How To Easily Share Content On Patreon With Pinata
Ad free, no size limits, and no login
The creator economy is booming. With Twitter, Facebook, Substack, and others creating platforms for creators in recent months, Patreon has become the old guard in this space. Founded in 2013, Patreon now has over 6 million active users. It’s the first place creators think of when deciding to release their work directly to their fans
However, creators struggle to manage the content that they release to their fans. Many subscription creators today are forced to use Youtube videos with ads, struggle with file size limits, and find themselves forcing their fans to login across multiple content platforms. We’ve written about these problems before as they relate to NFTs but the same problems exist no matter where you want to monetize your content as a creator. So, today we’re going to cover how to leverage Pinata to easily manage your content on Patreon.
First, you’ll need to sign up for a free Pinata account. Pinata provides a simple file explorer called the Pin Manager. You can access that here. You’ll notice that if you just created your account, it’s empty. However, you can add files such as video, audio, 3D files, and more easily through the Pin Manager. Whatever type of content creator you are, Pinata can help you.
To upload a file, simply click the Upload button as highlighted by the arrow above.
Then, select to upload by Folder, File or CID.
From here, click to upload and select a file from your computer. Once selected, click upload.
Once uploaded, click the name of the file to view. It will open in a new tab as shown below. This will be the view your fans will have of your content. This is also where you will copy the link to the content to paste into Patreon later in this post.
The last part of the URL (the part that starts with Qm...) is called the content identifier (CID). This is how subscribers will know the content they get from you is original and has not been tampered with. For example, you upload a video to YouTube and that video file is compressed, edited, and often, ads are layered in. It’s not your content in its purest form, the way fans should experience it. With Pinata, what you upload is exactly what’s displayed back to people. Anyone with the CID can verify the content they are viewing is the content you created. You can trust the CID rather than having to trust the provider of the content.
Next, you’ll need to create a Patreon account or log into your existing account.
To share what you just uploaded to Pinata with your fans, you’ll need to create a new post on Patreon. Choose the “Link” option as highlighted by the arrow below.
When you choose the “Link” option, you’ll be able to paste the link to your content you copied earlier from Pinata while also including a headline and some additional post content.
As you can see, I posted my Pinata link and Patreon was able to expand that into an embedded preview. This won’t happen with all content such as 3D files, for instance. Additionally, I added a title and some context. Finally, I set the post to be for Patrons only.
Now, when I publish my post on Patreon, it will be made available to all my fans. Anyone who is not a fan will see this screen:
For those who are fans, they’ll be able to access the content I linked to from the Pinata link directly. They will not have to worry about ads being inserted, log in requirements for platforms like Dropbox, or any sort of additional branding wrapped around the content I created.
At the end of the day, you want to control your content and your distribution. Patreon gives you the distribution and monetization tools. Pinata gives you content control.
Happy Pinning!
