Tag: #winoftheweek

It’s always a good idea to do regular check-ins with your patrons, so they know you’re alive and thinking of them. (This is especially true if you don’t post creations very often.) These can be related to your work and upcoming projects, but they don’t necessarily need to be.

Patreon has been testing out a fun little feature with a few creators lately, where patrons receive an email letting them choose a question to pose to their creator to spark some interaction. It’s a nice little reminder to stay involved!

Some other great check-ins I’ve seen creators do on a regular basis include:

• Weekly pictures of their pet
• “Patrons, how is your day/week going?”
• Lists: 10 things I’m thankful for this week, 5 reasons to remain positive, 10 random objects in my room, etc.
• Weekly missions for your patrons (“Go out in the world and make someone smile!”)
• Long/rambling posts (people on FB/Twitter might not care about your longer rants, but your patrons are often interested enough to read).

Think of something cool, try different things, see what engages your patrons the most. 🙂 And have fun!

I feel like I talk about Sakimichan too much, but if you’re looking for a successful creator to follow, she’s your gal! Something that really stood out to me this week is her responsiveness with her patrons – listening, responding, and creating content that they want to see. She posts tutorials regularly, and this week she focused on some very basic skills since many people were asking for it.

She also excels at responding to the loooooong list of comments she gets on every post, from the simple “I love this piece!” to “How do I collect my rewards?” and “Will you ever draw ___?” She reads and responds to everything she can. 🙂

This week I want to give a huge shout out to Malinda Kathleen Reese, who (like many creators before her) decided to restructure her Patreon setup and rewards. She did an amazing job with the announcement, and I highly recommend some key tips if you’re ever in the same boat:

• Explain clearly the need for the switch – posting more/less often, switching to monthly and vice versa. Malinda took an uncomfortable situation of deciding to post more paid creations, and explained in a very simple and open way that she puts expenses into all of her videos, even the “smaller” ones, and feels that they deserve as much credit as the “bigger” ones.
• Tell patrons about pledge caps AND don’t make them feel guilty about it! Malinda was so friendly and understanding in letting people know how to cap their pledge so they’re not paying more than before if they don’t want to, and that it’s 100% ok with her if you do that.
• Explain new rewards and how/why they’re changing. Focus on the good! Be excited about the things you’re offering! If you’re removing rewards or moving them to a higher level, explain why the shift was necessary. Your patrons love you and don’t want you to overexert yourself.
• Include both a video and written update, if possible, going over the changes. Some people respond better to different avenues and putting a face/voice to the update really helps!
• Welcome their comments/questions. Let them know to comment below or send you a message if they have any questions, and that it’s important to you.
• Be super grateful! Thank them for all their support so far, and maybe even give a hint of things to come up so they’ll be eager to stick around.

This week’s shout out goes to a lovely artist with the humility to admit that she’s struggling with creativity and progressing her artwork; so she decided to take some classes and work on her basic technique. The best part though? She didn’t just slink away from her patrons with her head down; she tells us what she’s working on, shows us sketches, “before and after” of her technique – so we know she’s hard at work even if she’s not putting out masterpieces brimming with creative glory.

Sometimes getting back to the basics for a while is just what you need to refocus. 🙂

It doesn’t take a lot to be engaged on Patreon. Here are some little things creators did this week to make me feel special as a patron:

• Posted a silly picture just to make everyone smile
• Gave a free download of a story
• Gave a little pep talk to start off the new month
• “Here’s a secret project I’m working on!” sneak peek