Should I grow my initial following before I start a Patreon page, or after?
I believe I have an interesting story to tell and great content that I can provide to the masses. But I'm wondering if I need to start by telling the story on YouTube or TikTok and bring it over to Patreon? Or should I start from scratch on Patreon and just promote it around?
Help needed!!
Answers ( 2 )
Grow your fan base first. You need to have an audience to have any hope for success on Patreon.
For every site that advises how to be a success on Patreon, the advice is - have an existing audience.
From what I've observed on the site, and knowing a few users who did go to Patreon, they weren't able to build an audience there. And frankly, its really sad to see someone on Patreon building content with no one there to use it. It's an enterprise on Patreon - people don't necessarily go looking to Patreon for information they want, they look elsewhere. They come to Patreon to take advantage of something they already know and admire, enjoy, want more of. They come to Patreon because they know the quality of the content they can receive. They know the benefit, know that paying a very small fee will give them what they expect, there's a perceived value in following someone you benefit from. It is hard for anyone, even for a few dollars, to pay for something they know nothing about - they aren't looking for you on Patreon, but if they've found you elsewhere, then they may follow you there, and pay for the benefit they receive.
There's a case to be made for either method.
Patreon encourages you to use their tools to build your following and they offer ways to share your content from Patreon through social channels. The major drawback with creating on Patreon directly is your lack of control of your content. If they undergo one of their period bouts of conscience and find your work too hot to handle, there it all goes...poof. And if you create a Patreon and you have no one supporting it, it looks sad. Sad Patreons don't get new supporters.
Like miost successful Patreon creators, I had a following first, then made the Patreon as a way for my already engaged audience to be able to contribute to my success. Top Patreons tend to be people and media that had large following audiences first. They use Patreon as a tool to connect to those audiences and focus their support toward specific goals. Building you audicne also functions as proof of concept - if you can get and maintain an audience, then when you give them a chance to support you, you can be confident that at least some of them will. A big launch mans your number is sustainable right from the beginning and a sustainabl Patreon is easier to grow.