Can I Get a Refund I Get Nothing in a Month Patreon

People in artistic fields dream of being their own boss. There'due south nothing more empowering than bringing a creative project to life independently, whether that's a game, a film, a podcast or a book.

Patreon made those dreams a reality when it launched in 2013. Artists can now ready a page on the platform and monetise their community past offering exclusive content to fans willing to pay every month.

"Patreon is an easy way to launch a subscription service," says Blessing Adeoye, host and producer at media make Kinda Funny. "The features are awesome for connecting with the most core members of your community. And it allows people to subscribe at diverse levels, meaning you lot can be creative in terms of how yous treat various tiers of patrons."

"The joy of Patreon is that your audition is supporting your ability to create"

Laura Dale

Patreon simplifies the procedure of monetising a community, handling the fiscal side and assuasive creators to focus on their work rather than running a business organisation. And while a lot of creators on Patreon come from the YouTube oversupply, the platform supports a wide variety of projects.

Creating a Patreon also means not having to worry about your content appealing to a wide audience, like you would for a Kickstarter campaign for instance.

"The joy of Patreon is that your audience is supporting your ability to create, and if i or ii pieces here and there exist because yous wanted to make them, not because they'll take wide appeal, it's unlikely to impact your income," says game critic Laura Dale. "You lot tin create works that appeal to a smaller audience, or that take longer to create, without worrying that yous're going to see a dip in income that puts you at take a chance."

In that location are three dissimilar plans you tin choose from when yous join the platform equally a creator. Patreon Lite gives access to the basics (hosted creator page, communication tools, workshops), in exchange for 5% of the monthly income you earn on the platform. Patreon Pro takes 8% of your monthly income, simply gives access to more tools, including unlimited membership tiers and analytics.

Finally, Patreon Premium is targeted at established businesses and gives access to enhanced support, merchandising solutions, and more than. It'll take 12% of your monthly income. That's the tier Kinda Funny is on.

"We have a dedicated partner director," says Joanna 'JoeyNoelle'​ Takegami, social media, customs and production managing director at Kinda Funny. "I send [them] all of our support needs and they guarantee a two hour response to any of our customer service issues."

Having Patreon exercise some of the legwork doesn't hateful yous won't take anything to do. There are common sense initiatives, good practices and gilded rules to follow to have a successful Patreon page. And if you're unsure about something, remember you tin can always make it touch with Patreon to ask for some guidance.

Make sure you have a big enough audience

This one goes under "common sense" -- Patreon is not a platform for launching a brand new business concern. You need to have built a reputation elsewhere before yous can monetise your existing customs on Patreon.

"I think believing [you can make it without an existing following] shows a misunderstanding of what Patreon is and what a successful 1 is built upon," says Daniel Krupa, co-founder of YouTube channel RKG. "If you're truly starting from scratch -- you lot don't take a small and engaged audience -- you demand to figure out what yous desire to make, who is your audience, and how y'all connect with them.

"For a Patreon to actually work you need to accept a potent relationship with an audition that securely values your work. That's the crux of the whole affair. People aren't short of free content, then you lot need an audience who values what you're making, and therefore believes it's worth supporting."

Gav Irish potato, Daniel Krupa and Rory Powers

Make certain your project actually fits Patreon

While there are all sorts of creators using Patreon, some models fit the platform more easily than others.

"Patreon best suits projects that are a standing service," Adeoye says. "Don't think of it equally Kickstarter crowdfunding, where it's ane and done. Information technology's a subscription service, meaning if you produce music, podcasts, videos, or whatever sort of content on a continual basis, it's a good fit."

If y'all're a big developer with a few shipped games and want to make a few actress bucks, the chances are Patreon won't really work unless you manage to remain approachable -- the platform is not for faceless corporations.

"Patreon is always going to be all-time suited for contained creators, where it'southward clear that the funding is going directly to the people who they've chosen to back up, rather than into the pockets of a much larger company," says Chris Bratt, co-founder of YouTube aqueduct People Brand Games. "There are certainly some examples of the latter working, just I do think it's a harder sell."

"You can always add commitments later on, but it'due south much harder to take them back"

Chris Bratt, People Make Games

Your project also needs to be clearly defined, with a transparent roadmap that you lot should stick to as much equally possible.

"The projects that make virtually sense on Patreon are ones where you tin clearly explain upwardly front what sort of things you lot programme to piece of work on, and with what regularity," Dale says. "If you start developing a game supported on Patreon then modify genre halfway through, yous've got an audience that has been paying for something that may no longer be what they idea they were supporting. Merely be articulate well-nigh what yous are creating, and evangelize regular content on a predictable schedule."

Accept the time to actually think about that schedule as retracting Patreon promises could hurt the community. In an early draft of its Patreon page, People Make Games committed to creating a new video every two weeks.

"It actually takes us the best part of a month to create each episode, although we'd only acquire that later on," Bratt says. "Promising a video every two weeks would have been a disaster, leading to rushed work and, somewhen, an apology to our customs for having not lived up to our commitment. We changed our page only before launch day. You lot can e'er add commitments subsequently, once yous're sure they're feasible, but it'due south much harder to take them back."

Discover the right balance for your reward tiers

Patreon pages are prepare effectually advantage tiers, each ane corresponding to a different membership level. Balancing these out can be a juggling act. Ready your prices also low and you'll be missing out on opportunities; set up them also loftier and you'll exist missing out on potential patrons.

"We spent a lot of time looking at other creators who use Patreon and getting a experience for the landscape in terms of pricing," Bratt says. "Information technology helps to look outside of your ain industry for this, by the style. We ended up getting the idea to create bespoke art prints for our patrons from the German language educational channel, Kurzgesagt. Nab some of the best ideas you come up across."

Chris Bratt

In one case that'southward washed, a good golden rule is to diversity your tier offerings.

"Information technology's important to recognise that your community is fabricated up of people of a variety of dissimilar financial situations," says Andrea Rene, manager of operations at What's Adept Games, a weekly podcast. "People who want to back up you equally a creator might not exist able to do it at a very specific level if y'all only offer one or 2 means to do so. And then if it'southward within your bandwidth, information technology'southward great to offer a diverseness of means for people to back up yous.

"Only in that location's also a balance of offering enough and offering too much. If yous requite your patrons likewise many means to support you, and then you're going to be overcommitting yourself and not getting the render on investment."

1 way to make certain you lot strike the right balance is to ask your community directly.

"We polled the audience to figure out what was important to them and structured our Patreon around that," Takegami says. "Then we added extra tiers on top of that for the hardcore [followers]. But it was really of import for u.s.a. to non gate whatsoever of our principal content only backside Patreon. We know that not anybody can pay, and then we want to make certain that Patreon rewards are extra and on height of things."

"We know that not everyone tin can pay then we want to make sure that Patreon rewards are on top of things"

Joanna Takegami, Kinda Funny

This idea of Patreon rewards existence bonus content on height of your usual work is a good approach, equally it avoids antagonising fans who don't pay. Dale also decided not to lock her content and chose a different solution altogether.

"I took the approach of setting only a single $one per month tier, and letting people opt to support me with larger amounts if they choose," she says. "I know other creators have tiered access, merely I don't personally desire to be the kind of creator that fragments my audience into haves and have nots.

"I discover that by not locking any of my content behind a paywall, and just trusting my audience to support me where they can, I am able to feel a lot more comfortable about my creator and backer human relationship. I don't feel undue pressure from my audience, and they know they're not being strong-armed into support they can't justify."

Don't over-hope

When yous first create your Patreon page, it tin can be tempting to promise the Earth to attract patrons, but make certain you can really bring these pledges to life.

"One accented golden rule for me is to make sure that you're 100% able to evangelize on whatsoever tiers you hope without admittedly killing yourself in the process, and also not be afraid to refresh those rewards later you've launched," RKG co-founder Gav Tater says.

Rory Powers, some other RKG co-founder, adds: "You should ever nether-promise and over-deliver. Non every Patreon needs to have 15 reward tiers. Notice out what your audience really wants and requite it to them, fifty-fifty if that'due south just i reward."

What'southward Practiced Games' Kristine Steimer, Brittney Brombacher and Andrea Rene

That gilt rule is particularly important if you're thinking about having trade every bit one of your reward tiers.

"I think a mistake that first-time creators should be on the lookout for is over-committing to physical appurtenances," Rene says. "Managing the aircraft process, particularly if you're going to allow international patrons to as well partake in your concrete rewards, can be incredibly taxing and incredibly expensive. There'due south a diminishing line of return between what you offer equally a monthly reward, what they pay for, and what it costs you. Non just the hard costs of the bodily shipping materials and fees, but also like the time it takes y'all to manage those concrete appurtenances."

Adeoye adds: "Learning what you're able to attain within bandwidth equally a creator, along with understanding what the audition wants is a very of import aspect that will come up through trial and error early on."

Be consistent

If you're using Patreon for videos or podcasts, consistency shouldn't be difficult to attain, as the content naturally lends itself to the platform's concern model. Only if yous're using it in the run up to launching a game, or any blazon of one-off content, make sure you lot evangelize content consistently.

"Considering you're building this relationship with your community, you take to exist really regular with using it," Takegami says. "I know that [Patreon] recently ruled out different options where you lot can just use it as a tip jar, but I think using information technology to foster communities is where it shines the best."

Patrons demand to feel like their monthly membership is being rewarded, and so having a content drop at least one time a calendar month is good exercise -- even more ofttimes would be platonic. "Some creators put out content very sporadically and that can be a little flake more difficult to back up with the Patreon model that is a monthly membership," Rene says.

Joanna 'JoeyNoelle'​ Takegami

Be 18-carat and open up with your backers

If someone is willing to pay every month to run into your work, chances are they appreciate your personality, too -- don't be afraid to show it.

"Patreon campaigns tend to be virtually successful when you are open nearly the person behind the content, and share some of that openness with your backers," Dale says. "Tell them about your creative process, show them work in progress ideas, ask for their feedback on projects, and offering them the take chances to experience closer to the person making the work. Patreon campaigns tend to piece of work best when your audition is supporting you lot, the person, as much as the specific projection you are working on."

Patrons tend to really appreciate these actress nuggets of content about yourself, so think about ways you can craft content that feels genuine.

"There'south no shortage of ways to attain your audience, but I think the best ways are the ones that feel personal," Powers adds. "Instead of but slapping your Patreon URL onto a video, insert a quick 20 2d video talking to camera near how excited you are near this calendar month's extra content. Instead of tweeting a link to your Patreon, postal service a short, funny clip from a bonus episode. If you mail the same link, insert the same [voiceover], or say the same matter every time, people will grow numb."

Go on things fresh to attract new patrons

In order to sustain your community after launch, make certain you come upward with new ideas regularly. A new concept might be enough to turn a YouTube viewer into a Patreon subscriber.

"Kinda Funny has a stream at the beginning of each year that features new goals, announcements, and milkshake-ups that refresh the Patreon," Adeoye says. "Information technology gives our community something to expect forrard to and during this time nosotros see a fasten in Patrons.

"Identifying the different means people eat your content allows for a improve understanding of how to brand content"

Approving Adeoye, Kinda Funny

"Identifying an untapped audience comes through paying attending to the people interacting with yous and considering how that translates to your wider community. There are many ways people tin interact with a creator and these communities often differ in tone and vibe. Identifying the dissimilar ways in which people eat your content allows for a better understanding of how to make content and encourage [your community] to get involved."

Dale adds: "Go along trying new things, and keep existence ambitious. I go on aiming to pull off projects that I'm convinced are as well pie in the heaven to work out, because if they do work out, they tend to exist the bits of content that grow my audition."

It all comes dorsum to the thought of reassuring your futurity patrons that they will get their coin's worth.

"I want people to await at that RKG Patreon payment going out of their bank every month and remember: 'Fuck yes, this is worth it'," Murphy says. "We refreshed our Patreon at the showtime of this yr to really reward the people who support the states near generously.

Blessing Adeoye

"[We've launched an] Early on Access show for everyone on our $ten and above tiers. Every calendar month we're going to drop all episodes of a new show -- Netflix-way -- for people to binge and that testify will and so scroll out publicly week-by-week a month later. For me, this is perfect because information technology creates real value for those $ten-plus tiers, while at the aforementioned time giving people who maybe aren't able to support us financially an extra video every calendar week for free."

This is a unique selling bespeak for RKG, with the potential to bring in more patrons. And that'south what Patreon is about -- working out what makes you unique, and producing something that can't be found elsewhere and so people encounter the value in subscribing.

"Try and come up with a elementary sentence, something Tweet length, that explains why people should pay attention to your work -- what you are making, who you are," Dale adds.

Pay attention to your community

While you will want to attract new patrons, a lot of energy will go into taking care of your existing customs -- they're the reason you're making ends meet.

"To exist an 'internet celebrity' is trying to grab smoke in a bottle. You tin't attempt to exercise this"

Greg Miller, Kinda Funny

"For me it's e'er been most worrying about the customs you have, not worrying about the customs you want," says Kinda Funny co-founder Greg Miller. "To be an 'internet celebrity' is trying to catch smoke in a bottle. You can't try to do this -- if you lot go for information technology it'southward merely gonna slip through your fingers all the time. I always say: make the content yous believe in and the people will come up to it because of that."

You also desire to make certain yous're taking care of your entire community -- not but the part of it that pays your salary every month.

"It's really important when creating a Patreon that you don't amerce parts of your community that cannot financially back up yous," Dale says. "You don't want to create a hierarchy, where those who spend money experience like they are superior to your fans and supporters who back up you in other ways, past listening to or sharing your work."

Having a community manager can be a skilful choice, but you tin too decide to do it yourself to stay close to the people who support you.

"We don't have a community director, so we accept a direct line to our community through social media and through things like backside-the-scenes blogs, Q&As, and private livestreams with our most generous supporters," Murphy says. "We're constantly listening to our community either on our Patreon page or directly chatting with them in our Discord. For me that'southward one of the coolest aspects almost this unabridged thing."

Bratt adds: "Whenever y'all write a mail for your patrons, information technology gets sent direct to their email inbox. I've never properly understood the value of newsletters before now, simply after a couple of years on Patreon, I totally get it. This platform has given united states of america a style to directly communicate with some of the most passionate members of our community whenever we need to. I tin't overstate how of import that feels."

Prepare clear community guidelines to avoid toxicity

Toxicity is the plague of every online community. While being on Patreon should theoretically separate the wheat from the chaff, that doesn't mean toxicity tin't happen.

Laura Dale

"If you lot're building a community, it's on you lot to class a set of clear guidelines for what is and isn't appropriate inside that community," Bratt says. "Making these guidelines publicly available will hopefully serve every bit a reminder for people to exist kinder to i another, but it as well lets your mods reference them when they demand to step in and act on your behalf.

"Getting those guidelines right may seem daunting. If you're struggling, go expect at the communities you lot enjoy beingness a role of and meet what works for them. That's what we did."

When toxicity does happen, at that place are different approaches to dealing with it.

"For us information technology'southward practicing what nosotros preach," Miller says. "Our policy on the community has always been simple: if you're gonna show up and be an asshole, if y'all're gonna show up and troll people, if you're gonna evidence upwardly and be a bigot, we don't desire you and we don't want your money. If you want to have a chat, that'south a different story, but if yous just desire to be an asshole, I'thou not gonna exist a part of that."

Patreon allows you lot to refund membership fees, which is a powerful tool for fighting toxicity when information technology happens -- don't exist afraid to employ it.

"We practise our best to attain out to people individually and privately when they violate our [community behaviour] expectations," Rene says. "Only we take absolutely no problem refunding Patreon membership fees if nosotros need to remove somebody from our customs. That can be a actually tough thing for video game developers specifically, because in their listen it'southward a consumer that's paid for a product, and there'southward a lot more than stickiness when it comes to booting people from communities when there'southward a monetary exchange.

"If you're gonna prove upwards and be an asshole, nosotros don't want you and we don't want your money"

Greg Miller, Kinda Funny

"But on Patreon, nosotros get around that past saying: nosotros don't like how you're behaving, we've given yous a warning and you lot've persisted, and so now we take to remove you lot. And in social club to make sure that you don't experience like we've taken something from yous, we're going to refund your Patreon fee likewise."

Vocally condemning toxic behaviour is one side of the coin, but rewarding good behaviour is also a good way to show your community how it should be washed.

"I like to uplift and respond to the positive voices in the community," Adeoye says. "I believe encouraging these voices helps foster more positive behaviour."

Be enlightened of the monetary peaks and troughs

Don't wait to earn steady income every calendar month, fifty-fifty if yous have a large community. Factors totally exterior your control volition have an bear on on your earnings.

"Patreon lacks long-term security," Bratt says. "When the next fiscal crash rolls around and coin feels tight, Patreon commitments will (quite rightly) exist some of the first things that people will want to cutting from their monthly spending. I can't guarantee what my income will be this time next twelvemonth and that can be a stressful idea. Your income will about certainly drop at the terminate of each month, equally a few people cancel their pledges ahead of being charged. This is totally normal, although it'll probably freak you out the start few times."

Greg Miller

Earnings drop but after Christmas or around tax season also, Dale adds. She warns against a settings pick that sends you lot emails every time a backer drops or reduces their pledge amount.

"In the early months, I stressed far too much well-nigh tiny income fluctuations, assuming drops of a few dollars hither and there were signs I wasn't doing things right," she continues. "There'southward a chiliad reasons someone might reduce or drib financial back up unconnected to my work quality, and I wish I had done a better job of not letting that go to me."

Always go on in mind that Patreon is not costless either, with some costs that you may not have thought about and can exist a burden for smaller creators.

"It's tough when y'all're looking at the things that you want to offer and as well balancing how much it's going to cost, [plus] credit card processing fees are a thing that you have to pay for as well," Rene says. "Patreon handles everybody's contact details, and so for a very modest creator that has no business organisation experience information technology's really helpful to be able to have those tools, just the downside is it'south non free."

Don't be afraid to take time off

The drawback of being your own boss is information technology aggravates your chance of burning out. When yous manage a Patreon folio, information technology can very quickly experience similar every single patron is actually your boss.

"Don't be agape to take time away from the computer, permit someone else handle your social media for a piffling scrap"

Laura Dale

"Dealing with a fast growing community can certainly be overwhelming," Dale says. "My master advice to people is don't be afraid to accept fourth dimension away from the computer, allow someone else handle your social media for a trivial bit, and footing yourself with real life friends, family unit, and activities away from work. Information technology never stops being surreal that people care about the things y'all make."

Bratt adds: "Patreon fundamentally changes the relationship we have with our audition and that goes both means. It took me a long time to feel okay fifty-fifty working normal hours, without feeling incredibly guilty about taking advantage of our community'southward support. A lot of YouTubers struggle with exhaustion because they observe it and so difficult to stride away from their job, even for a picayune while. If you lot're not careful, Patreon tin can exacerbate this."

While that can sound disheartening, continue in mind that the whole matter is likewise incredibly rewarding.

"RKG's audience is fashion smaller than other large sites that I've been lucky enough to piece of work at, simply I feel more connected to our audition than I ever have," Murphy says. "I think they capeesh what we make more than now because we've done it all for ourselves."

Rene adds: "We were so nervous the day before we were going to striking publish that nobody would back up us. It's hard to build a community but we were mentally prepared for just our moms to be our patrons and the overwhelming support we got from our community was fantastic.

"I think it's important to keep your expectation in line and go: Hey, y'all know what? Even if most of my patrons are supporting me at a very small-scale dollar amount level, the fact that everyone wants to sign up every month to support the content I brand is a win. And it's of import to recognise those victories, and to recognise that there are people out there that want to back up the content you lot make."

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Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-03-12-how-to-create-a-successful-patreon

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