Looking for alternatives to Patreon

Ulta 2018-01-09 23:19:30 UTC #1

So...I'm in a sad bucket of annoyance right now. I started a Patreon page in about November of last year, with big aspirations. I was gonna have a place to be able to reward those who were kind enough to support my hard labor that is my ambitious comic HYBRIDOR.

Then in Decemeber, Pateon removed my page AND my account, claiming I was doing something against the rules...I was so confused...and very annoyed. I emailed them as soon as I noticed that my still yet to really even be born page (it lacked tiers, but it was there), and tried to figure out why the heck it was taken down. Wanna know why? Because they claimed they couldn't see my 'true location' and thought I was hiding behind a VPN or TOR. Neither of which I had...they have since allowed me to remake a new account, but to this day I have no idea why that even happened.

Fast forward to today. I should have a new page up now right? HA! Well it turns out that with the removal of my first account, I've been forced to have to not only use a different email that I rarely ever check, but the URL that I used for the first one is taken...despite them claiming it's gone (it is technically). I was stripped of using it and honestly I really wanna use it because it was unfairly taken away from me the first time.

It's been at least a week and a half since I've heard back from Patreon...so now I'm getting right fed up with the place and am seeking alternatives. I really wanted to utilize it...but it seems Patreon doesn't want money.

Does anyone know of an alternative? I have the comic here on Tapastic and Webtoon (and several other sites. I'll link it if people wanna see it), but I don't know much about either...I want to be able to reward people who choose to actually support me with real money, but I don't know anything about the Tipping system here, and frankly the way Patreon had things set up looks so nicely streamlined and easy to use...but at the moment I'm so angry with them and their lack of communication and heavy-handed actions that my trust in them has waned...I'm afraid that even IF I caved and just made a different URL and started fresh, that they'll just remove me again falsely.

arushiangelica 2018-01-09 23:42:10 UTC #2

Though I recently made a Patreon, I also use Ko-Fi and PayPal.me
And of course there is Tapas tipping.

Ulta 2018-01-10 01:23:36 UTC #3

I didn't really know Paypal did that sort of thing. Nifty! Ko-Fi could work for anyone who wants to do a onetime thing I suppose, but I dunno how many people know about it.

I don't know anything about the Tipping system here on Tapas. I'll have to do some research...

Lee 2018-01-10 04:46:27 UTC #4

You could also try setting an online store on a site like redbubble. Tapas tipping also seems like a good alternative, Ive seen creators with less than 500 subs do around $15 on tips, so my guess is that if you build a solid fanbase and offer good rewards tipping might actually be a great alternative to patreon (I unlocked tipping until recently so we´ll see, hopefully it will work out ok)

Rochrok 2018-01-10 05:01:57 UTC #5

Ko-fi
Paypal.me
Tapas Tipping rewards. Theres a link on this forum that could give you some ideas on how to go about offering rewards for tippers.

You could also try your hand at buying your own domain and make a personal website. You can put google ad sense on your page and collect some ad revenue. You can also get ad revenue from tapas.

joe_galindez 2018-01-10 07:11:29 UTC #6

I'm with @arushiangelica on the Paypal.me thing. Seems the most direct way to receive support. Tapas's profit schemes are also built-in, so that's good too.

P.S. How about linking to your comic in your profile?

Ulta 2018-01-15 05:19:40 UTC #7

I think I did it right if you meant my forum profile XD It's called Hybridor. Didn't think it would be right to just slap it's link in this thread.

Thanks for the suggestions all =) Luckily Patreon stopped being a butt so now I'll have these alternates in case they decide to be annoying again.

margot 2018-10-14 23:23:38 UTC #8

This is a little late in the game, but if you are still looking for a Patreon alternative I built one over the summer to help another content creator who got banned from Patreon for controversial reasons. I made it available to the public just this past month.

You can check it out here: https://www.sther.co/

It's open to anyone (although I am heavily focused on helping marginalized groups) and there's no platform fees right now because I'm still building out features and I'm really trying to encourage people to try it without fear of losing money in the process.

Hope this helps!

MK_Wizard 2018-10-15 02:14:06 UTC #9

Well, I know there's Ko-fi. It's similar to Patreon, but people can also donate without subscribing.