Now here’s something cool Piper Thibodeau is trying out on her Patreon page: GIF’s of her works in progress! She posts daily drawings publicly, and works in progress for her $1+ patrons, and now she’s trying out combining the WIP images into a GIF progression. And it’s awesome! If you do WIP for your patrons, give it a try – it’s easier than a video, but cooler than pictures. đ
One of the things I like seeing is when creators can really keep perspective on their career and following. One of the creators I love supporting posted to his Patreon this week that he tries to never be numb to the numbers. 10,000 views on a YouTube video is TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE watching! (You know, give or take). đ
Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the numbers and fluctuations and data, but remember; those are real people who care enough to watch, comment, share, and spread the love! If you’ve changed even one person’s life or put one smile out there, you’ve done good in the world.
This week, I headed down to LA for Tyler Ward‘s Patreon family dinner! It was a blast. When he hit a certain milestone on his Patreon page, his reward was to set up a dinner just for him and his patrons, and livestream it for all those patrons who couldn’t make it to LA. Not only is that a super fun idea, but Tyler was so kind and grateful the whole time, and really made all of us feel special! We played games, ate food, chatted, and generally spread around a lot of gratitude and love. đ
Creators, try to come up with cool ideas for your milestones that get your patrons involved! đ
Something I’ve mentioned before and that’s important in getting patrons involved with your posts, is to ask questions. There are probably a bunch of patrons who see your post, they might even click the little heart, but sometimes they just don’t really have something to say. Sure, they get a good feeling, it makes them happy, but many times it doesn’t spark a thought to write down.
How to solve this? Ask a question! It could be as simple as “Let me know what you think of it!” or “What should I do next?”, but better would be something more creative. “I put 30+ hours of work into this one! What’s the longest project you’ve spent time on?” or “I really like this character I drew. What do you think her back story is? What adventure is she going on?”
Here’s the catch: Don’t just write your question and run. Respond! Patreon is where your most dedicated fan base come together, so it’s even more important than responding on YouTube or Facebook. These are the people who love you enough to give your money. Share that love back!
Now, if you’re Amanda Palmer and get hundreds upon hundreds of comments on a post, I get it, you can’t respond to them all. But do your best, get to as many as you can. Or make a separate post saying “Wow, what a great response to the last creation! Sorry I couldn’t comment back to everyone, but know that I read and love you all!”
I’m going to be honest, as a patron, there are some creators I’ve excitedly answered questions from only to receive no reply time and time again, and eventually it makes me not want to comment. If no one is reading my comment, why bother?
Someone who’s really good at this is Ali Brustofski (in the cover photo), who asks how her patrons are doing, how their weekend went (while answering the question for herself), then she replies to people with genuine responses (not just “that’s cool”)! It makes a difference.
There are some other “big” creators who put great effort into responding to as many comments as they can – Peter Hollens, Sakimichan – the list goes on (most creators are getting pretty good at this).
NOTE – If you respond to a patron’s comment directly, they get a notification or email (unless they’ve turned the setting off) letting them know you replied. But if you just type a new comment in the thread below, they may have no idea, especially if lots of other patrons are commenting and burying it. I know it’s tempting to just type one “Thanks guys!” comment to everyone, but it’s much more personal to respond to individual comments, AND it notifies the commenter.
That’s all for this week! Peace!
A post this week that made me go “Heck yeah!” was Amanda Palmer giving a shout out to her trusty team member, Alex, for his hard work getting her merch and orders out the door.
Heck yeah!
Give shout outs to your team! Patrons love seeing your gratitude and teambuilding relationships. Don’t have a team? Give a shout out to mom, or your pet, or the mailman. It’s awesome seeing a creator say “I couldn’t do this on my own. These are the people who make what I do happen!”
One thing that not many creators consider is accessibility with their images/video. When you put captions on your videos and text descriptions on your images, it enables your content to be viewed by a wider range of people – those with visual or hearing limitations, or maybe just non-native English speakers who can grasp your work better with a written description.
This includes not just your content on other platforms, but within Patreon as well. You want your patrons to enjoy your content in any format! Two creators who are good at this, and that sparked this week’s win, are Rikki Poynter and Emm Roy. They both include written descriptions of their images on Patreon and their social media.
Just something to keep in mind as you grow your content and fan base! đ
One cool post I always love seeing creators share is when they’re working on sending out their patron mail! Taking pictures of the process has three awesome benefits:
So yeah! Send mail! Take pictures! Do all the things! đ
I don’t normally share an individual creation as a weekly win without some larger message, but this week I’m making an exception for Alex G & Danielle Bennet‘s new video, “Lighthouse”. During a time when the world is rocked by violence and hearts are shattered, these stellar artists came together to combine two different art mediums into one beautiful collaboration. I think it’s an excellent example of what the unique world of internet creators can do.
Please watch: (Patreon link)
This week’s win is a short one: I saw the awesome phrase on a creator’s video this week: Powered by Patreon. What a great way to word that! I’ve seen a lot of ways to link your Patreon – “Support me on Patreon”, “Help me make more content like this”, “Become a patron!” etc. But I think it has a nice ring to it, to succinctly say, yep, Patreon is what’s powering this content!
Just about every creator both on and considering Patreon know that sneak peeks are a great reward option. People love being the first to see something and getting pumped for a release. But sometimes you can’t show a whole piece early, or even part of it, for various reasons.
A great way around this is to share just a hint, or behind-the-scenes photo of you working on it; a picture from filming on set, you drawing at your desk, taking a break to relax on the back porch, etc.
Nick Pitera has practically mastered this art; he posts close-up photos of a prop or something from filming, or a selfie in costume, without actually showing enough to give away what the piece is. It’s fun, and patrons love it!
