The Video Creator’s Information for Launching on Patreon

After hours upon hours spent capturing movies, enhancing content material, and increase a loyal fan base, you’ve determined to kick issues into excessive gear and begin a Patreon web page.

First issues first, congrats! This can be a big step in your journey as a creator and one that may propel your artistic profession to new heights. Not solely can Patreon allow you to generate recurring, sustainable income, it might additionally allow you to join along with your viewers on a deeper degree.

Sounds fairly superb, proper? Properly, it’s. However after all, like something in life, you get what you set into it. If you wish to construct a Patreon web page that your followers will love, you want to give your self the time to get clear in your objectives, arrange your web page, and announce it to the world.

We suggest that you just begin planning your launch about eight weeks out for the perfect outcomes. That can assist you get began, right here’s our week-by-week information for launching a video creator web page on Patreon.

Earlier than you click on that ‘join’ button, ask your self: what do you need to get out of your Patreon web page? Would you like extra artistic freedom? To fund a dwell tour? Cowl your dwelling bills? Getting clear on why you need to be on Patreon will allow you to higher talk the affect of membership to your followers and encourage them to help you.

You’ll additionally need to be sincere with your self on how a lot time you possibly can decide to managing your web page. In the event you arrange your web page and by no means discuss it once more, you’re not going to see the identical outcomes as somebody who’s making an effort to recurrently promote their web page and interact with followers.In accordance with Megan Frantz, Head of Video at Patreon, try to be ready to dedicate at the least a couple of hours per week to finish this launch plan and proceed selling and managing it after you launch to continue to grow your web page.

Now that you’ve got clear objectives and a stable understanding of how a lot time and vitality you possibly can commit to your Patreon web page, you need to begin desirous about your membership advantages. Whilst you would possibly need to go to your followers first, Megan advises towards this method, particularly for video creators.

“We by no means desire a creator to chew off greater than they will chew and oftentimes, followers need 1,000,000 issues,” says Megan. As an alternative, she suggests video creator begin desirous about what they might be excited to supply first after which ask their followers what they assume. “In the event you’re enthusiastic about it, your followers will likely be too,” provides Megan.

As soon as you recognize what sort of membership advantages you’d like to supply, manage your record based mostly on value and scalability. For instance, taking some behind-the-scenes pictures is fast to do and people pictures may be simply shared with a lot of folks, so you possibly can put this profit on a low-price membership tier.

However, creating and delivery out customized fan present bins may be costly and time-consuming so this sort of profit ought to be on a higher-cost tier. This may also be a profit that you’d restrict to just some patrons so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

It’s time to arrange your Patreon web page! That is the place your whole followers will be taught extra about you and what you’re creating, so don’t be afraid to get artistic. “We encourage video creators, to not have tiers like ‘pledge 5 {dollars}’ however to ascertain a fan naming conference,” says Megan.For instance, on the Patreon web page for his or her podcast “This Would possibly Get Bizarre,” video creators Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart have cheekily-titled membership tiers that vary from ‘Weirdos’ ($5 a month) all the way in which as much as ‘Fools’ ($500 a month).

Not solely does this make the membership expertise a complete lot extra enjoyable; it’s additionally an effective way so that you can set up your model as a creator and foster a way of group.

Whereas sure components of the web page set-up course of like importing a canopy photograph or linking your social media accounts are comparatively fast and simple, others like writing your web page description or producing an intro video take a little bit of time to finish.Talking of which, your intro video ought to be two minutes or much less and clarify what Patreon is, why patrons ought to pledge to you, how often you submit, and what cash pledged to you’ll allow you to do. Want some inspiration? Take a look at Blimey Cow, Kinda Humorous and new Patreon creators Epic Rap Battles of Historical past.

We get it. There’s a lot that goes into launching a Patreon creator web page and you continue to want time to, properly, create. Thankfully, there are a ton of apps on the market that may combine with Patreon to avoid wasting you time and add extra worth to your choices.For instance, Discord means that you can create unique chatrooms for you and your followers, and you may arrange an integration to routinely add patrons to a personal channel. Patronizer is a third-party integration instrument that makes it straightforward to incorporate your whole patrons ultimately credit of a video. Final however not least, TubeBuddy is an integration that means that you can see which feedback in your YouTube movies come from present patrons. Head right here for a complete record of 20+ options and integrations.

Your web page is all arrange and able to go. Now you want to inform folks about it. Earlier than you begin advertising and marketing to your followers, attain out to your interior circle (i.e. household and shut associates) and do a ‘delicate launch’. Allow them to know you simply launched a Patreon web page and ask them for suggestions about your web page, rewards, video, and many others. That is additionally an effective way to get a couple of patrons earlier than your official launch. You may additionally need to attain out to another creators to see if they might be prepared to share an announcement with their followers and followers.

On the day of your launch, you need to do the next:

• Publish your Patreon hyperlink in your social media channels and web site
• Ship out an e mail to your e-newsletter subscribers
• Add a Patreon banner to your social media cowl pictures, the highest of your web site, and bios.
• Ship out a press launch to related blogs, video creators, and different influencers in your area.

If this appears like numerous work, don’t fear – you don’t really must do all this stuff on launch day. There are many apps on the market that you need to use to schedule your social media posts and emails upfront.

You made it! Your web page is dwell and your followers are flocking to your web page to help you. Now what? To maintain the momentum going, you want to present your followers how excited and dedicated you might be to providing an excellent membership expertise.

To continue to grow and rising consciousness your web page, you need to think about:

• Together with a hyperlink and/or Patreon point out in upcoming movies
• Internet hosting a livestream to inform your followers about your Patreon web page and reply any questions on it
• Internet hosting an IRL launch social gathering in your space

We all know that this complete course of can appear overwhelming, however it’s so vital to see this time as an funding in your future as a creator. If you will get by the eight weeks of pre-launch prep, you’ll set your self up for a really lengthy and fruitful profession creating unbelievable content material in your phrases.

“As a rule, we see followers inform creators, ‘I’m so glad you began a Patreon,’” says Megan. “Your followers will love what you provide, it doesn’t matter what you provide.”