Why Starting a PATREON in 2022 Might Not be a Good Idea? (An Artist Perspective)

This was a really interesting video , thank you for sharing your experience Asia! I agree, patreon isnt going to work for all artists, and it is an awful lot of work. More than people think! Applaud you for pivoting into something that suits your business better. 👏

This was really helpful. Thank you! What platform did you use to get your clients?

Thanks, Asia, that was very helpful to hear about your experience. It confirmed that Patreon is not for me right now. But I have taken up a Ko-fi page and we'll see where that leads to. The big tick for me with Ko-fi is that it's an easy way to set up a store for selling my books and info products while I play around with the other features.

Thank you so much for this video. I really appreciate it 🙏

This was really helpful I’ve had a few people mention Patreon but I didn’t really see it as being something for me because it was a lot of added work

Great advice and video.

Could there be something about the type of content shared?

Love your illustration work. Great video. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing your experience! I think there's a lot to learn here in especially what didn't work for you on patreon and what a lot of the audience on patreon where looking for and were maybe not getting. Making sure you can retain and audience on patreon is also a huge aspect of success on the platform. I think learning who the platform can work for is very important but also what other options are available!

Hi! Just an honest question. Can the Patron copy and paste my text posts? I am very worried if that is possible. And I hope not because it'll be a lot easier to steal my work.

Good points, all the best ❤

Thank you for sharing the information no one else shares. I appreciate it. Best of luck. Be safe.

You stole my little dog sugar to put on your video 🤣

I've seen some artists sell some of their past patreon monthly outright in the store or on gumroad. They then lock old content for purchase and then require a purchase of previous items. That would keep the rotation from happening. I've never been a patreon of an artist but I've bought many of their tutorials from there and gumroad.....more than I'd like to admit.

200 euros could pay my bills in my country :P

My biggest problem is that I only have 300 Instagram followers and 360 Twitter followers. It seems you have to have a large following to do well on Patreon. That is frustrating! Please tell me if I am wrong.

I've started to work on my Patreon after I lost my job and before the pandemic. I've actually posted a lot of content and a few Patrons came by and did not come back. I took a break from it, thinking that the rewards weren't enticing enough so I wanted to give it another shot. I agree that Patron is not for everyone. If this doesn't work out the 2nd time, I'm not sure if I'll decide to close mine too. I have Ko-fi too but I only focused on my Commissions and Online Shop. I removed my tiers because submitting on both platforms without any return could be frustrating and exhausting. T^T

A good alternative to Patreon is Gumroad. You can sell the same digital products with no obligation to keep monthly subscribers engaged.

my mommy artist💕💕💕💕

First of all, thank you for sharing your experience! Many important points were emphasized in the video.
I think, you might have a clear vision of what you want on Patreon and how you are doing to do it, although actually doing it shows you the reality. As you gain experience, then you can find better ways to get better results.
I agree that in order to open Patreon, you need to have an auditory already. Since I have just started making content, my vision of having Patreon is vague at the moment. I'm planning to open it after creating a community here. Although the vision is vague, I'm trying step by step to create a system which will help me turn Patreon as useful for the community as it is supposed to be for me.

A super interesting perspective thank you! I was considering starting Patreon but I struggle to keep up with it as well as my paid work. Thank you.

Your patreon was one of the few I felt worth paying for. Sad that it’s gone …

The idea of Patreon sounds great, but i honestly find more value from places like Skillshare, because you can pay yearly and you get a wide variety of very good content. As much as i would love to support an artist that i look up to or want to learn from, having the ability to pay for a subscription that includes a huge library, many different artists and many different topics is a much better deal for me, and it just makes sense. Artists i like i'd rather support by buying anything they're selling that i like or watching their classes since i assume they are well paid for them.

Oh cool...I will for sure buy your classes when you come to Domestika!! I love it a lot more then skill share.

Hi such an honest video, thanks for sharing your experience. I found you recently on instagram...such a shame that I missed your patreon resources, they sound exactly what a new creator would need. How do I get those videos?

This was such a nice video to watch. Too often I see videos tearing the company down.

It just didn’t work for you and what your audience wanted, and I think it’s great you’ll be offering classes outside of patreon. A lot of artists I listen to on podcasts do just that, it can be a lot of work, but it’s a great way to educate people and teach them different skills based on what you already know. It often becomes their primary source of income too and supplements lulls when demand for their work is slower.

For me, I found your videos about print and print production the most helpful and I think even the most experienced artists are curious about what other creatives are doing. I’ve been illustrating for years and always find myself learning something new or a better way to do it.

I think if you already built classes for your old patreon you could rework them as additional classes for what you want to offer. Maybe like a beginner, intermediate and advanced section. Advanced can be business and freelancing and tax tips or something. All is extremely important, but I think many want to find ways to start illustrating and then tips on how to get better at it.

Something you could do too is to have a private discord server that people who attend your classes could go to, so they can help each other and it might even open up admin spaces for attendees who are more advanced to help beginner level artists.

I also know many artists use platforms like Gumroad to sell custom brush packs and other things, it seems that if people just want a one time thing from you, you could offer your custom stuff on there too. I know you’re not the first to say this either, other artists that I watch were struggling with people paying for the month getting some stickers, art or whatever and then leaving.

The pressure you talk about is something I do not want and don’t have time for, so whenever I hear people tell me to make a patreon I really don’t want to. You stretch yourself too thin with the demands of everything, I’d rather work on making passive income I don’t have to worry about once it’s uploaded (like digital downloads) and then put my actual time into my work and other projects.

Great insight and video. For what it’s worth partly why I watch your videos (and now your husband’s) is to know more about the business side of illustration and making a career as a creator.

Thank you for this video! I am very excited for the illustration class you have planned :)

I know, off-topic, but how do you save your data? Only with ext. HD's or do you have a cloud-solution? What do you recommend for illustrators/designers?

We Can't be all on Patreon. People have a limit to how much content they can consume, especially if they have to pay for it. As you said, this business model does not work dor everyone.

Thank you for your honesty…love your work 💕

Don't apologize for the sun! The sun needs to take responsibility for its own behavior.

But you clearly point out the curse of the modern freelance economy…. There's just too many social media platforms for one person to manage effectively. Back in the day, when design was done at the big design houses, there were whole departments who dealt with the media. Now, you're on your own.

I swear to myself whenever a new "popular platform" opens up.

Love the fact that you're the most honest about this that I've seen.

Just wanted to say that I love your newsletter! :) Thank you!

Good to see and hear you Asia 😊 I was waiting for bunch of new inspiration from you ❤

This was very helpful. It’s all the reasons I am hesitant to start a patreon!

I do hope Patreon finds a way to help the creators starting up, like a featured channel and promoting Patreon pages for free, adding more promo tools 🤔

That sounds like people don't care about you nor the art. Thank you for being open because I feel this is what people don't talk about as much. Its sad that people are determined to not support something they like or find helpful.

Ooo yay! I started a patreon and don’t know how to market it for more people since I don’t have a huge audience so I’m excited to watch this to get some tips about Patreon! ☺️