Blathering on because I’ve been fascinated with Patreon this year and have been doing a lot of thinking about this.

I think it helps if you have specific categories of things that you’re doing. For example, political blog posts might be one thing. Movie reviews might be another. Q&A is something that works well for Patreon. If you’re even remotely comfortable in front of a video camera, making videos that are exclusive for supporters is a nice perk. Artists use things like Picarta to stream their creative process live (we can watch just the Photoshop with a music stream, for example), bloggers/vloggers might do early release of videos and live-streams of the editing process or just live vlogging.

One writer I’m following puts out an exclusive short story once a month, people at higher reward levels might get those in a chapbook, for example, but she limits the number of chapbooks for her sanity.

I prefer to support at a consistent level once a month for people who are putting out content at least once a month. It’s nice getting a first look at something new. I find process blogs and livestreams more relevant in areas where I am also creative, because it’s good to see how others do their stuff.

Milestones can be process-oriented like, “At 1000 per month I will publish content once a week, at 2000 per month I will publish twice a week” or they can be results oriented, like, “1000 per month will allow me to cut back my work hours. 4000 per month will let me quit my day job completely. 6000 per month will let me stick it to The Man. 10000 per month and I will donate 1000 per month to [insert charity of choice].”

Whatever your rewards, they need to be proportional and manageable for you. Don’t promise t-shirts to everyone every month, that kind of thing. I’d avoid things you have to mail, or things that produce significant extra stress. (Like, for me, writing, even writing “live” and letting people watch while I do it, is not stressful. Committing to do X things per week would be. Getting on video on a regular basis fills me with anxiety. That kind of thing. Other people find video easy and would literally never want anyone watching them write or draw.)

The critical factor for success with non-tangibles, IMO, is engagement. I was sort of so-so on the idea of watching someone draw…except that the program allows fans to chat with each other while it’s going on, and since everyone there is paying money into being part of the experience and you have to sign in, the number of trolls has been zero. There are other ways to engage with the fans for free, but livestreams (for example) are a focused, unique opportunity and a lot of fun.

I have a fair amount of social anxiety, but text-only chat for me is like a pleasant conversation I can easily sit back from without having to hide in the bathroom. And there is something really satisfying with engaging with people who are invested in you. Even a dollar per month filters out a lot of people who might otherwise troll because it’s easy, and there are a lot of mod options at Patreon.