Hello team!
I’ll clear the air and say it: our new creator experience could use a lot of work.
The Growth Team is doing research on how to help creators understand everything from whether patreon is even for them all the way to what the heck do I fill out here and why?
I’ll stop talking and let you all take it from here - lay it on me! Be brutal. We want to make it great.
Thank you in advance,
Tal
Growth Team
Here’s one, then: I had no idea that people could follow you without being a patron. I continued to not realize this even though there was a difference between posting to the ‘public’, ‘all my patrons’, and then ‘my $1+ patrons’. (Clarifying what each of those things does would be great, since apparently dopey people like me can miss the distinctions).
Having discovered this, I can’t figure out how to measure the number of followers versus patrons.It’s not on the dashboard anywhere.
I still don’t really know what the Community tab is for or how to use it.
I know it’s basically a wall for people to post stuff on it, but I only have a few patrons at the moment and I don’t think any of them know what to do with it, either.
The differences between rewards and milestones was confusing for me AND my patrons. I figured it out pretty quickly, but I still have to explain it to folks all the time.
Understanding how patrons experience the page has been super frustrating. A “View as Patron” setting, including the checkout process, would be really helpful - I still have to search up and down for answers for my Patrons about things they see that I can’t.
A lot of stuff has changed since I started, and most of what I remember having issues with seem to be fixed. And the “Get Patrons” flow at the top is kind of amazing. Expanding that into step-by-step videos of setting up your page would take it up a notch. (For instance, on the “Your First Post” page, it could have a video showing how to post, how to limit who sees a post, and how to use tags.)
I see a lot of new Patreon creators gettin’ tripped up on the rewards, thinkin’ they are offering a product for pay and not really understanding how a patronage works. I know when I first started I felt like I had to produce X amount of content and lots of physical rewards and it took my time away from my art just to fulfill the rewards. My patrons got it more than I did (though I still have one who thinks I’m going to make a realistic painting for $1 even though I do comic/manga style art and don’t do dollar requests…). It slowly sank in that they are supporting me so I can do MY art, not so they could get a thing. I think it needs to be made more clear what kind of rewards to give that won’t take away from what the creator is tryin’ to do: early access, WIP, special livestream access, behind the scenes stuff, etc.
There also needs to be some info on how to do a soft open, social proof, and why it’s important to have some consistency updating and regular promoting. I think a lot of people see a big name with a Patreon page and go into it thinkin’ it’s an all or nothing thing. I have seen MANY artists start up a Patreon, share it one time, post a few times throughout the first month, and then abandon it when it’s not an overnight success. They don’t seem to understand it’s a thing you have to build over time. My concern is how this makes Patreon look as a platform. Maybe there could be a series of reminders and tips newsletters that go out to new creators that adds a few new actions each week for them to incorporate into their practice.
Thank you. Definitely get what you mean. And this coheres with what we’ve heard from other creators!
Wow thank you! Both your feedback about the preview as well as the Get Patrons part goes to the same awesome engineer, Andy - and sending this to him right now! He is a creator himself and super passionate about both areas.
Thank you thank you thank you! And sorry for the delay getting back to this thread.
Re: Rewards - Oh my god yessssssss. We are realizing that’s a huge pattern and working on that this very week. What you stated is EXACTLY our hypothesis. Spot on.
Re: Education Absolutely. We think about this but we are far from a clear solution - we’re definitely not the greatest at setting expectations for creators on how to incubate their page. @ellie recently took charge of this and i want her to see your comment - this is very big on her mind.
I know this topic is a bit old, but my team is fairly new to Patreon, and I definitely see what @Lochy and @kenna mean, but it’s not really a bad thing, Patreon is GROWING FAST, and I respect everything that this community has done and will do.
First off, I just want to say I absolutely LOVE how your team has set this community up. Without even being apart of it until recently, we setup our team to operate the exact same way. We THRIVE off of great feedback, community involvement, and the hope that people from all over the world can come together as one to make something beautiful. It’s the simple things that you guys have nailed and it will only get better with time as you continue to freely ask for feedback like this.
@teamradious is a great example of what they are talking about. We have to be careful not to “sell” content, so we are taking a more long-term approach and for now only offering 1, $1 reward tier so that way all our game-related content remains free, and no one who pays more has access to special content, at least anything to do with specific game content. We have over 14 years of combine experience in our field, and we have the potential to build a community that may span over 10s of thousands of Patrons and already connected with at least 1 million people who play our mods daily. We both respond to well over 30 comments a day, and many times close to 100.
One idea I thought of - When sharing posts, the standard description says it’s a community of artists etc, which I love. But I think Patreon has already built that image which is why we are here now. Patreon has excellent news feed and more than enough success stories to be a huge player in the future of the digital work place. Maybe it is time to rotate the standard message people see like:
“Support your artist, sign up for free and follow them into their home.”
“Patreon is always free to sign up and follow your artists, and if you enjoy it so much, you can support them at a whole new level!”
“Want to follow this artist? Sign up quickly and for free with Facebook (or whatever) to start following them!”
“Or just whatever is clever,” I love how Patreon has different phrases each time I post to remind me to keep an open mind. It just may build some excitement, after all we are creators, so let’s show the community more about us, as people, like them, finding their dreams.
The second idea I had would be making the FAQs (help center) front and center. Maybe add it to the top menu, advertise clearly for all new creators as well as when people first subscribe to a creator and/or first login. Maybe not like in-your-face style but a little nudge for people 
Based on what I have seen, there are a lot of creators who make a section just to answer basic Patreon questions. Patreon has a wealth of knowledge if you know what you are looking for, but there may be a way to capture some of the more uncommon FAQs. Assuming that the dev team has access to all posts, they might be able to write a script that can capture all posts/sections labeled as “FAQs” or “Frequently Asked Questions”, compile them into a list, then its good ole’ fashioned research, editing, and publishing. This would also be a great way for the staff to learn more about it’s creators, their desires, their Patron’s desires, and community desires.
After days upon days of setup of @teamradious I have to completely agree that this venture, for a majority of new creators, is not light-hearted. Especially creators who avoid social media more than not - a poll might help understand this more, how active all creators are on various social media weighted by amount of time on Patreon, number of posts/week, and income per creation and/or per month.
Overall, Patreon requires hardcore dedication, follow-up, timeliness, and passion to be successful, and I think that this will show through a creator’s quality of content and social media interaction which is the foundation of Patreon IMO. There are a lot of tools to help people succeed already, and I really enjoyed receiving the first wave of emails to help keep me in the game, motivated, and learn new things.
Here is to hardcore passion /cheers! Oh that’s another good idea! "/’ emoticons! Nothing beats playing wow, 100+ man raid, and everyone /train-ing at the same time. GG
Really like these suggestions! I’ve highlighted multiple passages from this and sharing with the relevant teams (growth, help center, etc) Thank you for the kind words!!! So much ahead to do.
@Tal - Thank you so much for the opportunity! If it’s anything like our community, you’ve got yourselves a great way to get ideas and share thoughts here