People with patreon, how do you upkeep it?

[Darth_Biomech]

If you have Patreon, how do you go about keeping it alive and growing? And how much do you get from it, if you don't mind sharing that?

My view on the topic, is that I'm already stretched pretty thin, and spend every free hour either doing my comic or mentally recharging. Patreon requires patreon rewards, regular interactions, the whole "taxes!" thing, and all the rest of "build your brand" promotional business bullshit.

And then the problem of the psychological pressure of "These people are paying you, you owe them quality content now!"

All I can offer patreons, though, is just to get them to see my pages a wee bit earlier than everybody else. All of this is highlighted by my estimates that the popularity of my comic will not allow it to generate more than 5-10 bucks per month anyway, so until my sub count adds at least two additional zeros, patreon will only be a net drain on my resources.

So ever since my patreon was closed for "inactivity" because I couldn't continue my comic for half a year and thus had nothing to post, I've updated the descriptions and tiers, but so far had no intention of turning it back on again in the foreseeable future.

And yet... maybe I'm wrong?

[mcarrowolga]

There are people who offer nothing at all at their Patreons, sometimes not even thanks, and they do just fine. There are patrons who don't care about extra content and choose no rewards even if there are some. So, Patreon content is a plus, of course, but you can make do even with an empty Patreon. Look at the ComicFury Patreon, for example.

[surenlicious]

I've seen so many different tiers and payments people got, from big to small. If it helps take some pressure off, its a matter of experimenting and knowing there's always a audience for you. I personally find the experience thus far to be enjoyable, and I am always checking my tiers if I can improve them. My patrons know this, of course.

[burgundy]

I'm planning to start one soon so I don't have advice as far as actually doing the thing, but my plan is to offer low cost tiers that grant early access as well as occasional bonus content, like an extra episode per month that won't be posted on tapas.

I think that it's fair for the amount of patrons you have to determine how much you can give. Patreon allows you to display goals to your patrons, it wouldn't be a bad idea to set a goal like "at 50 patrons I will start offering X" and let people know that you can't afford to put all of your energy into extra content for patreon if it isn't profitable.

For a lot of people, Patreon is a way to donate to creators they love in order to encourage them to keep creating, I don't think people expect a whole lot, especially from tiers that are 1-5 dollars per month. When you start asking for more is when people expect more. Just try to keep it fair.

[allenT]

I'm not yet 'on-my-track' on Patreon for 8-9 months now, (only 3 supportive patrons so far) but i'm keeping it easy and it's because i didn't burden myself with works more than i wanted, didn't give myself much stress to it. Also, I don't give myself a high goal, $30/m (nearest goal) will be a really good reach for me in a year & half from now.

I don't follow the usuals, my tier rewards are structured towards merchandises, even though i didn't sell anything yet (physically) -- but Those things gives solidity to me, makes me feel that i did have some extra something to provide. (and maybe also giving people an impression that the series has more to offer, more legit.)

For promotion, i only promote once every week on Twitter, and sometimes on Tapas forum and that's about it. I am looking forward to gain more patrons little by little.

I may have an advice i like to share: Be generous and kind to similar creators who are also looking for monetization, and the universe/karma might reward you back much more. At least this is the case for me with one of my patron, and i'm very grateful for it!

[Caro]

Patreon is such a weird beast to me. I’ve had a relatively large following for a while but at most could only convert to like $80 on Patreon until I started a new project where in the past two months my Patreon grew to about $1300+ and gets a little bigger every week (I think for the past several weeks I’ve been going up about $200+ a week).

I think its 80% that this project is very “supportable” in a way that none of my other projects really were and 20% I’m no longer afraid to push my Patreon with every post I make and I post almost every weekday. It hasn’t seemed to bother anyone like I thought it would but I think most people understand a girls gotta eat! But when I was posting before I didn’t have one specific strict project I usually move around a lot which made my Patreon sort of not cohesive. Now I just post one page of my comic every week day and some exclusive art for the comic maybe once or twice a week. Its incredibly manageable for me because it is a strip and just 6 panels a day that I can write and draw and color in the first couple hours of my day. And honestly I don’t really interact on it very much unless I get a private message. Replying to comments just isn’t my strong suit.

I only do a read in advance tier and ship out nothing physical because I know how much of a hassle shipping would become at my current level it would be a whole part time job and I need to focus on just getting the pages done. I think when my numbers start to plateau I may add a very limited physical merch tier but idk I’ll come to that when I get there. Right now I’m only using Patreon as a sort of low pressure way of making money on the work that I am already.... doing for money.... Patreon is not my only source of comics income and I’ve already signed a contract with a publisher who is paying me an advance so I’m just stretching how much money I can make off of this one project.

[Darth_Biomech]

you can make do even with an empty Patreon. Look at the ComicFury Patreon, for example.

But... TF? How? Mine got shut down by Patreon mods due to "suspicious inactivity" or something along these lines after few months I've been down for very bad family reasons, and these guys are cruising in silence since 2018? Is it a scale thing?

[doublemelon]

I think its 80% that this project is very “supportable” in a way that none of my other projects really were

may i know what you did different? What kinds of contents are "supportable" and what rewards are you offering now that you did not before?

[Caro]

Before I just kind of used it to throw spaghetti on the wall and see of anything stuck as opposed to doing something and really sticking with it.

Also the update schedule is 1 update every weekday as opposed to how I used to post only once a week so its a lot more bang for the patron’s buck this way.

The only reward I offer currently is the daily updates as opposed to on social media where I update three days a week and access to a backlog of old finished comics. I’m trying not to make Patreon too much extra work for myself at this point.

[SleepingPoppy]

The advice I've read, and the way I have proceeded, is to have patreon rewards be things you're already making anyway.

You know what I was already doing? Keeping a buffer. Bam, early access. I even specify that the early access is just whatever I can manage, I don't promise a certain amount per month- often I have a month where I can drop 8 pages, and then I have a month where I manage very little. i also drop pages in bundles of 4, so even though they're not really getting much "faster" they can read the group of four instead of waiting for one page a week.

And that's really the only draw. I drop WIP of the comic once in a while, mostly if I feel behind to show I'm working on it, any sort of cover art or promotional art gets popped on patreon first, and the occasional bit of personal art.

Promoting patreon is pretty easy since Tapas has a space for an advertisement under your comic, and webtoons allows an embedded link somewhere.

My experience has been that my patrons mostly just want to support me, and whatever perks that comes with are gravy.

And then the problem of the psychological pressure of "These people are paying you, you owe them quality content now!"

I think it can help to be explicit on your patreon that you appreciate support, and will offer X, but want to avoid feeling pressured to keep up a specific regime, and so rewards may fluctuate. Doesn't erase that internal pressure, but it helps.

[Caro]

The advice I've read, and the way I have proceeded, is to have patreon rewards be things you're already making anyway.

Yessss!! This is the big thing with me too. I have a deadline on this book too though so I can sort of guarantee a specific number week to week because someone else is already paying me for it but other than that I’m just giving my patrons the work I’d already be doing as I do it. That truly relieves the stress of it all imo.

Especially in the early stages of Patreon it seems unwise to throw too much extra effort into something for a couple bucks a month. If its not worth the effort yet don’t expend that effort yet.

[Eiranyx]

I just launched my patreon a month ago, and just like most people, I opened it in the middle of running a comic series
I could say however, that I've been preparing for my patreon for quite a while before launching it to public and by 'preparing' I mean that I already created the contents ahead of time according to the contents I needed on my tiers.
My contents are a month ahead (except the early access and stuff because these should be posted real time)-- That way I won't be overwhelmed by too much work since I'm also working on my comic at the same time. -- which is I'm glad I did it in advance because the moment I opened up my patreon, someone immediately signed up for a tier on that same day and as the one who listed an will provide the service, they should get what they paid for that tier .
The posts for my patreon were already scheduled as well-- since patreon has that scheduling feature, I scheduled all my posts throughout the month (for example, this week content A for tier 1&2 will be on the 10th, content b for tier 3 will be on the 15th something like that and so on) -- that way, I can still keep it active while focusing on my comic creation content without worrying that I have to post on patreon. -- and because of that, I was able to manage my time well in these things; I can have enough free time for other stuffs as well (like to take care of my mental health by creating fanworks of the stuff I'm into, or stuffs that spark joy or relax myself with my hobbies ^^)
Aside from that, I also opened up a 'donation' tier which is basically for those people who wants to only donate or support without caring that much on patreon content -- I only offer a some sketch and line art in that tier occasionally.

To keep it growing though, you have to advertise it in a way that will entice them at first, I went with marketing it on instagram by posting some glimpse of exclusive patreon work but then it doesn't pull much so I advertise it in a more creative way like making it more interactive.

[mcarrowolga]

I don't know. Actually, I had no idea that Patreon shuts down inactive accounts.
You can ask Kyo (ComicFury admin) how he manages to keep his account on.

[Darth_Biomech]

I want to thank everybody who's replied. I decided to reopen my Patreon page after all, and already got almost $20 pledges! 10 times more than was the last time it was active.

Darth Biomech is creating a webcomic, a game, and other stuff. | Patreon

[allenT]

It's so awesome that you also make games on the side!
What kind of game?

[Darth_Biomech]

Nothing too fancy so far, basically a platformer:

[allenT]

It's a good neat foundation! Simple yet must be deceivingly a lot of work for one person to make.

[sushy00]

I have some small rewards (comic previews, illustration previews, larger files etc), I mostly see it as a tip jar to support my work. I always have a "thank you" post every month.