[00:00] So you want to start a Patreon. Well, I mean, I'm guessing you do. If you've clicked on this video, you've probably seen the title or it's piqued your curiosity. For Patreon, it's been something that you've been thinking about starting for a while as a creator or an artist or a small
[00:15] business owner, but you have no idea where to start or if it's right for you. Over the last few years, I have been sharing more of the big things of my creative business here on YouTube. And one thing that I talk about a lot with my creative community here on YouTube is my Patreon
[00:30] membership and so a lot of you have actually been asking me what my tips would be for starting a patreon membership or whether or not patreon is right for you as a creative business owner or artist or illustrator or whatever it is you do so i thought it would be fun to sit down and share
[00:45] some of my tips that i wish i had known when i was starting out patreon or thinking about starting out patreon so that is exactly what we're going to dive into in this video i've got all my tips ready to go so grab your notebook grab a cozy drink and let's get into it
[00:59] so let's start at top with one of the most common questions that I get asked about patreon from other creators which is should I start a patreon and is patreon right for me my first piece of
[01:15] advice would be if you are thinking about starting a patreon if you are feeling the pull or you're curious start because patreon is actually free to use and it is a platform that was created by creators who wanted to help other creators make a living and support themselves from their art,
[01:33] their content, and their creativity. So if you are a creator, even if you are a content creator, if you are a small business owner, if you're an artist, an illustrator, whether you are at the beginning of your creative career, in the middle, kind of figuring things out, or you've been doing
[01:47] this for years and you're looking for another way to establish a place for your community, even Patreon is an amazing option. I actually started using Patreon a little under two years ago as I'm filming this and the reason I made the decision to join Patreon was because of the values
[02:04] behind the platform. I think in the last couple of years we have learned that social media, while it is an incredible tool, can be very very volatile and unpredictable and there are some weeks where it feels like we've got it all figured out and we know how to make our content be seen
[02:19] the algorithm and we know exactly how to connect with our audience and our community and then something changes suddenly and it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under your feet and as a small business owner and a self-employed artist that can be terrifying the reason that
[02:34] I chose to explore Patreon is because it was a platform that was built with the aim to help creative and creative business owners and artists and just creative people in general connect with
[02:46] their communities and create this space where you can connect with your community and you know that they're going to see what you share when you share it. So if you really want to create a space or curate a space where you can connect with your community and foster that sense of community
[03:02] around your work or you just really want a space that you feel like you have a little bit more ownership over and that is a little bit more in your control than sometimes social media can feel like it is and that takes a bit more of that guessing out than Patreon absolutely is the right
[03:16] choice. As I already shared, it is free to join Patreon. It is free to post. It is free to start creating content over there. You can even now create what Patreon calls public content, which is free for everyone to consume and view. So even if you haven't yet figured out what your benefits
[03:33] might be or what your tiers might look like or what you're actually going to put behind your paywall you don't have to know all that to start you can just create an account set it up and start inviting your audience from other platforms like instagram or youtube or any even your email list
[03:48] anywhere you already have a small community and audience you can start inviting them over to patreon this is another space where you are creating content while you figure out what you're actually going to do on that space also i don't want to apologize for the lighting because today
[04:02] is a cloudy day and i feel like the sun keeps dipping in and out from behind the clouds so If the writing is changing from shot to shot, that is why. The second tip that I put down here is to start with something you already do and that your audience already knows you for.
[04:15] This is what I did when I started my Patreon because I was already feeling very, very overwhelmed when I was starting my Patreon. And while I really wanted a space to connect with my community and my audience, the last thing that I needed in that moment was something else to create.
[04:31] When I started my Patreon, I chose to start my Patreon based around something that I was already doing and that my audience already knew me for. So the best thing to do is think about your business or the content that you create
[04:44] or the art that you share and any value, whatever format that's in, remember that value can also be entertainment, it doesn't have to be education and information, but any kind of value that you currently give to your audience or communities on social media
[04:59] or through your email newsletters that you currently give them for free that you could put behind a paywall on Patreon or that you could start offering an additional version of behind a paywall on Patreon.
[05:11] So for example, for me, when I got started, the thing that I decided to start my Patreon around was my Wallpaper Wednesday, which I used to send out to over 7,000 email subscribers for free every other week.
[05:25] And I was giving away six to 10 phone wallpapers. I made the realization that I was either going to have to put it behind some kind of paywall and make it something that people could actually pay to subscribe to or I was going to have to stop doing it because it wasn't sustainable for me to keep
[05:41] doing this amount of work for free when my business needed me to be investing my time and energy into something that actually helped pay my bills. And as creatives, that is a decision that we struggle with a lot because we love what we do and we love sharing it with people and sometimes we feel a
[05:56] of guilt asking people to pay for what we already do. So I made the decision to base my Patreon around my wallpaper Wednesday I let my email subscribers know with plenty of time that it was going to be moving to Patreon and this is how much it was going to cost every month And I not going to lie I was terrified doing that because it was something I had given away for free for a really really long time
[06:15] But I was actually really surprised with the response from so many of my email subscribers who wrote back to me when I launched my Patreon that they had been waiting for something like this, a way for them to actually pay me for what I do for such a long time.
[06:30] I literally got emails that said, I'm so glad you're doing this because I really want to pay you for your art because it makes me so happy. So don't be afraid. If something you are creating for free is already something that's really popular with your audience and community
[06:43] and it's something that they get value from, you might be really surprised by how many of them are excited to actually support you for that work, even if you've been giving it to them for free for ages. You don't have to put it all behind the paywall straight away.
[06:56] So when I did this with my Wallpaper Wednesday, I transitioned it slowly where I would give one wallpaper for free. And if you wanted the full collection of wallpapers, you could subscribe and become a Patreon member. So start with something you already know because it's something your audience will already be familiar with.
[07:12] And when your audience is already familiar with it or your community is already familiar with it, it's a lot easier for them to get on board with subscribing to it. And it takes a lot of work out of it for you explaining exactly what it is that they're going to get because they will know.
[07:25] Another way that I've seen a lot of creators do this is by putting something that they already do partially behind a paywall on Patreon. So, for example, a lot of podcasters have started using Patreon in the last couple of years where they will have their public and free podcast.
[07:41] But if you want to get even more content, they do exclusive episodes either weekly or monthly for their Patreon subscribers. or maybe they publish the audio version of the podcast, but if you prefer a video version of the podcast,
[07:54] they share that with their Patreon members. There are so many different ways that you can look at what value you already give away for free, something that your audience and your community already love, they already engage with a lot, that maybe takes a lot of your time and energy
[08:08] and is something that you love to do. That is the thing that you should be starting your Patreon with. And that is a great segue to my next tip, which is less is more. when you are starting out. It is better to start with one tier
[08:22] and maybe even just one or two benefits than to overwhelm yourself and your audience with multiple tiers and loads of different benefits. Now, if you're brand new to Patreon and you have no idea what I mean by tiers and benefits,
[08:36] let me break it down. So on Patreon, there are different levels, which they call tiers, that people can subscribe to. There is the free and public content, so anyone can become a member of your Patreon and they see the content that you post and mark as
[08:52] public. So this is free. Then after that, you can choose to have as many different tiers as you want and you scale the price for each tier. Your lowest tier, I think for Euro, it's a minimum of three Euro. I think it's a minimum of five US dollars if you're in US. The reason that there's a minimum
[09:10] amount that you can start tier four is because once you start having tiers and you have start having paid Patreon members. Patreon platform takes a small percentage of every member's
[09:22] payments and then you as a creator take the rest. So Patreon only makes money from you being a Patreon user when you start making money as a Patreon creator. Another thing to know about your tiers is that the higher paying tiers, so if you have like maybe a three euro tier and then you
[09:39] have like a five euro tier which is like offering something extra from the three euro tier, the people on that five-year-old tier or that higher tier will also get access to everything that is available in any tiers that cost less than theirs. So you can also think about it like in terms of
[09:57] scaling up your memberships. You can have like a basic tier which maybe like for me is my wallpaper Wednesdays and my art club. People in that tier which is my art club tier get wallpaper drops
[10:09] every Wednesday. And my other tier is my creative community tier and the members in that get the wallpapers and the digital downloads, but then they also get my monthly podcast, live stream
[10:21] sessions with me, discounts on workshops and my courses and a few other benefits. So people can start on a lower tier and then over time they might upgrade to a higher tier to get access to other benefits. Vice versa, people sometimes start on the higher paying tier and then they downgrade
[10:38] because they only want the basic benefits. My top tip for you starting out would be less is more. Start with one tier, any few simple benefits. The reason that this is the best way to start is it's easier for you to get into a rhythm
[10:52] of creating for Patreon so it doesn't just become another thing on your to-do list that you feel like you have to chase. And it's also much easier for your community and audience to understand what they're getting. As someone who's been using Patreon for a while, often people get confused by the tiers.
[11:07] So a few years ago, I had three or four different tiers. And the reason that I streamlined it down to two tiers was because people were getting really confused about which tier was the best option for them to join.
[11:19] They were either joining the lowest, least expensive tier because they thought that was the best value for money and missing out on the things that they wanted. Or they were joining the more expensive tier and feeling overwhelmed by everything that
[11:31] they were getting because they only wanted the basic benefits. So start simple. Start with one tier. start with a few benefits and then over time if you want to offer something else rather than adding it to that tier you could in six months to a year announce another tier which costs a little bit
[11:46] more so it would be an upgrade for your current members but it's going to give them something else plus what they're already used to getting. The next tip that I've put down here for starting a Patreon is something that I think is the reason that a lot of people start things like Patreon
[11:59] or anything new in their business and then feel like it's not working which is if you started you have to talk about it and share your link. And sharing your link once on Instagram stories is not enough I talk about my Patreon as often as I possibly can If you are a long viewer of my YouTube you will know that I try and mention my Patreon at least once in every blog that I do because I know that if I don talk about it people
[12:26] won't know it exists. Again, if you are a creative person like me, selling and marketing isn't always something that comes naturally to you. And a lot of the time, as creatives, we can feel like if we put a lot of time and energy
[12:39] into something and people are following us, then they're just going to find out what exists themselves. Like, they're just going to find their way to our link in bio and discover our shop themselves or discover our Etsy all by themselves or discover that we have a Patreon all by
[12:53] themselves. Another lie that we tell ourselves as creators is that people don't want us to tell them. They don't want us sharing our links. They don't want us reminding them that we have a Patreon because that's going to make them not like us anymore.
[13:05] They're following us for our art and our content they don't want to be sold to, but that's not true. I'm not saying that you have to start shoving your Patreon link down. People throw every single piece of content that you create, but a lot of the time you forget that there are new
[13:19] people coming into our communities and into our audiences on social media, into our email lists, onto our website, all of the time. And they might not know that we have a Patreon. Once you've created your Patreon, start talking about it. Start sharing it. Start inviting your current
[13:34] community over to it and start telling people about it, letting them know what is special about it, letting them know how excited you are about it. Sharing things like feedback from your community as well can be really helpful. So those early days when you're starting out or actually even
[13:49] consistently as you keep going with your Patreon, when someone leaves you a comment over on Patreon or sends you a message saying that they are loving your Patreon content, take a little screen grab of that. Ask that person if it's okay if you share it on their stories or even block out their username
[14:03] if you want to protect their privacy, but then share that and be like, I love creating over on Patreon and my community love what we're doing over here. Or like, here's what we've been up to in our community chat over on Patreon today. Or here's a new download that I shared at my Patreon today.
[14:17] And just try and share it as regularly as possible. Because if you don't tell people it exists, they might not know it exists. They may not figure that out by themselves. This is also a really good segue for me to remind you,
[14:29] if you want to check out my Patreon, you can scan this QR code or you can check out the link in the bio. And I actually offer all of my YouTube viewers and my cozy creative community here on YouTube 25% off
[14:41] if you do decide to become a member of my Patreon. You can use the code YOUTUBE25 to get 25% off your first month or year if you sign up as a member of my Patreon. Once you have started things simple
[14:53] and you have built your tiers around something your audience is already familiar with and you've started sharing and talking about your Patreon and inviting people over to it, The next step is to start experimenting with the different tools that Patreon have for you.
[15:07] Patreon, at least for the last few years that I've been using it, is getting better and better every single year. And they keep creating and developing tools that just make it even easier to connect with your community as a creator and also make money from your creativity as a creator.
[15:22] So once you set up your Patreon, you can explore things like the Patreon shop as a great alternative to like an Etsy shop or a website shop if you don't have one of those yet. The other thing that I really love about the Patreon shop is you can choose to set any post as a shop post or something that people can buy.
[15:41] For example, if you create a download, like this year I created a digital printable 2026 calendar. I also created a wall planner calendar. Those are posts that if you're a Patreon member, you get access to as part of your Patreon benefits.
[15:57] But I also put these two posts in my Patreon shop. So for people who maybe don't want to be a member of my Patreon, but still really want this thing that I created, they can buy this particular download without having to subscribe to my Patreon.
[16:11] You can also add specific products to the shop. So in the past, when I have run workshops or events before I had set up my website shop, I would actually list the tickets to the events on my Patreon shop.
[16:24] I've also put things like digital prints in there, and I also have my Notion content planner on my Patreon shop. Again, I'll put the link to all those things in the description under this video if you even just want to go and check out how I use my Patreon shop.
[16:37] There's also a ton of other tools like podcasts, video podcasts. There's community chats that you can set up on Patreon, and you control who has access to those chats based on your different paying peers.
[16:49] or your free members versus your paid members. They also recently released a feature where you can put a paywall into the middle of a piece of content, give your free members a sample of what you're creating,
[17:02] but then also still be giving your paid members extra benefits without you having to create separate pieces of content. Another recent tool that Patreon released in the last year or two was their discounts and coupons.
[17:16] So there's different ways that you can set up promotions for your patrons. One of them is you can actually offer discounts for a set period of time off of either specific tiers or all your tiers, but then they also have these vouchers that you can create
[17:31] where you can give people free access to a tier or like all your tiers for a set amount of time. In the past, I'll create like a hundred vouchers and I'll share the link on my Instagram stories or into my Instagram broadcast channel. The first hundred people to click on that link can get
[17:47] access to my Patreon for free for a whole month. And again, it's just a really fun way to experiment with inviting people in, giving people a sample of what you create, and then giving them the option whether or not they want to stay subscribing or not. So experiment with all the different tools.
[18:02] You don't have to use everything as soon as you get started, and I definitely wouldn't recommend that you do, but I would definitely look around at the different things that are available to you, And also explore other Patreon creator pages, even if you just become a free member of their pages.
[18:19] See how they are managing free versus paid content how do they run discounts what kind of content are they offering how many tiers do they have what different benefits do they put on their tiers and it can be really helpful for you to get inspiration for how you would like to develop
[18:35] your Patreon as time goes on. Which is an excellent segue into my next tip as the sun comes blindingly out from behind the cloud again. Don't be afraid to pivot, change, and adapt what you offer on Patreon over time. As I'm filming this video this week, I'm currently restructuring
[18:53] my tiers for the new year. And I kind of try to do this at the start of every year because as a creator, as a business owner, what I create, how I created, and who my audience are shifts and
[19:05] changes a lot throughout a year. So I like to sit down at the start of every year or every couple of months when my Patreon is starting to feel like maybe a little bit stagnant or maybe I'm starting to notice that community participation and engagement is like trickling off a little bit
[19:20] I will sit down and first of all I will look at my Patreon analytics and actually see which posts are the most popular which posts are working and which are not then I check in with myself and also with my community so often maybe like post a poll and ask people which things they're enjoying and
[19:36] ask for their feedback but also checking with myself as a creator as to what I'm enjoying creating and which posts and content I'm not enjoying creating because if I'm not enjoying creating it the chances are my audience will not enjoy consuming it as much because people can tell
[19:51] when you don't actually enjoy what you're sharing or enjoy creating what you're sharing. So don't be afraid to pivot over time starting simple so that you can learn how Patreon works and you can get to know your community in this new space and ask for their feedback and then over time you can
[20:05] either create new tiers or maybe get rid of tiers that aren't working. You can add benefits, you can take benefits away. The great thing about Patreon is that it's not like set or stagnant. It's not like social media where like once you find your niche, you kind of end up being boxed in. You can
[20:20] communicate with your community like I'm going to be sunsetting this benefit or I'm going to be starting something new because again, one of the great things about Patreon is once you've created the content, it lives there forever. And so if you decide to maybe stop offering a benefit and
[20:34] you've been offering it for the whole year, there's still an archive of that last year that you've been doing that thing. In 2025, I stopped doing Patreon exclusive live streams because they weren't really working at the time. There's still a whole archive of workshops and live streams that are
[20:49] exclusive to Patreon that people can get access to when they sign up, even though that isn't something I've been doing for the last six months. However, coming into 2026, it's something that I want to bring back. So it is something that people will be able to get access to again, but we'll
[21:02] also be able to explore that archive of things. The point that I'm making is that just because If you start out your Patreon based on one benefit and one tier, it doesn't mean that you have to stick with that forever. If it works, great.
[21:14] If it doesn't, you can change it. Don't be afraid to pivot, but also don't be afraid to give things time to work. For example, I stopped doing live streams last year, and after a little bit of time, I realized I really missed doing live streams, so I'm going to bring it back.
[21:27] You can change. You can pivot. You can adapt. The space is yours, and you have full creative control over it, and people are subscribing to you and your membership. and your creativity and to just communicate with them what you're feeling.
[21:40] And often, again, you'll find that your community and audience feels exactly the same way as you and are super excited for changes and something new. And my final piece of advice kind of comes back full circle to that first piece of advice,
[21:52] which is just start. I was thinking about starting a Patreon for a whole year before I actually started the Patreon. And even when I made the decision to start the Patreon,
[22:04] I took three months before I actually told people that I was starting a Patreon. My biggest regret as a Patreon creator for nearly two years now is not starting a Patreon. So if you are watching this video because you are curious about starting a Patreon,
[22:19] as soon as this video finishes, go on over to Patreon, create an account, and just start today. Even if you don't know what you're going to offer, you could just create a post for your community saying, I'm thinking about starting a Patreon and make it a free public post that everyone can comment on
[22:34] and then share it on your Instagram stories and invite people over. And even if it's just one person who shows up there or two, you might be surprised that it's going to be way more than that. But even if it is just one or two people that show up there, at least you've made the start because it is free to start.
[22:49] And for some reason, we're much more willing to give our free time and energy to platforms that don't really give us anything back as creators a lot of the time, except for a place to create. But we're really hesitant to create for platforms like Patreon
[23:04] because of the fact that we might be asking people for money. But honestly, my biggest regret is not starting sooner because it is genuinely such an incredible platform to create on as a creator. And you can really build a proper connection with your community over there.
[23:18] So my advice, stop writing in your notebook. Stop sipping that cozy drink that you got at the start of this video. Just go over to patreon.com right now and start your own account. start today and you can figure out what you're going to do over there as you go.
[23:31] I hope that you found this video helpful and inspirational and if you do decide to start a Patreon account let me know in the comments. Also if there's anything about Patreon that I didn't really touch on in this video please let me know in the comments. If you've got any questions
[23:45] about how to start, anything specific, or any of the tools that you'd like a little bit more information about just drop your questions in the comments under this video and I'll be happy to help you out. And if you did like this video and you found it helpful don't forget to click
[23:57] that thumbs up button and you can also go ahead and click that subscribe button to join the community here on YouTube. I will chat with you guys in the comments and I'll see you in the next video.
[24:27] © BF-WATCH TV 2021