I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I can see the whole transparency thing (it was also really encouraging seeing this platform working for others), but, on the other hand, I also feel it’s very personal information that I’m not entirely comfortable showing right now. Of course, that might also be because I feel a little embarrassed only having 1 patron right now (just got my first last week after over a year of having my page!). It’s felt really weird writing posts (especially Patron-only posts), with no patrons 
.
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I average around 500 patrons on any given month. I bring in around 10k, after patreon’s cut. I do hide my income because I find that it creates competitive energies and thought patterns amongst the spiritual community. In a spiritual community there is a rather horrendous stigma that goes around concerning spiritual teachers and how much money they earn. I’m a widowed Mom of four beautiful kids, and I’m quite proud that patreon provides almost half of our income monthly.
Yet in the spiritual communities, patrons get upset to learn that a spiritual teacher or creator actually makes money. Therefore, yes I do hide my income.
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Roxy, yes this is one of my concerns as well. In spiritual communities it’s expected that we remain broke. 
Also, people do not consider that we may have employees, subcontractors, etc. I have a paid operations manager, graphic artist, research coordinator and customer service assistant. All of it adds up, and for some unusual reason my patrons don’t perceive this end of things very accurately.
Thank you all for providing your thoughtful feedback! It’s interesting to see why some creators choose to show or choose to hide their Patreon earnings. But regardless, it’s a decision each creator makes for themselves.
I just wanted to drop this help article reminder for anyone who wanted to change their show/hide earnings settings:
Keep your thoughts coming! These threads are so helpful for new creators.
I recently decided to hide both my earnings and patronage, just to see how it would effect things. I’ve had them public since I made my account, but I’ve been floating around the same numbers with no improvement.
While I know there are many factors involved in stagnation like this, I’m just curious to see what will happen.
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The easter you go on the globe, more sensitive people are about earnings. Here in Hungary (middle-eastern europe) asking about salary is very rude. And as I grew up here too, seeing somebody’s earnings can be discouraging for me. (even if I like the artist and their work)
So all in all, It’s worth knowing your audience, and adjusting your patreon a bit to them. If your audience is from eastern or middle Europe etc, It’s worth hiding your earnings.
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I tend to have both public and private posts - I currently don’t have any patreons; but I do public posts so that any newcomers looking at my page can see what posts I’ve done so far as well as get to know me. 
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I do that too 
. I’m trying to grow my non-patron following with hopes that I can convert followers to patrons. I see a lot of creators with only patron-only posts, but, personally, I think it’s a good idea to have both public and private content. Gives people a little sample of what you do to hopefully encourage them to support you.