7 Patreon Ideas For Artists Looking To Earn Extra Money In 2024

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How To Make A Consistent Income Using These Patreon Ideas For Artists

Every artist needs to make money, but earning an income from your art is notoriously hard for the majority of creatives. Luckily, there’s a few different methods out there, including selling and licensing your work. However, is that enough to sustain both your life and practice? This is where our Patreon ideas for artists come into play.

Well, as the online world becomes increasingly important to artists; many are taking to the site Patreon for their monetary needs, and it seems to be working. Read on to discover some great Patreon ideas for artists ready to embark on the platform.

What is Patreon?

Patreon is an online platform that allows fans and followers to access their favourite creator’s content behind a varying subscription fee. The idea is that patrons are rewarded with special content whilst financially supporting the individual who made it. The site is fairly accessible too, with different tiers all set at their own pricing levels. The more a member pays – the more premium content they’ll have access to.

This kind of business can be known as passive income, something that is becoming increasingly popular with artists. If you monetise multiple different passive avenues, then it frees up your time for actual art making.

Is Patreon good for artists?

A whole host of ‘creators’ use the site; in fact there’s currently over 200,000 individuals covering domains such as videography, writing, art, influencing, podcasting and music. But is Patreon good for visual artists?

In short, the answer is yes. Patreon’s popularity is increasing and with this, many artists and creators are said to have been discovered on the site by an entirely new fanbase. So not only does the platform offer a space for your most dedicated followers – it also pulls in new ones. Its rise in users also marks a decline in user satisfaction with Instagram, once the site that artists found huge success on. With all these creators signing up – there’s never been more Patreon ideas for artists to start implementing.

Although artists are still selling on Instagram, Patreon is good for artists as it offers another stream of income that isn’t reliant on a somewhat ‘biased’ algorithm. Patreon supports creators of any size, helping them push their practice further.

How do I create a Patreon for art?

Firstly, you’ll need a Patreon account

It’s simple to sign up, just enter an email address you can access or use a preexisting Facebook or Google account. You’ll also be greeted by prompts to add content categories and age restrictions if necessary.

Build your Patreon profile

Next, you’ll need to add several parts to customise your page, like a profile photo. If you already have an Instagram account, you could use the same image so your fans easily recognise you. There’s also space for a short, snappy line beneath this photo, which summarises who you are and what you do.

More detail can be added in the ‘about me’ section which users will see when they scroll down your page.

Establishing membership tiers and pricing

This next step depends on what kind of creator plan you have. If you’ve signed up for a Lite plan, you’re limited to a single membership tier. However both Pro and Premium creator plans can create tiers for their fans to choose from; each with their own price.

Payment settings

The whole idea of joining Patreon is to get paid right? Therefore, you’ll need to decide how your patrons will be billed (either monthly or per creation) and provide Patreon with bank details in their Payout Settings. Along with this, Patreon requires your legal name, country of residence and currency option.

Adding exclusive merch

Patreon also offers the opportunity to send your patrons merchandise as part of their subscription, via an additional fee to your membership price. All you need to do is design the items and assign the products to a specific tier, with Patreon dealing with production and shipping. It can be a great incentive to get your fans to subscribe, but isn’t absolutely necessary.

Custom URL

If you connect as least one social media account, Patreon can verify your identity as a creator and create your very own custom URL to share. We recommend connecting all your social accounts to maximise traffic to your new Patreon.

Set and use goals

Patreons ‘goals’ feature allows patrons to feel as though they’re helping you achieve a greater plan, so sharing your aspirations with them is a great tool to get people on board. There are two types of goals, earnings-based and community-based.

How do artists make money on Patreon?

It’s important to note that building a successful Patreon business will require time. Firstly, you’ll need to establish yourself and grow an organic audience that wants to engage with your content. To transfer these people over to Patreon, make sure you’re promoting your page on all of your socials. But what convinces people to join your Patreon community? The idea is to offer additional content and rewards for your most dedicated fans. So essentially, don’t give too much away for free on your socials so that paying on Patreon seems worthwhile to your followers.

Another good tip is to have multiple tier options. Having accessible lower tiers broadens the accessibility of your content, with the highest setting a benchmark. Patrons tend to fall somewhere in the middle, so pricing these tiers accordingly will help generate the best possible income.

How much can an artist make on Patreon? This would heavily depend on your following, the type of content you make and the pricing. However, successful artists have shown they can build a very decent income. Take a look at Fran Meneses as an example, offering her patrons 3 varying levels of subscription, amounting to an income of over £5,000 a month! Here are some other examples of successful Patreon artists proving that the platform works for them.

Patreon fees

As a creator, there are a few fees you should be aware when it comes to making money off the site. Their ‘Platform Fee’ only comes into play when you start to make money, and depends on how much you’re making and what plan you’re on. It’s a percentage deducted from the membership payments made to your account. Then there’s a ‘Payment Processing Fee’, which involves covering the cost of billing your patrons. This fee can be seen within your Earnings Dashboard. Patreon also add a ‘Payout Fee’, a charge for sending your funds from your creator account to a bank account or Paypal. Finally, there may also be a ‘Conversion Fee’ at 2.5% for payments made in a currency other than your payout setting.

Patreon ideas for artists

Now you’re ready to get started, you need to come up with some exciting Patreon content ideas that your fans won’t want to miss out on. Remember to split them into tiers and always include the content from the lower tiers in the more expensive ones!

1. Live workshops and Q&A’s

Some of the most exciting and enticing Patreon rewards come from being able to talk directly to the creator. It’s an opportunity that many fans wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. Usually, these types of patreon ideas form part of the top end of membership tiers, giving dedicated fans experiences that are worth their money. Consider hosting live workshops to teach your patrons a new skill, with the added bonus that they can ask questions at the end. Offer the recordings of these sessions to increase the appeal of the membership.

2. One to one’s

Going even further than workshops and group Q&A’s, we have one to ones’s. This is probably as personal as the Patreon rewards go, and therefore normally always comes as part of the highest tier package. The sessions could be based around anything; perhaps advice on building your social media, selling online or starting a new project. Artists who offer this opportunity are usually quite experienced and have a lot of experiences to draw from, so you may want to skip this one if you’re fairly new. It’s always something you can work towards and add at a later date if the demand is there.

3. Exclusive podcasts

Do you have a following based purely on your art, or does your personality also captivate your audience? If so, you may want to consider starting a podcast as a Patreon reward idea. To gauge whether your existing audience would enjoy this, try speaking to your camera on Instagram Stories or consider going Live. If people enjoy what you have to say, it may be something they’d like to pay for. Podcasts can cover all types of domains. As an artist, it may be nice to discuss art related topics or even interview other fellow creatives. Content like this can be found within the beginning tiers and all the way up.

4. Exclusive technical tutorials

This could be a great Patreon idea for artists that have a very technical and complicated process. Your fans are probably desperate to know how you reach your end point, and these tutorials would be a great way of showing them all the work that goes into a piece of art. It also encourages them to learn a new skill, so the patrons would feel as though they’re putting their money towards education as well. In terms of a tier system, you’d be likely to find content like this from the middle memberships and upwards.

5. High quality downloadable’s

As artists, we’re quite used to putting out visual content online to attract attention to our work. A lot of the time, we give this work away for free. However, it may be time to hold some of that back and save high quality, unseen work for your patrons. As well as images, you could include other downloadable content like printable stickers, desktop/phone wallpapers, colouring pages and more. It really depends on what you produce within your creative practice.

6. Discount codes for shop

Other little perks that you can offer your patrons could be a special discount code for your artist shop, if you have one. Fans can use it to purchase your art or related products for a reduced price. This is something you’d expect to see within a starter package, and carried all the way through. You could even consider increasing the discount as the membership tiers go up.

7. Free prints/products

This type of reward is usually very popular; who doesn’t love a freebie? You don’t have to spend a lot of money on these prints either, they can be small and unframed, delivered to your patrons door once a month. If you want to make this print even more special, why not send out exclusive, unseen ones? That way, the fan really feels like they’re getting something worthwhile out of their subscription. Sending your followers products like this can be done via the Patreons ‘merch’ add on, or you could source, produce and ship them yourself. If you can, try signing them as an extra special touch.

Do these Patreon ideas for artists actually work?

Patreon works the same way for all creators. It’s up to you what content you produce and what you choose to reward your patrons with. It’s definitely a site that is worth exploring if you’re a visual artist in any domain, such as; drawing, painting, sculpting, illustrating, film, photography, designing and more. Using some of our Patreon ideas for artists, you should be able to build a site that engages your audience, and makes them excited about your work.

Do be aware that instant success on Patreon is not guaranteed. Like with most endeavours in the arts, they require a fair amount of work and patience. You’ll need to be promoting your profile on all other social platforms, utilising your existing audience rather than increasing it. Patreon is about earning some money and strengthening your relationship with the people who already support you. Whilst gaining some new community members is very possible, it’s also a bonus. That should help you determine whether you’re at the right stage to dive into Patreon, or whether some more work is needed beforehand. Whatever you decide, our list of Patreon ideas for artists is here to help.

WHAT PATREON IDEAS FOR ARTISTS HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL FOR YOU? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

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patreon ideas for artists

By Mia Harwood

August 7, 2023

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