Patreon: What It Is, How It Works And How To Support Your Favorite Creators

We will explain what Patreon is and how it works, in addition to explaining in a simple way how to support your favorite creators with this website. It is a platform designed for creators and their followers that has spent years trying to take the philosophy started by crowdfunding to finance people or personal projects completely vertically and without intermediaries.

We are going to start by explaining what exactly Patreon is and what its main features are. Then, we will quickly explain the process to subscribe as a patron in the profile of one of the creators you want.

What is Patreon?

Patreon is a crowdfunding system in which, as a user, you can donate a monthly amount of money to your favorite creators to support them and allow them to continue doing what you like them to do. Thanks to this platform and other similar ones, bloggers, YouTubers, writers, artists, interpreters, and wide etcetera can ask the Internet for contributions to sustain their project and their dedication.

The origin of Patreon dates back to 2013 in San Francisco. There, a little-known musician named Jack Conte sought a way to make a living from his music without going through traditional channels. In doing so, he realized there were no standardized mechanisms for instantly donating money to creators you like on the Internet, and Patreon began to take shape.

For creators, Patreon is a method to seek to obtain additional payment for the creations you are already making. Users can pay monthly fees for each post to finance you with a fixed monthly amount or for each new work you create.

Let’s say that you are a musician, dedicate yourself to creating webcomics, or are a YouTuber. In general, you would need payments from the platforms you publish your content to finance yourself and continue working on what you like. But with this method, your fans will provide you with that money with a platform where you will know how much you will be able to get monthly, and thus you can organize yourself better.

And if you are a patron, with this platform, you can show your support for the creators you like the most. This will give you access to the creator’s Patreon profile, where they can post exclusive articles and content for their patrons to thank them for their support. This website is not just a payment method but also allows you to create a whole community around each artist.

Here, as usually happens on these platforms, each creator can customize their Patreon page in the way that best suits them, establishing the quotas and methods they want depending on how they see their followers act. The platform only serves as an intermediary for direct communication between the creator and fans.

How Patreon works

You can think of Patreon as something similar to Kickstarter but with a few differences. While crowdfunding platforms are used to finance a creator’s specific project, Patreon is used to directly finance the creator with all the projects they carry out, not just with a specific one.

But just like in crowdfunding pages, each creator can establish different payment quotas, each with certain advantages; for example, he can establish a minimum quota of 1 euro per month but then create others of 10, 50, or whatever amounts he wants. Depending on the quota you subscribe to, you can access certain special content or even obtain some kind of gift or demonstration of friendship from the artist.

To get started, a creator has to create an account in the port and fill in their details. In this registration process, he must choose if he wants to earn monthly income or by creation. After signing up and setting up the account, the artist must also write an introduction to their profile, explaining to future patrons what they do and how they want their Patreon page to work.

Next, the artist can create a series of payment options called membership levels, assigning advantages or rewards to each to encourage their patrons. For example, with the lower monthly fees, he can simply give access to the final results. Still, in exchange for paying higher fees, he can give access to previous work, sketches or models, and other types of advantages that he deems appropriate. The idea is that the rewards increase according to the contributed money.

In addition, creators can also set total monthly cashout goals. For example, in exchange for obtaining a certain monthly payment from all your employers, you can commit to certain actions you think your followers may be interested in.

How to Become a Patron of a Creator