I saw a video on youtube today and the guy who’s channel it was said at the end that he had a ‘patron of the month’. I thought this might be a good idea! BUT then I wondered a) how does one choose a patron of the month and b) what qualifies someone? Do they have to be paying a certain amount or should it be just any paying patron?
Earlier this year I did a pledge drive which was very successful and I want to maybe do another but don’t want to do yet another enamel pin. Any artists here got any ideas of what to do for something like that that isn’t a pin? Would love to throw some ideas around with you guys.
Currently I have physical rewards (originals and prints and enamel pins till they run out), but also video rewards, 5 and up get time lapses but 10 and up get full video with me showing how i’ve painted a piece. I’ve also just hit a goal which was 850 and now that i’ve reached that I will be doing live hangouts Q&A with everyone once a month. First month will be for all patrons but going forward it will be 10 and up.
I probably have enough, but i’m just always trying to think of ways to encourage more folks to join and making it more interesting. I’m now living off my patreon income so I dedicate all my time to it.
Anyway, I’d be interested to know what you guys think!
Hi Emily! Anna from the Creator Success team at Patreon here What great questions!
Regarding choosing a ‘patron of the month’, I would suggest a combination of criteria. Which patrons are chiming in on your posts, and boosting engagement with your Patreon page? Who made you laugh recently, or gave you heartwarming feedback on your work? This criteria is up to you! It would be a good idea to feature a paying patron who contributes to your community; hi-lighting them as the PotM will make them smile, and hopefully encourage other followers on your page to become patrons of your work.
I took a look at your awards and benefit tiers–when I wasn’t gazing at your gorgeous beasts and fantastical beings!–and I had a fun idea. What if you offered some of your patrons the opportunity to help you design your next extraordinary creature as a reward? It could be as simple as making a paid post calling for comments describing elements of the creature, and you taking full creative license to deliver a whole new being to that tier of patrons. You could even make paid posts on that tier with ‘sneak peaks’ of the work in progress shots, and crop snippets of the image and make public ‘teaser’ posts to intrigue new potential patrons who are following your feed.
The only worry I have with arbitrarily choosing the POTM myself is that it might end up being the same person each month. There are already a couple of patrons who are AWESOME and they always comment and always say amazing things. Repeat ‘offenders’ as it were! I don’t know, I’m thinking of sending a gift to the POTM too so i’m thinking maybe it should be more fair rather than it ending up only being the handful of people who are really active y’know?
People already sort of help with beast design - at least with naming them and things like that. Do you mean as a reward in itself where essentially that person would pay X amount for that month to design a creature with me?
Hi again! Those are all good points regarding POTM selection. Maybe announce that you will begin the hunt for a patron to feature each season, and reward that person with a gift in exchange for post engagement? That way, you’d be featuring 4 patrons per year, instead of 12.
Regarding beast design as a reward, sure! If you have time to fulfill that. I was thinking more along the lines of taking input from a certain tier of your patrons, only, and making that tier of people a beast just for them.
What great questions!