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A Lengthy Essay About Patreon
9 years ago
General
I've recently noticed a wave of websites complaining about ad blocker software and how it's killing their business. "Please, dear customer," they say, "we need you to enable these obnoxious and potentially dangerous elements on our website because it's the only way we can make money!"
I'm sorry, but if you're not making money, your business model is wrong.
And that got me thinking. Patreon has become very popular with furries, but a lot of them are using it wrong—and I know they're using it wrong, because they're complaining about how people are cheesing the system. So, to help, I have some basic online business guidelines for you to learn and share!
1) If your business model is vulnerable to piracy, your business model is wrong.
2) If you can't handle producing your rewards for ten thousand patrons, your business model is wrong.
3) If your customers can exploit your operation to get more for their money than you intend, your business model is wrong.
4) If you don't understand why you're not making money, your business model is wrong.
Let's elaborate on each of these points.
POINT 1: Piracy is not the enemy; bad business models are the enemy.
There are people out there who are dedicated to fighting Patreon as a means of making a living. Seriously. They will subscribe to your Patreon, and actually pay you, so that they can post all your patron-only material someplace for free, and cripple your operation. These people HATE that you expect money for your hard work.
You could spend hours and hours hunting down this leaked material, trying to track down the people who are leaking it, and struggle endlessly to keep your content securely behind that paywall. You will fail. People with way more money and resources than you have failed. You cannot stop piracy, and if you try, you'll collapse under the cost and effort.
But you can circumvent it.
There are things that cannot be pirated. You can pirate a finished comic page, but you can't pirate the chance to chat with me while I draw it. You can pirate a finished commission, but you can't pirate the chance to get a commission from me. You see what I'm getting at? Products can be stolen; experiences and services can't.
The main fact that makes digital products vulnerable to piracy is that they are able to be duplicated. If you want your patreon to be invulnerable to piracy, then you should make your duplicatable material free, and only put services and experiences behind a paywall. Patreon themselves even advocate this practice by saying that your main content stream should be free. This means there's nothing to pirate. You haven't stopped piracy, you've just made it so that your income isn't based on something that can be gotten for free.
That brings us neatly to...
POINT 2: Your rewards should scale, or you'll regret it.
Patreon rewards are meant to be given out every month. I have a friend on Patreon who made the mistake of promising a sketch every month to every $10 patron. He now has 60 ten-dollar patrons and has to do two sketches every day to keep up. He's getting to the point where he doesn't have time for his main content, and he's not sure what to do because he doesn't want to renege on his promise to his patrons. He couldn't possibly have 1000 $10 patrons.
Your rewards need to be scalable; if you find yourself in a place where you have to turn away customers, how do you expect to be successful?
Let's say you're making a comic. A scalable reward would be a printed copy of the book. Your printer can presumably print any number of copies, and since you're not the one printing it, it doesn't translate to more work for you. Other good rewards would include credits in your book, periodic Q&A e-mails, private streams that any number of people can watch.
Now you might think that a digital image, which can be duplicated any number of times, would make a good reward, but see POINT 1 above. You've put a duplicatable item behind a paywall! Oops!
POINT 3: Don't blame Patreon because you don't know how to use it.
I've seen complaints by people who have suggested that Patreon is cheesable. For example, it is possible to subscribe for a month, get the reward, and then bail. I've also seen complaints that patrons can ask for refunds of their subscription fees. Patreon, what the hell?
The fact is, if you're conducting your business properly, the fact that people can do these things should affect you very minimally, if at all. Put yourself in the shoes of a patron: if you feel that you were defrauded by a creator, you should be able to get a refund! And if you realize you can't afford to support a creator, you should be able to bail out at any time.
As a creator, your Patreon campaign should be designed to handle these events. If you follow the above guidelines, you should be fine. It won't cost you any extra time or money to provide patrons with your rewards, and you won't have any content vulnerable to piracy that they can abscond with.
And the truth is, the people who will take your content and then get a refund are assholes, and in my experience, if you aren't an asshole yourself, most of your fans won't be either. The majority of your Patreon income will be secure and regular. So the lesson here is, don't be an asshole!
POINT 4: If you're not making money, it's your own fault.
If you're aiming to make money from your art, your art is a business, and business is brutal. The first lesson anyone hoping to be successful in business needs to learn is when you fail, it's your fault; when you make it, it's because YOU MADE IT.
It's a harsh lesson, because many times it feels like we're blindsided by things we could never have anticipated—but just because we didn't see it coming and had no control over it doesn't mean we shouldn't have been prepared for it. You should be setting aside money for emergencies, you should have contingencies in plan for disasters, you should be able to withstand problems.
Be humble. Recognize and own your failures. Your customers and clients will be better disposed to your screwups if you are willing to be responsible for them. Your excuses will be seen by your clientele as exactly that: excuses. Be honest about your fuckups and take responsibility.
When you've realized that you and only you are responsible for your success, you'll stop blaming everyone else for the fact that your business is doing poorly, and you'll start doing the productive thing, which is asking yourself, "What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?"
POINT 5: YOUR ART IS VALUABLE.
This last point is mostly opinion on my part, so I didn't include it above, but it's worth considering. Patreon rewards are optional. It's easy to forget, but the main point of Patreon is to support art. Patreon is not a store where you buy rewards; it's a place where you have the ability to help the artists that you love make more art that you love.
For example, I'm going to be launching a webcomic on Patreon soon, and I'm strongly considering not having any reward levels for the comic. What I will have is milestone goals, which would be simple things like "I'm making enough money to do 2 more pages per month now."
I wouldn't feel bad about this, because by supporting my comic, you get: my comic. The comic itself is valuable! Artists on Patreon seem sometimes to feel as though they owe their patrons even more because they're getting money, but, at least in my opinion, the whole point of Patreon is to support an artist.
The point of rewards is to encourage people to pledge more money to your campaign by offering them extra incentives—but it's entirely up to you whether or not you want to take on the responsibility of providing those incentives. You may find that people who love your work are generous without needing coaxing or marketing tactics. Or you may find that you need the extra boost provided by a rewards scheme. It's up to you, but remember: if you promise people incentives, you have a responsibility to provide them.
Closing Thoughts
I hope this gives you a little insight into Patreon and why some artists are struggling with it. Patreon seems to me like an amazing tool for artists, but like most tools, you have to use it right to get the maximum utility from it.
Good luck out there!
I'm sorry, but if you're not making money, your business model is wrong.
And that got me thinking. Patreon has become very popular with furries, but a lot of them are using it wrong—and I know they're using it wrong, because they're complaining about how people are cheesing the system. So, to help, I have some basic online business guidelines for you to learn and share!
1) If your business model is vulnerable to piracy, your business model is wrong.
2) If you can't handle producing your rewards for ten thousand patrons, your business model is wrong.
3) If your customers can exploit your operation to get more for their money than you intend, your business model is wrong.
4) If you don't understand why you're not making money, your business model is wrong.
Let's elaborate on each of these points.
POINT 1: Piracy is not the enemy; bad business models are the enemy.
There are people out there who are dedicated to fighting Patreon as a means of making a living. Seriously. They will subscribe to your Patreon, and actually pay you, so that they can post all your patron-only material someplace for free, and cripple your operation. These people HATE that you expect money for your hard work.
You could spend hours and hours hunting down this leaked material, trying to track down the people who are leaking it, and struggle endlessly to keep your content securely behind that paywall. You will fail. People with way more money and resources than you have failed. You cannot stop piracy, and if you try, you'll collapse under the cost and effort.
But you can circumvent it.
There are things that cannot be pirated. You can pirate a finished comic page, but you can't pirate the chance to chat with me while I draw it. You can pirate a finished commission, but you can't pirate the chance to get a commission from me. You see what I'm getting at? Products can be stolen; experiences and services can't.
The main fact that makes digital products vulnerable to piracy is that they are able to be duplicated. If you want your patreon to be invulnerable to piracy, then you should make your duplicatable material free, and only put services and experiences behind a paywall. Patreon themselves even advocate this practice by saying that your main content stream should be free. This means there's nothing to pirate. You haven't stopped piracy, you've just made it so that your income isn't based on something that can be gotten for free.
That brings us neatly to...
POINT 2: Your rewards should scale, or you'll regret it.
Patreon rewards are meant to be given out every month. I have a friend on Patreon who made the mistake of promising a sketch every month to every $10 patron. He now has 60 ten-dollar patrons and has to do two sketches every day to keep up. He's getting to the point where he doesn't have time for his main content, and he's not sure what to do because he doesn't want to renege on his promise to his patrons. He couldn't possibly have 1000 $10 patrons.
Your rewards need to be scalable; if you find yourself in a place where you have to turn away customers, how do you expect to be successful?
Let's say you're making a comic. A scalable reward would be a printed copy of the book. Your printer can presumably print any number of copies, and since you're not the one printing it, it doesn't translate to more work for you. Other good rewards would include credits in your book, periodic Q&A e-mails, private streams that any number of people can watch.
Now you might think that a digital image, which can be duplicated any number of times, would make a good reward, but see POINT 1 above. You've put a duplicatable item behind a paywall! Oops!
POINT 3: Don't blame Patreon because you don't know how to use it.
I've seen complaints by people who have suggested that Patreon is cheesable. For example, it is possible to subscribe for a month, get the reward, and then bail. I've also seen complaints that patrons can ask for refunds of their subscription fees. Patreon, what the hell?
The fact is, if you're conducting your business properly, the fact that people can do these things should affect you very minimally, if at all. Put yourself in the shoes of a patron: if you feel that you were defrauded by a creator, you should be able to get a refund! And if you realize you can't afford to support a creator, you should be able to bail out at any time.
As a creator, your Patreon campaign should be designed to handle these events. If you follow the above guidelines, you should be fine. It won't cost you any extra time or money to provide patrons with your rewards, and you won't have any content vulnerable to piracy that they can abscond with.
And the truth is, the people who will take your content and then get a refund are assholes, and in my experience, if you aren't an asshole yourself, most of your fans won't be either. The majority of your Patreon income will be secure and regular. So the lesson here is, don't be an asshole!
POINT 4: If you're not making money, it's your own fault.
If you're aiming to make money from your art, your art is a business, and business is brutal. The first lesson anyone hoping to be successful in business needs to learn is when you fail, it's your fault; when you make it, it's because YOU MADE IT.
It's a harsh lesson, because many times it feels like we're blindsided by things we could never have anticipated—but just because we didn't see it coming and had no control over it doesn't mean we shouldn't have been prepared for it. You should be setting aside money for emergencies, you should have contingencies in plan for disasters, you should be able to withstand problems.
Be humble. Recognize and own your failures. Your customers and clients will be better disposed to your screwups if you are willing to be responsible for them. Your excuses will be seen by your clientele as exactly that: excuses. Be honest about your fuckups and take responsibility.
When you've realized that you and only you are responsible for your success, you'll stop blaming everyone else for the fact that your business is doing poorly, and you'll start doing the productive thing, which is asking yourself, "What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?"
POINT 5: YOUR ART IS VALUABLE.
This last point is mostly opinion on my part, so I didn't include it above, but it's worth considering. Patreon rewards are optional. It's easy to forget, but the main point of Patreon is to support art. Patreon is not a store where you buy rewards; it's a place where you have the ability to help the artists that you love make more art that you love.
For example, I'm going to be launching a webcomic on Patreon soon, and I'm strongly considering not having any reward levels for the comic. What I will have is milestone goals, which would be simple things like "I'm making enough money to do 2 more pages per month now."
I wouldn't feel bad about this, because by supporting my comic, you get: my comic. The comic itself is valuable! Artists on Patreon seem sometimes to feel as though they owe their patrons even more because they're getting money, but, at least in my opinion, the whole point of Patreon is to support an artist.
The point of rewards is to encourage people to pledge more money to your campaign by offering them extra incentives—but it's entirely up to you whether or not you want to take on the responsibility of providing those incentives. You may find that people who love your work are generous without needing coaxing or marketing tactics. Or you may find that you need the extra boost provided by a rewards scheme. It's up to you, but remember: if you promise people incentives, you have a responsibility to provide them.
Closing Thoughts
I hope this gives you a little insight into Patreon and why some artists are struggling with it. Patreon seems to me like an amazing tool for artists, but like most tools, you have to use it right to get the maximum utility from it.
Good luck out there!
I write these up because a lot of artists that I talk with have zero experience in any kind of business management, and struggle with their financial endeavors. Business comes naturally to very few people, I find, but for some reason everyone seems to think that it's as easy as "make good product, sell good product." Doing good business is a skill just like everything else, and it requires education and practice.
Don't get pushy though I don't want people to think I'm all up in their face
I'm glad you seem to have a lot of understanding that the vast majority of business owners seem to have difficulties grasping.