When did you start doing Patreon?

[AdrenalineShots]

And how long did it take before you set it up? Is it a bit like Kickstarter where you have to build up a following / reputation first as otherwise it all becomes a bit embarrassing as no one joins your Patreon? Also, is there any difference between the way Webtoons interlinks with Patreon and Smackjeeves? I think I'm very far away from trying it yet but just intrigued.

All Best

Danny

[punkarsenic]

i started when i started drawing pages during hiatus; i needed to build up a buffer but couldnt stand all these pages just sitting there. so, three chapters / half a year into the comic.

when you start up a patreon, they encourage you to not only promote, promote, promote but also ask your family and friends - explaining that when you have patrons more will come. so, yeah, its a little embarrassing if you have no patrons, but you have permission to get your mum to make it look like you have some.

unsure about webtoons and smachjeeves, id assume you link your followers to patreon as you would here.

[respheal]

Re: Webtoons vs Smackjeeves, Webtoons basically just keeps a tally of how many patrons you have and their pledges and, if you have a popular series, they'll actually match your Patreon pledges (doubling what you get). No other features, however.

Smackjeeves, on the other hand, allows you to lock down content exclusively for patrons. For example, you might hide certain parts of the website, or the more common scenario is to set up pages for early access. For example, one tier might get pages a week early, a higher tier might get them two weeks early, etc.

I'm using the Patreon integration on SmackJeeves for early access (one week) and I'm hiding a couple small things (like small details on the cast page that are revealed in the early access pages but not the normal pages) behind the Patreon API.

I actually set up my Patreon as soon as Webtoons announced integration because I figured I might as well get on that, just to passively have it there just in case, although I didn't intend to really advertise it much at the time because A) my comic is not popular on Webtoons and B) ehhhh I'd push it more if there were more features using the api over there :V

It didn't take all that long to set up, pretty much just as long as it took to write up a few paragraphs describing my project and what the pledges would be put towards.

I don't think it's all that embarrassing to have no patrons, not like it might be with kickstarter. However, there's always the thing that a tip jar accumulates more tips if someone's already put something in it, so it probably does help to ask a family member or a friend to throw a buck at it.

All in all, I'd recommend having something extra to offer Patrons before you set up a Patreon, whether it be early access, bonus sketches, giveaways, or what-have-you.

[phen]

I bit the bullet and officially launched mine about a year after setting up an account there. It's not embarrassing at all to have 0 patrons, though, don't even worry about that. Patreon will push you into that stigma of "promote! Get your mum and her friends and their friends to pledge!" but that's simply because if you make money, they make money. It's a marketing tactic, pure numbers. So yes, it's a gamble and there are always gonna be exterior factors that can't be anticipated meaning you could easily gain patrons or go months with zero.

Ultimately, it's awesome to launch and just delve in with lots of cool extra content hidden in locks to entice future patrons. Be excited about it for you, for what you'll be able to achieve once you have those patrons pledging to your body of work -- and for how awesome it is for future/new patrons to see all of this exclusive content you've been producing all at once!

[Rasen]

I joined Patreon 4 months ago, when I started my comic Melvina's Therapy here.
At the beginning some friends supported me. I thought that I won't be able to get more patrons until a year or more, but I was wrong. I'm very happy because some of my readers are helping me through the platform now, I got 5 more patrons the last 3 months!
I use it for extra content and early access to the pages. I think it's a good platform that help you to be even closer to your readers, because they can enjoy all the process and they can be part of it.

[cleo_san]

I will start mine for Remember next month =) So far I'm still setting everything up and panicking (OMG WHAT IS MISSING?! DID I FORGET SOMETHING?!) XD

Currently I am working on the first bonuses, I doubt I will receive many patrons soon but if someone decides to support me on a higher tier I want to be prepared =P

[Shanny8]

I waited to see how my comic fared before doing a Patreon. I didnt want to be bothered with it if my comic wasnt doing well. The comic is doing okay, and I just launched my Patreon a couple of weeks ago- it's slow; I'm trying to be patient.

I set it up to be what I felt was pretty decent. I def didnt want to start out doing goals like drawing sketches or streaming myself working on a project; that might cut into my actual comic production time. I offered early access at upcoming pages before their premier dates, looks at other projects I'm working on in various stages, and PDFs of some comics. I think for a goal, if a certain tier is met, then I might consider something like streaming or maybe sketches...I'm not sure yet.

[cleo_san]

I plan to offer early access to pages, too, may I ask if you uploaded the whole manga on patreon again or did you just say "Okay, folks, from Ch. 3, page 17 on you will have early access to page 18, 19 and 20?"

I'm a bit unsure how I should make this >.<

[Shanny8]

@cleo_san I offered early access to various page amounts based on the tiers- 1st tier you have early access to 1 page, 2nd tier early accesses 2 pages, and the final tier early accesses 3 pages.

[cleo_san]

That's also a way to go Oo interesting plan! =)

What about the already published pages? Did you say: Go read the first pages on tapastic or did you include them in your patreon as well? Oo

[Shanny8]

@cleo_san well for me I just finished a chapter of my webcomic, so the early access pages will be active once I start working on the 2nd chapter of my comic(which will be soon).

[cleo_san]

@Shanny8 Alright - thanks for sharing =)
I'm kinda curious for your pages - where can I have a look at them? =)

[Shanny8]

My webcomic- Ray Thunder.

[whirlwyndstorm]

I joined Patreon about a year ago and set it up right away. I'm not making a whole lot -- it's enough to cover my domain names and extra things on my websites --- but it's been a positive experience overall for me and I would recommend trying it even if you don't think you'll get any supporters. My situation: I've been in the webcomics community since the early 00's and was never very well-known, but over half of my Patrons are people who knew me from way back when I first started putting my work out there. Some of them I wasn't even aware they remembered who I was, let alone that they were still reading my work! I do have support from one person I only met recently, though.

[SynergyEclipse]

I intended to have a Patreon page around the start of last year, but kept pushing it back because I wanted to ensure that I could continue to update consistently while fulfilling patron rewards. I still haven't launched it yet, because I'm not sure when is the best time. Is there a certain number of views, or subscribers that should be reached first before getting a Patreon page becomes a viable option?

[WakaXO]

I only just got a Patreon this year, and so far it's not completely set up. I'm still doing research into possible reward ideas, but hopefully I can launch it soon.
Ask for if you need a following/ large audience, obviously people with a large following will have an upper hand when launching their Patreons but I think you can start up a Patreon any time really. Unlike Kickstarter, Patreon is potentially indefinite and can accumulate followers as time goes on. I've seen comics with as few as 200 followers starts Patreons.

[Puppisama]

Well, I started Patreon like a year ago, I haven't checked how it is going but I know its 0... XD
I'm not a fan of promoting, and I find sharing and trying to use social network rather bothersome and time consuming, of course I'd like to get some money while I work on my comic, but I feel you have to exclusively work on promoting yourself to actually get some cash.

[AlkseeyaKC]

I joined Patreon about a year and a half ago? I feel like I'm never done tweaking it. I have some friends supporting me. I mostly have fan support. I'm happy Pateon came a long. I would have had to stop working on my comic with out it.

I'm not really seen much from the Webtoons and SmackJeeves interrogations working for me.

[Marvin]

Webtoons basically just keeps a tally of how many patrons you have and their pledges and, if you have a popular series, they'll actually match your Patreon pledges (doubling what you get). No other features, however.

Not exactly (except if they changed the rules in the last 3 days). Webtoon puts a link to your patreon at the end of every episodes and encourages your readers to support you.
They also can become your patron but it depends on your eligibility. (Too bad we can't post pictures on the forum anymore, I wanted to show you the elligibility chart). Basically, to earn any money from them, you have to post at least 2 episodes per month and have at least either 10K view per update or more than 5K subs (and the more subs and view you have, the more money they'll give you, up to 1000$ - 20K+ subs and 50K+ views -)
Though I believe this program will end in August 2017 and I'm not sure they'll do it again next year...

Here's for Webtoon, I don't know squat about smackjeeves though.