Category: Win of the Week

The best examples of creators succeeding on Patreon! E.g Habits of Successful Creators.

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Win of the Week: Subtle ways to mention your Patreon page

Getting people to head over to your Patreon and support you is awkward – right?! You don’t want to constantly spam their feeds with “Support me on Patreon!!” but you also don’t want them to forget that you’re doing awesome stuff over there.

I’ve always been a fan of simple, subtle marketing. Of course it’s important to advertise your Patreon on your website, video outros, descriptions, etc. But check out Alex G’s simple way of reminding people on Twitter about her page:

That’s all it takes! Curiosity peaked.

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Win of the Week: Adjusting reward structure

A big shout out this week to Jonathan Young for posting a super honest, straightforward update to his patrons about falling behind and learning to manage his workload better, and some changes to his reward tiers to make it more feasible to maintain, and to give more patrons access to rewards.

Patreon is a process, never be afraid to make changes and talk to your patrons about how you’re handling everything! I’ll let you in on a little secret… they’re there because they like you and want to see you succeed.

Now a shameless plug for one of his recent videos. Rock on! \m/

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Win of the Week: Saving a Life

This week’s win isn’t so much about a creator as her group of patrons – a community that mobilized to save someone’s life; to successfully prevent a suicide.

There are some creators I follow who have built amazingly close-knit communities of people across the world. These groups are more than just fans talking about the creator’s work; it’s a place to share, learn, love, and support one another.

The biggest of these on Facebook, Amanda Palmer’s patron community, is a highly active group brimming with activities, sharing, support – and in the spirit of Amanda herself, some F-words and raw honesty. It’s a place where people are unafraid to bare their souls, ask for help when needed, and give it freely when asked.

Just a few days ago, a couple of group members saw a suicidal post by a former member, and sent the group a plea for help. Within half an hour, hundreds of people worked together to get her phone number and address, and contacted the local authorities. Her life was saved by people across the world who dropped what they were doing to signal boost the message and get help to her.

This is the power of online communities – and Patreon groups are the most involved, loving of them all. They bring together people with a common interest and generous heart, who tend to embody the values of the creator they support.

If you’re a creator, remember, it’s not just you that makes a difference in the world; it’s the people you bring together and the environment you foster. If you foster a community of love, that love will support itself and spread.

After the incident settled down and help was secured, a member posted this note:

Here is a quick recapitulation of what happened within half an hour: two members of the group saw a suicidal post by a former member. They called for help. The group mobilized, put together her phone number and address and alerted the authorities. She was found and is alive. And this, if I remember it correctly, is at least third or fourth time we managed to help like this. To actually prevent someone from committing suicide.

So just know, no matter who you are, we are in this together, nobody is left behind.

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Win of the Week: I made something!

This week’s shout out goes to a talented, humble, sweet artist whose drawings make us all feel a little better. 🙂 She started sharing blog posts with her patrons in which she is completely honest about the art process, her own doubts and successes, and what she’s thinking about. I won’t give you all the details (patron-only perk!) but she said something this week that really made me smile.

She was sharing some of her doubts about whether her art is good enough or if people like it, then she said:

You know what?… I made something! I did it. It’s real and I made it. It’s impossible for nobody to like it because *I* like it. And I’m excited to keep making things that I like.

 

That’s the attitude I like to see. As a patron, it’s refreshing for a creator to be honest about their doubts (ALL artists have those doubts), but to see them keep their chins up because THEY like their work.

Go get’em girl!

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Win of the Week: Sharing your fails

What really stood out to me this week on Patreon is a creator who shared a series of “failed” pieces and how he fixed or learned from them. Instead of tossing them aside and being glad no one realized he’s not perfect (ha!), he shared pictures with his patrons and described the imperfections and what he did to improve the work.

But what about the slew of comments from patrons accusing him of not being perfect enough and laughing at his failed work? Hmm. *scrolls down* Nope, don’t see any of those. All I see are people thanking him for sharing his less-than-ideal pieces and asking questions about his process. Weird, huh?

Maybe people like knowing you’re just as ‘perfect’ as they are. 🙂

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Win of the Week: Project Sm:)es

For this week’s win, I have to give a shout out to Tiffany Alvord. She has built an amazing community on Patreon (“Team Tiffany”), with a goal not just of sharing her music, but centered around positivity and hope as well. She sends her patrons out in the world every week on a “Project Sm:)es” mission to do good in the world. It makes for a fun group activity as everyone reports back on their mission success – and keeps people engaged with her Patreon page inbetween music videos.

There’s nothing more contagious than a smile! (Err… that might not be 100% accurate.)