I answered this, but the answer area is apparently not very large. (I'm still kind of befuddled by tumblr, please forgive me.) I started a Patreon account this week for a couple of reasons -
- there are fans out there who want to support the work of their favorite artists, and I think this is a good way to make it easy for them to do so without relying on one-time donations or complicated kickstarters.ย
- the question of how to get micropayments to work has always been a tricky one, but it seems to me that people get how Patreon operates - it makes a sort of intuitive sense and seems fair, which I think is how it's become more popular fairly quickly.
- I've never really made money off of my drawings and sure, I would like to!ย
- Patreon takes, I think, 8% - don't quote me on that - and it's not like creators have to pay any sort of up-front fee or give up a large amount of what they've been pledged.
- So it doesn't take too much before it becomes worthwhile to you. If 10 people pledge $1 per creation and you make four creations a month, well, heck, that's not bad at all. The cost to you is creating the Patreon page and making time for whatever rewards and goals you've set up.
- more financial support leads to more creative works, which leads to more people finding your work, which hopefully leads to even more support...
- its intuitive sense, promise of reward and low barrier to entry means that everyone will be doing it. So while it seems optional now, after a while it may feel like something you have to do just not to lose out.ย
- fulfilling rewards and goals could end up taking more time than the creator envisioned and wind up not making financial sense.ย
- I find that the Patreon interface isn't polished yet - for example, you can't schedule posts, and some of the terminology (what was meant by creations versus what was meant by activity) was a little confusing at first.
- it encourages optimism, which I suppose could be a pro or a con! I don't know anything about your traffic or fan base - you may get enough to cut down your hours at work, or you might not. I am treating anything that comes from mine as a happy surprise.
When I was putting together my Patreon page, I looked at these examples:
http://www.patreon.com/erikamoen
http://www.patreon.com/PartyPrincess
http://www.patreon.com/tinycartridge
http://www.patreon.com/newdisruptors