How to Make Money with Patreon [2024]: The Side Hustle for Creatives

Have you ever wondered whether you could make a living off your art or music?

Today, it’s easier than ever for content creators to make more money than the major social media platforms allow. While a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok are great, you can get additional support from your fans on Patreon.

Patreon is a crowdfunding platform that allows fans of content creators to demonstrate their support. Some Patreon creators have been successful enough to rake in $200,000 per year through the site.

While this all sounds great, you should know that you’ll need a significant following before Patreon will work for you. Here’s everything you need to know about the platform and some tips to get started.

What is Patreon?

Patreon is a membership platform that allows creative people to build a recurring income stream for their work. It’s used by artists, musicians, podcasters, YouTubers, bloggers, and all kinds of people looking to get financial support from their fan base.

Creators can offer access to exclusive content — such as videos, articles, live streams, or podcasts in exchange for a monthly membership fee. The platform also allows you to communicate with fans directly and provide insight into your vision.

How does Patreon work?

You’ll start by signing up for a Patreon account and setting up a creator page, where you can offer your members exclusive content. Patreon offers starter kits to make the setup process easier. These are template pages designed to help you fill in the blanks and launch quickly.

During the setup process, you’ll tell Patreon what kind of content you create, choose your currency, and save a custom URL. Next, you’ll add your profile picture, cover image, links to your social media accounts, and even an intro video if you’d like to introduce yourself. If you have a pro account, you can set up tiers with different incentives that might appeal to your members.

It’s totally free to start using Patreon. The company makes money by taking a percentage of creators’ earnings plus a payment processing fee. How much you pay depends on the subscription level you choose.

Here is how the tiers and pricing work:

Plan	Features	Fee
Pro	Set up monthly and annual subscriptions Opportunity to offer membership tiers Community engagement tools Analytics	8% plus processing
Premium	Everything in the Pro plan, plus: Dedicated partner manager Merch for membership Team accounts	12% plus processing

You can choose to offer membership plans to your patrons or request payment for each exclusive post you release. You’ll be able to offer your members perks like gated content, members-only livestreams, exclusive forums, integrated Discord live chat, exclusive newsletters, live-streamed workshops, discounts and merchandise, and more.

Who is Patreon best for?

Content creators of all kinds can use Patreon to get support from fans, including:

• Podcasters
• Video creators
• Musicians
• Visual artists
• Communities
• Writers and journalists
• Game creators
• Nonprofits
• Educators
• Local businesses

To create an account, you’ll need to be at least 13 years old. To join a creator’s membership as or provide membership as a creator, you must be at least 18 years old or have permission from a parent or guardian. There are no other requirements, but you will need a bank account to receive payments.

We asked Ben Taylor, successful Patreon creator and owner of Homeworkingclub.com, if there’s anything else you need to get started making money with Patreon. To be successful, Taylor notes that you must have a following outside of Patreon. “My main tip would be to think of where you’re going to get your audience from — and you do NEED an existing audience. I already had 10,000 email subscribers, so finding my initial group of members was easy, but getting people to sign up to a Patreon group ‘cold’ would be much more difficult.”

How much can you earn with Patreon?

The amount you can earn with Patreon depends on how many dedicated followers you have before signing up because that will translate into the number of patrons you can potentially get on board with you. However, there are plenty of success stories. For example, according to the website Graphtreon, which tracks followings and earnings for every Patreon creator, Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast earns $248K to $630K a month.

Patreon estimates that anywhere between 0.5% and 2.5% of a creator's fans will convert into Patreon members. So, as a hypothetical example, if you had 100,000 fans on YouTube and your membership is $7 per month, this is how the math could work out:

• 100,000 followers X 0.5% to 2.5% = 500 to 2,500 members
• 500 to 2,500 members X $7 per month = $3,500 to $17,500 per month

However, keep in mind that Patreon will take a percentage of your earnings depending on the service tier you choose. You’ll pay between 8% and 12% of your earnings to Patreon in addition to payment processing fees. For pledges of $3 or less, the payment processing fee is 5% plus 10 cents. For pledges over $3, the fee is 2.9% plus 30 cents.

Continuing our hypothetical example from above, let’s say you earn that $3,500 and chose the Pro tier. That's 500 patrons each supporting you with $7 per month. To see how much actual monthly income that translates to, you’ll subtract the payment processing fee for each member and the 8% platform fee percentage that Patreon takes.

Your estimated earnings might look something like this:

$7 x 2.9% + $0.30 = $0.503 payment processing fee per patron

500 x $0.50 = $250 total payment processing fee

$3,500 x 8% = $280 platform fee

$3,500 - $250 - $280 = $2,970 monthly income

These are all just estimates based off our theoretical example, but it gives you a good idea of the math you'd need to work out to determine if you can make Patreon profitable for you.

As a Patreon creator, you have flexible payment options, which means you can get paid whenever you want or get monthly auto payments. You can accept funds via direct deposit, PayPal, or Payoneer.

Be aware that there’s also a payout fee every time you transfer money from your creator balance. Each time a U.S. creator requests a direct deposit, it’s a 25-cent charge. The charge for Payoneer is $1. If you use PayPal, you could pay up to $20.

There’s also a currency conversion fee of 2.5% if you have patrons paying in a currency other than your designated currency.

Maximizing your earnings

• Create a high-quality intro video. Use the video feature to introduce yourself, showcase the benefits you’ll provide to members, and communicate how financial support will help you create better content.
• Promote your Patreon on social media. Your patrons will likely come from your social media following, so be sure to promote a link to your Patreon page on each social media account or at the end of your YouTube videos or podcasts.
• Offer multiple benefit tiers. Providing multiple membership options may help persuade more people to support you. Be sure to price each option strategically so patrons see value in each option.
• Choose great incentives. Offer exclusive access to content that will appeal to your following, and provide especially attractive benefits for members opting for a more expensive tier. Taylor noted that, of his patrons, “Everyone who’s signed up has opted for the more expensive one, which includes access to a private Slack group too.”
• Send messages to your patrons. According to Patreon data, creators who send messages through Patreon are more likely to succeed at processing at least $100 in their first month on the platform.
• Utilize Patreon resources. Patreon offers many free educational resources, including workshops, blog posts, and tutorials, to help creators become successful. For example, there are videos with tips from top creators, articles with guidance on how to convert more fans to patrons, and live workshops demoing how to use the platform.

Managing your business expenses

Patreon can help with funding, but you still may need help managing your business expenses. Here's an excellent business credit card we recommend:

FAQs

Other side hustles to consider

If you’re researching how to make money and Patreon doesn’t seem like the best fit for you, don’t worry there are many more options.

The best side hustles allow you to make your own schedule and work as often or as little as you want. If you’re a creative person with a knack for entrepreneurship, there are side hustles that can help you get paid for doing what you already love to do.

For example, if you’d rather sell artwork or handmade items directly to customers, consider learning how to start an Etsy shop. Etsy is a global marketplace that allows artists and creators to sell their work to customers. Creators sell everything from knitted blankets to paintings to downloadable patterns to jewelry and woodworking and much more. Unlike Patreon, you don’t have to constantly come up with new or exclusive content. You make money each time you sell an item, whether it’s something new or an item you’ve had in your store for a while.

If you’re a writer with a following, consider learning how to start a blog and using affiliate links to earn extra cash. For example, if you have a fan base on Instagram because you share recipes with photos, you could start a blog that contains paid links to cookware and baking items. If you’re a fashion influencer, you can set up a blog with affiliate links so you’ll get paid every time someone purchases one of your outfits. Just make sure you have a unique idea and a way to bring an audience to your blog before you invest too much time. Like Patreon, blogging requires a large audience and constantly updated content to keep them engaged and clicking your affiliate links.