Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host
Speaker 1: job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio
Speaker 1: and how the tech are you today? It's time for
Speaker 1: another tech Classic episode. This one is called Patronage Makes
Speaker 1: a Comeback. It was originally published on September and this
Speaker 1: is an episode about services like Patreon that allow people
Speaker 1: to directly support creators of all types and not go
Speaker 1: through things like ad revenue. But it becomes more of
Speaker 1: a sort of a direct subscriber kind of approach. So
Speaker 1: let's sit back and listen to this classic episode. I've
Speaker 1: covered topics like e commerce before web advertising, We've covered
Speaker 1: multiple times on this show. We've even covered crowdfunding stuff
Speaker 1: like Kickstarter in Indiego Go. But I really wanted to
Speaker 1: look at patronage because it's interesting to see it come
Speaker 1: back so strong. That's not to say that patronage is new,
Speaker 1: even new on the Internet. It's not. It just seems
Speaker 1: to be rising in prominence right now. The idea of
Speaker 1: patronage dates back to the Renaissance, and I gotta be
Speaker 1: honest with you guys. I debated briefly but I did
Speaker 1: debate on describing Renaissance patronage in the style of the
Speaker 1: character I used to play back when I was an
Speaker 1: employee of the Georgia Renaissance Festival. But then I figured
Speaker 1: you guys would probably unsubscribed so fast that you'd actually
Speaker 1: hear the whishing sound of the wind filling in the
Speaker 1: vacuum of missing listeners. So I'm going to spare you
Speaker 1: the corny Renaissance festival character for now. But if you
Speaker 1: really want to hear me, cut loose as a Renaissance
Speaker 1: festival idiot, stick a round to the very end, and
Speaker 1: then you'll get a treat, or maybe you'll think of
Speaker 1: it as something other than a treat, but at any rate,
Speaker 1: it will be at the end, so that way you
Speaker 1: can not listen to it if it bugs you. So
Speaker 1: getting back to Renaissance and the era of patronage, when
Speaker 1: you look at the Middle Ages in Europe, the period
Speaker 1: preceding the Renaissance, the primary social system in place was feudalism.
Speaker 1: And in case you're not familiar with feudalism, what the
Speaker 1: concept is or how that worked. This was where you
Speaker 1: would have a centralized power figure of some sort to
Speaker 1: whom everyone in the region would swear fealty, and this
Speaker 1: was a two way relationship. It wasn't just someone lording
Speaker 1: over a lot of peasants, although that could happen. The
Speaker 1: person in charge was supposed to make big decisions on
Speaker 1: behalf of the entire region, and in the best case scenarios, uh,
Speaker 1: they would actually take great pains to protect the people
Speaker 1: they ruled over. In fact, if you look at stuff
Speaker 1: like the old epic poem Beowulf, you hear about the
Speaker 1: the job of the king is to hand out rings,
Speaker 1: which is essentially the symbol of wealth two loyal subjects
Speaker 1: who have have contributed in some meaningful way to the
Speaker 1: area's success. That was the basis of society for centuries
Speaker 1: in Europe. But once you start getting toward the end
Speaker 1: of the Middle Ages, things start to change. Now, during
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, you know the peasants really their job
Speaker 1: was to essentially make enough food for everyone to stay alive,
Speaker 1: including the person in charge. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, the system of feudalism began to fall apart,
Speaker 1: and it also marked the first time people really begin
Speaker 1: gan to move in great numbers from the pastoral countryside
Speaker 1: and farms in to cities. This was the era of
Speaker 1: cities having an enormous population booms, so places like Paris
Speaker 1: and London had their numbers swell, and out of that
Speaker 1: change grew something brand new, the middle class, or the
Speaker 1: bourgeois in other words. And as professions became lucrative, as
Speaker 1: people began to find ways to create things, to make
Speaker 1: goods or provide services that were valued within the cities,
Speaker 1: people began to make money. The middle class began to
Speaker 1: make serious money. Sometimes the people in the middle class
Speaker 1: were far wealthier than anyone in the nobility class. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of examples of nobles who were arranging marriages
Speaker 1: with wealthy middle class families because the middle class families
Speaker 1: lacked a title, but they had money, whereas the nobility
Speaker 1: had titles but no money. So it became this weird relationship,
Speaker 1: particularly in places like England. Now, some of the people
Speaker 1: in the middle class wanted to use the money they
Speaker 1: made to do various things, including supporting artists of various types.
Speaker 1: Maybe they found it rewarding to support an artist's work,
Speaker 1: or maybe they got some other sense of value from it.
Speaker 1: At any rate, they became what we call patrons of
Speaker 1: the arts. And there are lots of examples of various
Speaker 1: patrons who were really famous at the time. The Medici
Speaker 1: family is probably the best known patrons from the era
Speaker 1: of the Italian Renaissance, particularly Cosimo de Medici and his
Speaker 1: grandson Lorenzo de Medici. These two Medici's were famous for
Speaker 1: their patronage of various artists. Uh. Together they supported some
Speaker 1: really famous ones like uh. Well, names that would seem
Speaker 1: familiar to anyone who watched teenage mutant Ninja turtles because
Speaker 1: they boarded artists like Donna Tello, Leonardo da Vinci, and
Speaker 1: michel Angelo and Uh. The patronage actually gave these wealthy
Speaker 1: people a certain social status. It allowed them to associate
Speaker 1: themselves with the most talented, brightest people of the age,
Speaker 1: and it also created opportunities for the artists to make
Speaker 1: amazing works of art, ranging from paintings to sculpture and
Speaker 1: other stuff. Often the artists were working on a commission
Speaker 1: by the nobility, so they didn't really have a whole
Speaker 1: lot of choice in what they were able to make,
Speaker 1: but the money they made from that allowed them to
Speaker 1: fund other things. Famously, Da Vinci came up with lots
Speaker 1: of different stuff. Meanwhile, theater companies also had patrons. William
Speaker 1: Shakespeare belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Men during Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 1: the First's reign uh. The initial patron of that theatrical
Speaker 1: company was a man named Henry Carey, who was the
Speaker 1: first Baron Hunston uh, the Lord Chamberlain to the Queen. Now,
Speaker 1: eventually that company would become the King's Men because Elizabeth
Speaker 1: passed away and James the First rose to the throne
Speaker 1: and became the new patron of this theatrical company. So
Speaker 1: they provided the budget that the artists needed in order
Speaker 1: for them to do their work, and then they would
Speaker 1: also reward the artists themselves. Um and this approach allowed
Speaker 1: ours to protect practice their craft without worrying about selling
Speaker 1: the finished product to buyers, though that could also happen
Speaker 1: depending upon the artist. So generally speaking, it was a
Speaker 1: work for higher sort of thing. It wasn't an idea,
Speaker 1: you know, create a product and then go to the
Speaker 1: market and try and sell the product. Today we still
Speaker 1: have patrons of the arts. A lot of wealthy people
Speaker 1: will end up funding arts in some way. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of foundations that also provide funding and others
Speaker 1: who donate to museums or to theaters. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to supporting individual artists, patronage had largely faded away
Speaker 1: until relatively recently. But now we're in a new era
Speaker 1: of patronage. And it also makes sense because honestly, the
Speaker 1: era of advertising is starting to come to an end.
Speaker 1: We've become tired of ads, so making money through ads
Speaker 1: has become increasingly difficult. It's a challenge. It's still very important,
Speaker 1: but it's harder to do, largely because the audience itself
Speaker 1: has become cynical or tired of ads. Uh, you can
Speaker 1: try to sell stuff in an online store instead, and
Speaker 1: that might work great for certain types of artists, like
Speaker 1: people who do graphic design work and maybe they do
Speaker 1: sketches or paintings or comics or things of that nature.
Speaker 1: They can sell different prints or posters. That sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Also makes sense for musicians who might sell things like
Speaker 1: albums or individual songs that kind of thing. But there's
Speaker 1: some types of creative work that do not lend themselves
Speaker 1: to merchandise easily. So for example, maybe you do a
Speaker 1: series videos like you have a web video series, and
Speaker 1: you might have some merchandise options, but generally speaking, those
Speaker 1: are probably not going to bring in enough money to
Speaker 1: support your work, So what do you do? Well, that's
Speaker 1: where patronage comes into play. Now. The best known service
Speaker 1: right now is Patreon, and that service allows creators to
Speaker 1: build a profile for their work. Fans can contribute money
Speaker 1: on an ongoing basis. Creators can set up a Patreon
Speaker 1: account so that the pledges are collected monthly or every
Speaker 1: time there's a new piece of content for an audience
Speaker 1: to enjoy. So, in other words, if I'm a creator
Speaker 1: and I want to create a Patreon page, I could
Speaker 1: do it. Let's say I'm doing a web video series.
Speaker 1: I can do it where I say pledge x amount
Speaker 1: per month, and you might say a dollar or five
Speaker 1: dollars or whatever that might be. Or I could choose
Speaker 1: to say pledge x amount per video, so every time
Speaker 1: an episode comes out, you would end up contributing however
Speaker 1: much you had pledged, whether it was a dollar or
Speaker 1: five dollars or whatever amount. Those are the different options. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a subscription service, only you aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily buying something. You're supporting the work of someone who's
Speaker 1: stuff you like, so you're not necessarily getting something that
Speaker 1: no one else can get although that can play apart
Speaker 1: two and I'll talk about that in a second. But
Speaker 1: really what it's all about is saying I like the
Speaker 1: stuff you do. I want you to continue to be
Speaker 1: able to do the stuff you do, and I'm willing
Speaker 1: to pay money so that this happens. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because at least for some people it works. Now, in
Speaker 1: the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to let you
Speaker 1: guys know I support to Patreon campaigns right now, and
Speaker 1: I'm not asking anyone else to go out and support them.
Speaker 1: I just want to be able to talk about my
Speaker 1: experience as a patron as opposed to a creator. I
Speaker 1: don't have a patriot On campaign for anything that I do.
Speaker 1: I just support other Patreon campaigns. So the two campaigns
Speaker 1: I support, one of them is for Tom Merritt's daily
Speaker 1: tech news show, and Tom's a friend of mine. He
Speaker 1: does great work. He covers tech stories each weekday and
Speaker 1: brings on interesting guests and sometimes people like me to
Speaker 1: be on his show to discuss the stories and give
Speaker 1: them context. So I am one of many patrons of
Speaker 1: tom Merritt's and I want him to continue to be
Speaker 1: able to do this work, which I think is valuable.
Speaker 1: It's entertaining and it's informative. So that's why I have contributed.
Speaker 1: The other Patreon campaign I support is for a group
Speaker 1: called Red Letter Media, and that's an entertainment company and
Speaker 1: they create online videos and plus they create films. They're
Speaker 1: they're essentially a film studio that also does online video. Now,
Speaker 1: they're mostly known for their film criticism. I have several
Speaker 1: shows that focus on the sizing films in various ways.
Speaker 1: There's one called half in the Bag, there's one called
Speaker 1: Best of the Worst, and then there are the infamous
Speaker 1: Mr Plinkett reviews. So if you've ever come across one
Speaker 1: of those reviews of either Star Wars or Star Trek
Speaker 1: where the persona doing the review is a crazy, sociopathic
Speaker 1: old guy, that's Red Letter Media. Now there are hundreds
Speaker 1: of projects listed on Patreon, and some of them may
Speaker 1: even be for stuff you already enjoy. So how does
Speaker 1: the service work? I mean, how can it actually work
Speaker 1: in a in a in a background sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: clearly it's not as simple as just a sorting house
Speaker 1: for audience contributions, right, I mean, how would Patreon even
Speaker 1: make its own money? So that it could remain in operation. Well,
Speaker 1: to answer that, we need to look at the history
Speaker 1: of Patreon and then at how the service makes money,
Speaker 1: and it all starts with a pretty successful YouTube channel. Now.
Speaker 1: That channel belongs to Jack Conti, and he's a filmmaker
Speaker 1: and songwriter living in California, and he's also one half
Speaker 1: of the group Pomplo Moose, which if you are not
Speaker 1: familiar with Pomplo Mouse, you should probably go and check
Speaker 1: that out. They're pretty awesome. They do fun musical mashups
Speaker 1: and really creative music videos as well some very experimental
Speaker 1: film stuff that's kind of interesting, So check that out.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more about patronage in the online
Speaker 1: age after this quick break. In two thousand thirteen, Conti
Speaker 1: had a YouTube channel that had more than a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers and his videos were racking up more than
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand views per video, but he was faced
Speaker 1: with a real problem. He says he was only making
Speaker 1: about fifty dollars a month off his channel from advertising,
Speaker 1: so it's a big issue he was He was doing well,
Speaker 1: he had a he had a sizable audience, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't really realizing any true revenue from it, and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of factors that figure into this. If
Speaker 1: you allow advertising on your videos on YouTube, you only
Speaker 1: get a percentage of the money earned through ads on
Speaker 1: your channel. The rest goes to Google to YouTube itself. Now,
Speaker 1: on top of that, you have to choose whether your
Speaker 1: channel will serve up ads that people can skip after
Speaker 1: a few seconds or ads that play all the way
Speaker 1: through and there's no skippable option, and subscribers tend to
Speaker 1: prefer skippable ads obviously, they don't want to be forced
Speaker 1: to watch a commercial if they don't have to. But
Speaker 1: if they get a skippable ad and they skip out
Speaker 1: too early, in other words, before thirty seconds have passed,
Speaker 1: no revenue is generated from the ad impression, so that's
Speaker 1: an issue. And YouTube also has algorithms that determine how
Speaker 1: frequently ads are shown in the first place, so not
Speaker 1: every view of a monetized video may result in an
Speaker 1: ad display. So there are a lot of factors here
Speaker 1: that actually limit the amount of money you're going to make.
Speaker 1: You on paper, it looks like you should be making
Speaker 1: a lot because you've got so many views of your video,
Speaker 1: But if everyone is skipping the the ads, or there
Speaker 1: are not a lot of ads being served up on
Speaker 1: that video. In particular, you might be making very little
Speaker 1: in the long run. Now, the bottom line was that
Speaker 1: Conti was putting time and effort into creating videos but
Speaker 1: seeing very little return on his investments. So he began
Speaker 1: to think about ways that artists could create a direct
Speaker 1: link to audiences, something that would allow audiences to support
Speaker 1: the artist rather than having to depend upon this third
Speaker 1: party advertising structure. So in May two thousand thirteen, Contie
Speaker 1: paired with partnered with Sam Yam to create Patreon, and
Speaker 1: the idea was pretty simple. Artists would create a Patreon account,
Speaker 1: they would offer reward to people who contribute money to
Speaker 1: their efforts. Uh So those rewards could be anything, really,
Speaker 1: but ideally there would be things that you could easily
Speaker 1: deliver reliably so that people who are supporting you actually
Speaker 1: feel like they're getting value for their contribution. So, for example,
Speaker 1: if I were doing that web video series, I might
Speaker 1: offer up an access to bonus videos or blooper reels
Speaker 1: and other content to people who contribute at a certain level,
Speaker 1: and anyone who is either not contributing or contributing at
Speaker 1: a lower level, they don't get access to that, but
Speaker 1: they can still see the regular web video series. The
Speaker 1: important thing here is I'm not forcing people to subscribe
Speaker 1: to something. I'm saying, if you want to support me,
Speaker 1: here's a way to do it, and in return, you
Speaker 1: get this bonus material. But if you don't feel like
Speaker 1: you can support me for whatever reason, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: enjoy the content that much, or maybe your money is
Speaker 1: very limited and so you can't really afford to support me,
Speaker 1: that's fine. Enjoy the regular series with everybody else. You're
Speaker 1: still going to have access to it. It's only if
Speaker 1: you want to and are able to, and you want
Speaker 1: this bonus material in the first place, that you should contribute.
Speaker 1: That tends to be the general approach most creators take
Speaker 1: when they're using Patreon. It's the idea of added value
Speaker 1: and also for people to express their appreciation for the
Speaker 1: work that you do. And it's amazing because it actually
Speaker 1: seems to work. As for the rewards, there are a
Speaker 1: lot like you would see on stuff like Kickstarter or
Speaker 1: Indiego Go, and higher levels of contribution typically correspond to
Speaker 1: more prestigious awards, such as being acknowledged as a producer,
Speaker 1: for example, and to give a specific incident, Tom Merritt
Speaker 1: and producer Jenny Josephson of Daily Tech News Show once
Speaker 1: read out the names of every contributor to the Daily
Speaker 1: Tech News Show Patreon when they hit ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: per month ten thousand dollars of contributions per month. So
Speaker 1: it took them just under four hours to go through
Speaker 1: all the names, and they even threw in lots of
Speaker 1: puns and other silly things for almost every single name
Speaker 1: on that list. And if you want to search, the
Speaker 1: video is up on YouTube. You can find it three
Speaker 1: hours and fifty nine minutes. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: when my name comes up, because I was a patron
Speaker 1: at that time too, it's at the one hour twelve
Speaker 1: minute mark. He's actually really nice. He gave a shout
Speaker 1: out to how stuff works, which was lovely, so fun
Speaker 1: time there, it was interesting, and that was just something
Speaker 1: that he decided to do, and actually I think it
Speaker 1: was Jenny's suggestion. They decided just to do that spontaneously
Speaker 1: to thank the people who had been supporting them. It
Speaker 1: wasn't part directly part of the Patreon support. So that
Speaker 1: was really really fun and and showed a lot of
Speaker 1: dedication to sit there for four hours and thank every
Speaker 1: single person by name. Now, this might sound similar to
Speaker 1: something that's been around for several years, that being the
Speaker 1: PayPal tip jar approach, So you've probably seen this around.
Speaker 1: Lots of creators have included a tip jar on sites
Speaker 1: to allow fans the chance to contribute directly to their
Speaker 1: favorite artists or writers or whatever. So this would be
Speaker 1: on various sites where you see the little PayPal button
Speaker 1: you can click and then contribute a certain amount. You
Speaker 1: can even make it a recurring contribution if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: So that's very similar to what Patreon offers, and that's
Speaker 1: been around for a while. But it's one of those
Speaker 1: things that I think, you know, I'm sure people have
Speaker 1: collected money from it, but not large amounts. It's not
Speaker 1: terribly visible, and so it's it's not like it's not
Speaker 1: like Patreon has replaced this button, but certainly augmented it.
Speaker 1: And Patreon also has built in tools that allow creators
Speaker 1: to communicate directly where their supporters, which was something that
Speaker 1: the PayPal button didn't supply at all. The PayPal button
Speaker 1: was really just a way for people to contribute directly
Speaker 1: to a person. Patreon is more of a community building
Speaker 1: tool because you can actually send a message out to
Speaker 1: all of your Patreon supporters and give them updates, give
Speaker 1: them links to special content, give them alerts to things
Speaker 1: that you have planned that haven't been officially announced yet.
Speaker 1: All of this kind of stuff. The idea of including
Speaker 1: people into an artistic endeavor is built into Patreon Now.
Speaker 1: Patreon charges the pledges at the end of each month,
Speaker 1: so if you end up supporting a Patreon campaign, you're
Speaker 1: not going to get charged until the end of the month,
Speaker 1: and that might mean for some pat patrons are really
Speaker 1: long wait if you join at the very beginning of
Speaker 1: the month and pledge, because you won't be charged till
Speaker 1: the end of the month, and you might not actually
Speaker 1: have access to the Patreon level rewards until your money
Speaker 1: has been processed. So if I start off on on
Speaker 1: September one and I pledge at a certain level because
Speaker 1: I want to have access to this special stuff, it
Speaker 1: may not be until the following month until October when
Speaker 1: I'm able to actually access that. So that's one downside
Speaker 1: to Patreon. There are some others too. Obviously, if you
Speaker 1: do not like PayPal, that's another issue, because that's the
Speaker 1: main way to contribute money. Through Patreon, and if you
Speaker 1: object to PayPal, then that could be a real, real problem.
Speaker 1: One thing that's nice about Patreon is that it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a means to get a project off the ground,
Speaker 1: So in other words, the work itself is probably already done.
Speaker 1: In most cases, you're you're not risking anything. You're not
Speaker 1: contributing money to a campaign that might ultimately fail, which
Speaker 1: can completely happen with Kickstarter and indie go go. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, in Kickstarter campaigns, if the campaign doesn't fund,
Speaker 1: you aren't charged. With indie goog, you are charged because
Speaker 1: even if a campaign doesn't mean it's campaign goal, some
Speaker 1: of that money will end up going to the creator.
Speaker 1: In both cases, if the campaign funds but nothing ever
Speaker 1: comes out of it, you are left in the lurch.
Speaker 1: And this has happened to me three times. I have
Speaker 1: supported three different campaigns through crowdfunding that never ever went anywhere.
Speaker 1: These are the infamous smart watches I have backed, and
Speaker 1: all three have languished and never got to me. So
Speaker 1: learned from my lesson. Also, I think it's important to
Speaker 1: remember anytime you see any kind of crowdfunding thing, if
Speaker 1: it's for a physical product, way that with the idea
Speaker 1: that this may never happen even if the project funds,
Speaker 1: because physical products are hard to produce, uh, they can
Speaker 1: often cost more money and have more problems than someone
Speaker 1: would would have they're wise predicted. So that's always valuable
Speaker 1: to go into a crowdfunding situation knowing that ahead of time.
Speaker 1: And if you're okay with that risk and you believe
Speaker 1: in what the people are doing, that's fine. But if
Speaker 1: you're thinking of the kickstarter as a way to start
Speaker 1: a pre order on something, you could end up for
Speaker 1: with a rude awakening further down the line at any rate.
Speaker 1: Patreon is not like that. With Patreon, most of the time,
Speaker 1: the creators are doing something they love and they're going
Speaker 1: to be doing anyway. This is just a means for
Speaker 1: them to be compensated for some of that work. So,
Speaker 1: for example, it might be a web comics artist who
Speaker 1: is going to continue drawing web comics no matter what,
Speaker 1: but this is a way for you to express appreciation
Speaker 1: and help support the web comics artist in his or
Speaker 1: her efforts to bring that art to you. So it's
Speaker 1: it's very different in that it's not it's not like
Speaker 1: you have to wait for a certain threshold to be
Speaker 1: met and then you get whatever it is you're supporting,
Speaker 1: You're getting it already, So I think that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: And also, you can end your support at any time.
Speaker 1: You can go into Patreon and say I'm done supporting
Speaker 1: this particular campaign. I either you know, I'm no longer
Speaker 1: interested in it, or I can't afford it, or whatever
Speaker 1: the reason. Maybe it doesn't matter. You don't have to
Speaker 1: provide a reason. You can just stop your support. You've
Speaker 1: got a bit more to say about Patreon and similar
Speaker 1: services after this quick commercial break. As for Patreon itself
Speaker 1: making money, well, it got started with venture capital investments.
Speaker 1: You know, this is the way we see a lot
Speaker 1: of startups start. You know, how they're able to stay
Speaker 1: afloat early on is that they get investments from outside
Speaker 1: to get things moving. But beyond that you have to
Speaker 1: create a different model or else you're business will ultimately fail.
Speaker 1: So what Patreon does is it takes five percent of
Speaker 1: all the pledges that are gathered for all the different
Speaker 1: Patreon campaigns, and so as more people create Patreon campaigns
Speaker 1: and more people support Patreon campaigns, more money rolls in
Speaker 1: and eventually those different five percent uh pieces start to
Speaker 1: really add up. In October two thousand and fourteen, Uh,
Speaker 1: that was the first time we started seeing creators on
Speaker 1: Patreon collectively making more than one million dollars per month.
Speaker 1: So adding up all the different Patreon accounts, they're about
Speaker 1: a million dollars a month going through Patreon. But even then,
Speaker 1: if you look at that five percent, that's just fifty
Speaker 1: tho dollars a month, which that's a lot of money,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, but fifty a month for a
Speaker 1: company is a relatively small amount. So Patreon has to
Speaker 1: stay pretty small and nimble in order to uh continue
Speaker 1: to provide this service. Oh and one other thing. That
Speaker 1: five percent is just part of what gets taken out
Speaker 1: of the final pledge total. It's not like creators are
Speaker 1: getting of the money because of PayPal. PayPal also takes
Speaker 1: a cut. So ultimately about nine to of the money
Speaker 1: that is supposed to go to a campaign gets taken
Speaker 1: out for fees of various types. So that means you're
Speaker 1: going to end up with around nine percent of all
Speaker 1: the money that has been contributed to your campaign if
Speaker 1: you are a creator on Patreon. But then keep in
Speaker 1: mind that if you are trying to use advertising for example,
Speaker 1: to support your work, you get to keep way less
Speaker 1: than nine percent of that money. So if you have
Speaker 1: a YouTube video series and you're monetizing your videos on YouTube,
Speaker 1: YouTube is taking a much larger chunk than ten percent,
Speaker 1: you are not going to be able to keep of
Speaker 1: the money that your videos earned. So that's something to
Speaker 1: keep in mind. Although, again, if this is an opt
Speaker 1: in situation where people come and then they dedicate their
Speaker 1: money to your work, you're going to see a much
Speaker 1: smaller percentage of your overall audience willing to actually pay
Speaker 1: a monthly or or per item fee to get the
Speaker 1: stuff they could get for free. Uh, there will be some,
Speaker 1: but it will be a percentage, a small percentage of
Speaker 1: the overall audience. So if you're a creative person, all
Speaker 1: this is kind of sounding pretty attractive. You could have
Speaker 1: a platform to reach an audience. You could cultivate a
Speaker 1: following and really gain support from the people who love
Speaker 1: your work. But it's not that easy. For one thing,
Speaker 1: making people aware of the option to support is already
Speaker 1: a challenge. Discovery can be a difficult thing on Patreon.
Speaker 1: Most people don't go to Patreon to just do searches
Speaker 1: to find out what kind of stuff they love and
Speaker 1: how to support it. If they hear about it, they
Speaker 1: hear about it from the creator. So it means that
Speaker 1: you have to use lots of different channels of communication
Speaker 1: to tell followers how they can support the work they love.
Speaker 1: It might be through Twitter and Facebook and Tumbler, and
Speaker 1: it might if you have a podcast or a video series,
Speaker 1: it could involve announcing that every episode so that people
Speaker 1: are aware of it, because otherwise, if they're not aware
Speaker 1: of it, you're never going to get any support anyway.
Speaker 1: Some people, some creators, make it a point to regularly
Speaker 1: thank their supporters in every episode. So instead of saying, hey,
Speaker 1: go to Patreon and put money to support my work,
Speaker 1: they might say, I want to take this time to
Speaker 1: thank all of our supporters on Patreon, without whom this
Speaker 1: show is not possible. And that's a really nice way
Speaker 1: of saying thank you. It also reminds people, hey, if
Speaker 1: you want to support this, you can go to Patreon
Speaker 1: and be part of that group. But it really, ultimately
Speaker 1: is more about being genuine with your audience and saying
Speaker 1: you guys are awesome for loving what I do, and
Speaker 1: I will keep doing this and keep making the stuff
Speaker 1: you love for as long as you love it. And
Speaker 1: I think that that is a really powerful message, and
Speaker 1: it's actually true for most creators. I don't think most
Speaker 1: creators are out there trying to get rich quick. They're
Speaker 1: doing what they do because they love doing it. And
Speaker 1: if they're successful, that's awesome, that is that's the dream.
Speaker 1: But if they're not, they're still doing what they love.
Speaker 1: But obviously all of this works best for people who
Speaker 1: already have a large following, people who have already established
Speaker 1: themselves and have an audience and can speak to that
Speaker 1: audience and say, hey, by the way, here's this place
Speaker 1: where you can support me. So if you're not fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to be one of those people, Patreon might not
Speaker 1: bring in enough to help sustain your work. But if
Speaker 1: you're planning on doing the work anyway, whether you get
Speaker 1: that support or not, and you just want to do
Speaker 1: it for the love of the work itself, it might
Speaker 1: be worth your while to go ahead and make a
Speaker 1: Patreon page. You might not have hundreds of Patrons supporters,
Speaker 1: but if you're going to be doing the work anyway,
Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt to also have the Patreon option. So
Speaker 1: lots of Patreon creators offer up access to their work
Speaker 1: in different ways, including ways that are free. So for them,
Speaker 1: the Patreon link is about giving fans the opportunities to
Speaker 1: support the work they like. But others actually have just
Speaker 1: specific stuff that only Patreon supporters of access to, so
Speaker 1: that creates an incentive for people to join Patreon so
Speaker 1: they can get at the stuff they otherwise wouldn't see.
Speaker 1: And usually there's a balance between the two. Like I said,
Speaker 1: it's not normally the case that someone says, all right,
Speaker 1: here's a special web comic, but you only get to
Speaker 1: see it if you join Patreon, Otherwise you'll never see it.
Speaker 1: That's rare. It's more likely to say, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: like this web comic. If you enjoy it, consider supporting
Speaker 1: me on Patreon, and then in return you will get
Speaker 1: all this bonus material. That's kind of That's that's the
Speaker 1: more common way this this rolls out. And personally it's
Speaker 1: probably clear. I love the idea of Patreon. I mean,
Speaker 1: I do support people, but I don't think I could
Speaker 1: actually use it for myself. Like I don't think I
Speaker 1: would create a Patreon campaign because I doubt I have
Speaker 1: enough of a following to bring in enough money to
Speaker 1: support the stuff I want to do outside of work.
Speaker 1: But for artists who are in a different situation, I
Speaker 1: think it's a great tool. It gives people an alternative
Speaker 1: to advertising or to trying to do direct sales, and
Speaker 1: it gives fans a chance to be part of something
Speaker 1: that they love. So I think that's a win win
Speaker 1: for everybody. And again, as long as it's opped in,
Speaker 1: I'm cool with it. It's when it's when you require
Speaker 1: it that I start to say, well, that's less cool.
Speaker 1: Now it's about time for me to sign off. But
Speaker 1: I believe I made a promise, or maybe the better
Speaker 1: word is a threat to treat you, guys to a
Speaker 1: little bit of my Renaissance Festival character in honor of
Speaker 1: the theme patronage, which in fact does have its origins
Speaker 1: in the Renaissance. So this is your opportunity to spare
Speaker 1: yourself the pain of hearing me be corny while speaking
Speaker 1: in a terribly inaccurate accent. If that's going to bother you,
Speaker 1: you might want to quit while you're ahead, because the
Speaker 1: show is essentially over at this point. But for the
Speaker 1: rest of you, you have been warned. Lords send ladies,
Speaker 1: thou art most fortunate to this day, for thou dost
Speaker 1: find thyself in the enviable position of being within the
Speaker 1: presence of one Lord Admiral Edmund ving Lory, the third
Speaker 1: Commander of His Majesty's Navy Royal and member of the
Speaker 1: Privy Council. And though it not me known by many,
Speaker 1: I be a distinguished patron of the arts, the man
Speaker 1: behind the purse, behind the theater, behind the pub, behind
Speaker 1: the times run by none other than the Lord Admiral's men.
Speaker 1: There thou mayest have had the glorious experience of seeing
Speaker 1: such unforgettable plays as Anything You Want to Love's labor
Speaker 1: one and cats veterally. It doth please me to the
Speaker 1: ends of the earth to bring to the amusements and
Speaker 1: entertainments of such quality that audiences cannot help but to
Speaker 1: cry out in happiness when the doors be unbarred and
Speaker 1: people are allowed to go home. When next thou dost
Speaker 1: have need of a distraction from the plague, or a
Speaker 1: need a place to visit, because thy house is a fire,
Speaker 1: consider a voyage to the playhouse. I thank THEE and
Speaker 1: shall see thee. Ah No. That wraps up this classic
Speaker 1: episode of text. Patreon again and other services like it
Speaker 1: that's one that I need to I can't do an
Speaker 1: update for a lot of these are you know, they've
Speaker 1: changed a lot in the past few years. And uh,
Speaker 1: some of that's due to changes in policy which have
Speaker 1: affected numerous creators. Some of it just has to do
Speaker 1: with different trends in the marketplace. And um, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's been long enough where I think I could come
Speaker 1: back and revisit this this topic and talk about what
Speaker 1: has worked and what has not worked so well over time.
Speaker 1: If you would like to suggest a topic for me
Speaker 1: to cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of ways you can reach out to me.
Speaker 1: One is to download the I Heart Radio app, which
Speaker 1: is free to download, free to use. You can navigate
Speaker 1: over to the tech Stuff page and push that little
Speaker 1: microphone icon that will let you leave a voice message
Speaker 1: up to thirty seconds in length, and you can let
Speaker 1: me know what you would like me to cover there,
Speaker 1: Or you can pop on over to Twitter. The handle
Speaker 1: we use for the show is tech Stuff HSW and
Speaker 1: you can leave me your suggestion there and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you in again really soon. Yeah. Text Stuff is
Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.