Welcome back to my channel today I want
to talk about 'how to Patron as an artist'
this is the second video if you're
interested in watching the previous
video click on the link in the
description. Today I will talk about what
kind of rewards you can give to your
fans so that you can attract them retain
them and earn more money on Patreon
So you can support yourself as artists
In the process of setting up our own
Patreon account I did research all kind of
possibilities what can you offer to your
fans this is a very interesting and
important matter because it works like
this: in any other social media they can
consume your art they can talk to you
they can interact with your community
and other fans for free. This time you're
asking them to pay, right? So you really
need to give them really good reasons
and give them the attention and keep
them the perks that they feel is worth
well to pay and commit every single
month to support you, to make your
dream come true
I mean having other people paying for
your dreams this is the ultimate
dream come true. So you need to give back
the equivalent of what you think you're
receiving to make it fair, otherwise they
will find out that: hey you know like
you're not reacting you're not giving
them attention so why keep paying right?
you're not giving enough incentives
I'm going to give you some examples and
the different kind of categories
what kind of rewards you can offer to
your fans there's no golden rule for
every artist is different because you
attract different kind of people
different fans so you have to pick out
what are the best for you and what makes
sense. I hope this video can help you
choose quickly what kind of things
are right for you
Number 1 physical rewards
who doesn't love gifts, gifts are like
totally the best thing you could give to
someone on a special ocasion
it could be birthdays anniversary
and like, life and death everything
is celebrated through gifts I
think that in every country every
culture there is a gift economy so your
fans would love to receive some
personalized gifts like physical objects
and they can collect and you can show
off to their friends to say: hey
I support this really cool artist and
look what I get this month! You can
decide to send every month or every
quarter or every year is up to you also
depending on how much they pledged you
can decide okay for $5 its postcard
every season, for $50 is a poster every month
you are the boss in this case and you
decide what makes sense and they can
give you feedbacks but you are the one
who have to fulfill the order so you
have to make it realistic and make sure
that you're okay doing it and they are
okay I'll give you some examples
postcards art prints art merchandising
like t-shirts and mugs sketches original
works of art it only makes sense if your
fans are close to you like in the same
region or same country otherwise there
are a lot of logistic problems and for
example can be with the clearance with
the 'aduana' the customs that they say hey
you know you're sending valuable items
you need to pay taxes on that so your
fans or you have to do this custom
duties and can be like complicated it
can be costly and also time-consuming
finally it may be not worth it to send
through internationally also the postage
can be very high just last week I sent
something to the UK from Spain which is
literally across the sea if not across
the land if you count Gibraltar
For a small package under 2KG they
charged me like $30 and I have to say
that for the distance is it's kind of
ridiculous but this is what it is. If
you're sending internationally it can be
very complicated or more complicated
than you think. The second thing is that
it produces a lot of carbon footprint if
you're environmental conscious if you are
just a normal conscious human being
maybe you're thinking hey like I'm
spending money and making products I'm
making emission and maybe they don't even
get this product because it can be
damaged or lost on the way, is that worth
it right? On top of that if you're
sending original works of art the
insurance is an issue you don't want to
spend too much on special insurance to
move that original works of art but if
you don't insurance it, then if
it's lost who bears the cost? So all
these issues you need to take into
consideration before offering them the
things because one day if you change too
much and they will be like hey this is
not something I sign up for I'm not
gonna continue pledging for this artists
so you need to think about. The next
thing you can consider is to give
something digitally you don't need to
spend to produce the things and you
don't need to spend on postage wherever
they are in the world and how many fans
however many they are you can prove you
the others within a click, and this is
very handy and you are having almost no
carbon emission in this case totally I would
say if you are digital artist visual
artists do digital rewards instead
It can be a very interesting thing and it
can be even more interesting to your
fans depending what kind of things you
offer I will give you some examples high
resolution images PDFs time-lapse videos
tutorials layered PSD files podcasts
behind-the-scene videos. It can be really
literally anything you can think of
there are some problems though like if
you give a manipulatable project file or
template to your fans maybe they will
use it or their friends can have access
to it and they can use it in a way that
you don't want so it can be a copyright
infringement so you need to be extra
careful who the files you give to and
what kind of protections you give on the
file you can have a lock on the PDF not
to have a printing or manipulation you
have to think before just letting any
other person access your files it could
be another thing is that you need to
remove the access from any other social
media so that you can make it special
for your patrons like previously maybe
you're posting things on YouTube
but you want to make behind-the-scene
videos exclusive for Patrons so you have
to kind of not posting it on Facebook
or YouTube anymore
so you keep it just for your patrons
then it comes to a different issue is
that if you promise to make those videos
for your fans and then you have only
maybe one or two person pledging that
it's particularly here for the
behind-the-scene videos or
private messages videos that
means you have to produce that just for
that two people is that worth it if you
don't produce it then you are eating
your own words it's not very nice for
the credibility so it's kind of a sank
cost of time if you have too few fans on
the opposite side if you have too many
fans then this is totally the positive
thing so the scalability is a sword
with two blades. The next thing is kind
of a hack it's very interesting that
right now we are thinking to do and we
are doing it on our Patreon currently is
to give time. Time is the most valuable
resource you have because every single
moment you have will never have again
and every single day towards the end of
your life, like it's not gonna be repeated
So if you're giving your time
to your fans this is really giving
something special and you had deepening
the community you are like you know
widening it you are like the whole point
of being on Patreon is to be able to make
that bond with your fans on a whole new
level, so spending time with them is
totally the way to do it I know that
Patreon is not intended to be a platform
for exchange of time for money like you
know coaching or tutoring or like any
kind of consulting is not intended for
that but I think this hack is not a bad
way this is also very good for your
public image because you're showing that
you are spending time with your fans it
shows that you actually care about your
face I will give you some examples on
how you can spend time one-on-one
coaching video streaming video call
voice call group call Meetup it can be a
physical meetup with your fans in a
space or in the event of your choice it
can be also very interesting to meet
your fans in a fair or in the show there
are some problems though like it's not
super scalable obviously because you
have only 24 hours a day if you spend
too much time doing this you're not
gonna have time for creating art for
spending time with your family or like
later just like you know to meditate
even to meditate to sleep you need time
Eventually if you're doing too much
of this kind of you know spending time
saying with your fans
you can have a burn out and then it's
another issue on top of that if you are
a very attractive female or male I mean
I don't want to be sexist in this case
if you're attractive young person and
your art is somehow risque you can
project image of you exchanging your
time for some kind of you know um adult
content service it can be misleading
so if you're not doing that you have to
make sure that you emphasize on your
Patreon on that you are not doing you
know home cam saying what you are doing
like group call private call, it's for you
know intellectuals for like you know art
and discussion only you should make that
clear otherwise it's like the PR is
against you like people can
misunderstood you and you can't feel
like totally upset with the situation
Last but not the least there's another
thing very interesting as a reward that
is the privilege and honor usually
people pledge for one dollar one dollar
two dollars five dollars only how much
you can buy with just $1 almost nothing
okay like you can buy something like for
example I just bought this slice of
pizza for 1, I mean actually 1,20 I mean
like you can buy things but it's not
enough to produce something special for
your fans just with 1 dollar in this
case sorry I shouldn't talk with food in
my mouth but let me finish this you can
just say a big thank you and the list
their names on your projects to say that
you are supported by your fans and
that's cool like you don't actually need
to give anything digital or physical in
return to have them supporting you but
you do need to acknowledge their support
because otherwise why they're supporting
you right like they can just follow you
on Instagram so you do need to make that
distinction I'll give you some examples
on what kind of honorary gifts that you
can give: mention on your websites
mention on your social media follow
their social media, rolling credits
early access to certain content
access to historic content
invited to your art shows or
their names appear on your art book or
on your website there's some problems
though like if they are just ordinary
people or individuals that's great but
maybe they represent a certain religion
company belief or certain kind of
political standing point and by
mentioning them and by giving them shout
out and big hugs and thank-yous it can
be against your personal beliefs or
interests so it's not always that's
comfortable for you to acknowledge their
support their presence their relation to
you like out loud and open it can also
be some technical issues like if you say
I'll put your link on my website maybe
their links are from a website of very
weak domain Authority and it's gonna
actually hurt the performance of your
website and also it could be like a
hundred supporters and you don't have a
space to write a hundred names and
hundred links so there are some
technical and emotional problems related
to giving honors like acknowledging the
association with your fans it's up to
you maybe you can always like play with
the possibility of you know giving that
credit giving that honorary mention of
your book but not like promising it
there's no magic formula and there's no
guarantee in how you can set up you can
just play with it and there's always
learning curve through trials and fails
I would totally encourage you to see
other artists how they're doing it and
maybe you click on our Patreon to see
how we do it I know that it's not
perfect but we always try and improve
and we choose the model of spending time
mainly because we love spending time
with our fans and I think it's a mutual
learning process we're not just spending
time to tell others what to do because
then we can just have an eCourse ebook I
mean that serve the purpose but the fact
that we see how artists perform what
kind of struggles they have I think is a
valuable experience and asset to us to
know their stories too so I think in
this case
it's win-win and we would love to
spend time anyway and currently we don't
have so many fans we have just over
50,000 on our Instagram so it's totally
okay for us for the moment or maybe in
the future when we have a lot more fans
and more demands and we have to switch
to other kind of rewards different tiers
and for the moment we try and we see how
it goes if you have any questions
regarding the rewards and Patreon let
me know in a comment below I would love
to hear from you
thank you very much for listening to me
and see you in the next video
