A little over a year ago I joined Patreon. What it does is provide patronage for artists, musicians, basically anyone with something to share with the world. Don’t we all have something to share? I know I do!
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How it works: It’s not like the old school patronage that the great Masters of Art had, which was more like getting commissioned for a piece and then having to live on that money until the next commission came along. Patreon is patrons pledging a monthly amount of support to artists of their choice. This frees the artist to create what they truly want to make, freeing the art to be genuine.
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There are two interpretations that I’ve found of Leonardo’s last words, the above and another about how his work didn’t reach the quality it should have. Either way, he was pretty disappointed in the end. I sometimes wonder what these great masters could have achieved if they had something like Patreon freeing them to do their most genuine work. Would the world be missing the Mona Lisa because something different was painted in its place? Is the world missing something far greater that we don’t even know to miss? Vincent van Gogh created around 900 paintings in his lifetime with one patron. What would we have now if he had 100s or 1000s of patrons?
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I am by no means an expert on Patreon, but I will try to share little things that I’ve found to work that creators can implement without being overwhelmed. Again, I recommend reading The Slight Edge. Patreon is no get rich quick scheme, but if you do little things consistently over time you can live your dream life.
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Lochy’s Patreon Tip #001: Make sure you have your Patreon URL in the INTRO section of your personal Facebook and in the ABOUT section of your artist Facebook page (if you have one). The only reason I would not link my Patreon there would be if I had a personal website for my work that I updated frequently. If that’s the case, that link should be in the INTRO and ABOUT sections and your website needs to have a fairly predominant link to Patreon.
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Patreon’s search is almost non-existent. Unless you have a Sakimi Chan level following (almost 450,000 watchers on DeviantArt, near 4,000 patrons and makin’ around $25,000-50,000+ per month), your best starting place for finding patrons is within your circle of friends/family on FB. Make it easy for them to find that link when they’re lookin’ for it.
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XOXO,
Lochy
RocketshipPilot 