perspective, these are the four main benefits of subscription billing

1. Ability to keep his files exclusive
Because members were only charged on the first of the month with per-creation billing, they could join, download all of his existing work, and then cancel without ever paying. “With monthly billing, you can set up to charge upfront, and that alone was a huge game changer for me,” he says. “I made the switch in February 2023, and my earnings for that month increased by over 25%.”

2. Access to more features
Ben was able to start offering annual billing to his members with subscription billing. That means people can now choose to pay for the year upfront instead of month by month — a feature Ben has found very beneficial for his business.

3. Flexibility for his own schedule
At a certain point during per-creation billing, Ben says he was sacrificing quality for quantity. He pushed himself to share the same amount of work at the same times each month so he didn’t see a dip in his revenue. But once he switched to subscription billing, he had more freedom to release work at any time throughout the month without worrying about his income. This allowed him to refocus on quality and make sure his members were getting the best work possible.

4. Spreading out billing dates
One often overlooked downside to per-creation is what Ben calls the “start-of-the-month dip.” With his original billing model, all members were charged on the same day, so all payment issues or cancellations would happen on the same day. That led to a significant dip in member numbers on the same day each month. “These dips can be very unpredictable and demotivating if you are just starting. It felt like a boxing match where nothing happens the entire round, but you get one giant punch right when the bell rings,” he explains.

With the subscription billing, every member is charged on the day they joined and every month on that same date. So, all cancellations and payment issues are distributed over the month, smoothing out the graph and giving creators a more realistic impression of how their community is doing.

Takeaways from Ben’s experience:

- Benefit delivery is easier with subscription billing. Charging new members upfront helps prevent people from downloading work and leaving without ever paying.

- There are new features exclusive to subscription billing. Annual subscriptions are a great way to increase member retention. Plus, you can try tier repricing, free trials, and creator-to-fan gifting (coming soon).

- Subscription billing can offer you more flexibility. Now that billing is spread throughout the month, Ben has more control and freedom over when he shares his work.

- Subscription billing can give you a clearer look at your business. When members are billed at different times of the month, you can get a more realistic view of cancellations and payment failures.

How to maintain your earnings while switching to subscription billing

When migrating from per-creation payments to a monthly membership model, we use a multiplier tool to help you maintain your earnings. Here’s how it works:

• The multiplier is determined by your paid post history, and is applied to the per-creation price to create equivalent monthly tier prices your existing members will be billed monthly.
• We take the maximum amount of paid posts you’ve made over the past three months, and this will be your potential multiplier.
• We use this approach to ensure that your existing members are billed a fair monthly price similar to what they are used to from being charged per creation, so we don’t give them sticker shock.
• If your members specified a maximum number of paid posts, we will honor this cap post-migration.

More resources to help you switch

For more help and FAQs on how to switch the subscription billing, please head to our Help Center. If you’re ready to migrate to subscription billing from a per-creation billing model, fill out this form to get 1-1 support from our team. Our team is here to make the migration as seamless as possible, and we have more case studies, articles, and videos to share throughout the rest of the year.