How to (Actually) Make Money on Patreon
In my last post on crowdfunding, I looked at how creators can make the best use of Kickstarter (or Indiegogo) for projects that require short funding campaigns. In this one, I want to look at Patreon, for those looking to fund their work with more subscription-style arrangements. With its various unique features, Patreon offers a lot of potential for particular kinds of artists, but these features can also trip up a lot of people who don’t fit the right mold of a Patreon-friendly creator. As I’ve mentioned before, stats show that while the site may be popular, the world of Patreon is a notably lopsided economy, with the majority of the funding only going to a select few. This suggests that a lot of people either don’t know how best to use the site, or (most likely) aren’t the right fit for it in the first place. So who should be using Patreon, and who would be better putting their energy elsewhere? Let’s take a look.
Patreon
Patreon is best for creators who
-regularly release new content, as opposed to one big project once in a while
-already have a loyal group of fans
-enjoy (or can manage) interacting with their fans on a regular basis
-don’t mind working within Patreon’s prescriptive structure
-don’t require a specific amount of money to create their work
Patreon is for artists who want to offer a subscription to their work, with patrons paying a small amount either once a month or for each new piece of content they put out. As such, if you want to make the best of it, you’ll need to be an artist who releases new work on a regular basis, such as a musician, artist, podcaster, web comic writer, etc. If you’re not someone who’s already on a schedule of producing content this way, don’t try to change what you do in order to release things more often or stretch your content further—just keep doing what you’re doing, and look into a different funding service.
Patreon is best for artists who already have a fanbase.
You’ll also probably get the most out of the site if you already have a loyal fanbase. That’s where, in my opinion, the platform really shines. Patreon is best for artists who already have people consuming their content, but don’t know how to profit from it. You might have a lot of fans watching videos or listening to songs you put on YouTube, or you have a loyal audience following your podcast or web comics. You’re regularly making things, and people are regularly consuming it, but they’re not products that are easy to monetize. This is a perfect Patreon situation. That being said, you’ll want to make sure you have genuine fans, as opposed to more casual consumers. Do you consistently hear praise from your audience? Do you they comment, ask questions, and show active engagement in your work? Would they wonder what happened if you suddenly stopped producing anything new? Those are the kinds of audiences that donate to Patreon campaigns—and shell out for the larger reward tiers. Asking for a small, recurring contribution is a larger ask than the single, higher amount you may ask for in a Kickstarter campaign. That being said, if they love what you’re creating, Patreon patrons may eventually end up paying much more than the standard Kickstarter backer over time.
Another thing to consider with Patreon is the rather particular structure it uses. Creators are encouraged to provide multiple reward tiers, goal amounts, and post frequently on a main message board and a patron-only community board (where you can upload your exclusive reward content). It’s not that much to juggle, but if you’re successful enough to have a community of patrons, you probably already have your work located elsewhere online and won’t necessarily want/need to be uploading it to Patreon, too. The rewards can also be a burden if you just want to keep making what you’ve already been making, and get paid for that, rather generating a whole bunch of additional content or fan perks. If, however, your work scales easily into larger and smaller products, or you like giving fans special offerings like video chats or custom content, these different reward levels may be a seamless fit for you. Just don’t let yourself get so caught up in maintaining your Patreon account that it becomes a distraction from the very work it’s meant to fund.
One last thing to keep in mind—Patreon does not have quite the brand recognition that Kickstarter or Indiegogo does. For the two Patreon campaigns I’ve been involved with, we not only had to ask people to support us, but also had to explain what Patreon was. Younger and more internet savvy people recognized it, but many others didn’t. Also, for both of those projects, we ended up leaving Patreon and just adding a donation button to the main sites already hosting our content, and that was more successful. There many ways to do this, with options like Piano, WordPress membership plugins, etc. If you don’t want to navigate Patreon’s message boards and reward tiers, this is a way to cut to the chase and have fans give to you directly, in a method they may be more familiar with. But if you don’t already have a personal site for your content (for example, if it’s all on YouTube), having fans donate through Patreon could be the best option.
As you can probably tell from this description, I have...mixed feelings about Patreon. It’s not that I think it’s a bad service; some creators are flourishing on the site. I just think many people misunderstand who it’s for, and the site itself can be misleading when it calls itself the “solution” to funding “for over 100K creators.” The fact that so many people are on Patreon, but so few people are making any substantial money on it, suggests to me that there is a disconnect between the site and its users. So before you get an account, just bear in mind Patreon is not really a subscription-based Kickstarter. It’s not for artists who have an idea they want to get off the ground, but artists who already have a fanbase and need a way to monetize what they do. It’s also for people that want a forum for fan communities and who are willing create extra content for especially generous supporters. If this is what you’re looking for, Patreon could be transformative for your career. If you’re still trying to build a following and aren’t quite established yet, however, you may be more likely find patronage from an actual Medici than you are to find it from patrons on Patreon.
So is it worth it? It may come down to your expectations. For some, it may be enough to cultivate a small community of fans and make an additional $50 a month. It’s certainly more than nothing. But if you’re still new to what you’re making, maybe a low-risk, flexible funding Indiegogo campaign might be more your speed. Even if you made only a few hundred dollars, you’d still make about a year’s worth of your Patreon earnings for probably less effort. And you’d be better poised to invest in your craft and, perhaps, develop the kind of fanbase that will make you a better fit for Patreon down the road. It certainly works—just only for the right niche of artists.