In this episode, I do a crosscast with Richard Bliss from the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Podcast. The episode will go out on both feeds and if you haven’t checked out his podcast, you really should.
We talk about what it takes to lose your Patreon followers, how to get them back and a whole lot more.

Announcement: The Creative Funding Show will be going on indefinite hiatus soon. If you have a question you want me to address in a wrap up Q&A episode feel free to leave it as a comment below.



In this episode, Jamie Jenson from the Creatives Making Money Podcast interviews me about crowdfunding. You can find her version of this episode here.

Tom Boruta (Baruta) is a Software Engineer who created Graphtreon because he wanted to follow the progress of Patreon creators.
Questions:

For our listeners who did not listen to episode 4, what is Graphtreon?
Why are analytics so important?
What is new about the new system?

 
Links:

Graphtreon

Michelle Kopper has helped thousands of creatives, small business owners and entrepreneurs embrace self-promotion and selling as serving. Michelle’s combines her journey overcoming crippling stage fright, with her performance background and her ability to intuit aligned marketing language to help clients share their transformational message with full confidence.
Questions:

* Why is fear such a challenge for so many creatives?
* Has fear kept you back as a creative?
* How did you overcome it?
* What advice do you have for creators when it comes to fear of criticism?
* Let’s talk about haters and trolls. What is a troll and how should creators handle them.

 
Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.
About Michelle:

* Website: www.michellekopper.com

 

Stress and busy work are the biggest enemies of creative people. And today we have someone on the show to help solve that.
Kim Sutton is the host of the Positive Productivity podcast, runs a team of 10 people and has 5 kids. So you can say she knows a thing or two about productivity.
(Twitter handle, special requirements, etc.):

* https://twitter.com/thekimsutton?lang=en
* https://www.instagram.com/thekimsutton/?hl=en
* https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyannesutton/
* https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.anne.buckley

Question:

* Let’s talk about Working with VA’s

* What is a virtual assistant?
* What are some tasks that VA’s can take off creator’s hands.
* Where can creators find good VAs?

* Upwork
* Virtual Assistant Jobs on Facebook


* Tips for working with a VA’s
* Mistakes creators make when working VA’s.



 
Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

Your time, energy, and money are valuable, but many people struggle to assign a dollar amount to each. Creators running crowdfunding campaigns often need help deciding what to offer backers and how to price each reward level. 
Janene Liston helps her clients build value and know what and how to charge their customers confidently. She reminds her clients that having a profit mindset in their businesses makes them smart, not greedy.
Janene is a Certified Pricing Professional, experienced in value creation, and a European Public Speaking Champion. She believes each person possesses the wisdom they need to thrive in life, but sometimes they need help tapping into it. This belief led her to “pack up” her pricing experience to step out of the corporate world and into the entrepreneurial world.
When I interviewed Janene, I asked her about pricing crowdfunding campaigns. 
Why is pricing products and services so difficult?
Thomas Umstattd, Jr.: For many creatives, pricing their products and services is the hardest part of launching a Kickstarter campaign or Patreon page. Why is choosing a price so hard?
Janene Liston: First, it’s difficult because people fear rejection. For some reason, we attach that rejection to our personal value and worthiness, which brings up baggage from our growing up years. It can be very uncomfortable.
Second, most people simply don’t know how to choose a price. They believe there is a specific method to follow, but they don’t know what it is. If they do choose a price, they often feel uncertain about whether they’ve chosen correctly. 
Thomas: It’s particularly difficult for people who are offering a service. For example, a photographer who’s been taking photos for free will find it difficult to start charging. When they do set up a fee schedule, they often charge too little. 
It’s hard to know what your time is worth, especially for people who struggle with their self-worth. Choosing a price point is more psychologically challenging than choosing a logo or writing copy for the page. 
How do you know if you’ve priced yourself too low?
Thomas: Whether you’re running a business or creating art, people often price themselves too low when they’re starting out. What are some signals that you’re not charging enough?
Janene: It is a common problem, and there are several signs that you need to adjust.
Customers Tell You
If your customers tell you, “You should be charging more,” please heed their advice. Your customers know the value of what you’re offering. 
Thomas: Sometimes they’ll use different wording and say, “Wow. This is a great deal!” If people always talk about your product’s price as a “deal” or “steal,” you may be priced too low
Spinning Your Wheels
Janene: If you feel like you’re working hard but making little progress, you probably need to charge more. For example, if you have loads of customers but you’re having trouble meeting your financial goals or needs, you’ve probably priced yourself too low, particularly for service-based businesses.
For product-based businesses, if you’re delivering more value than your competitors but are still priced lower, you’re not operating with a healthy or profitable pricing strategy.
Thomas: You might think you could put your competitor out of business with that strategy, but you’re more likely to put yourself out of business because you run out of cash.
When I launched my first Patreon page, we had $2.00, $5.00, and $8.00 levels. The first 15 people to back the campaign chose the $8.00 level, which told us that we priced that level too low. It was supposed to be the luxury level that only a handful of people would want. It was a limited level, and it sold out. 

Why do people back crowdfunding campaigns and creators on sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon? What makes them want to support creators they don’t know personally?
Two words: social triggers.
What is a social trigger?
In marketing psychology, a social trigger influences a person’s behavior by indirectly creating a need. For example, if you are compelled to run to the store before their sale ends, you have been influenced by the social trigger of urgency.
In this article, we’ll explore ways to use the social triggers of Urgency, Scarcity, and Popularity to influence people to support your crowdfunding campaign or your Patreon page.
Social Trigger Trifecta: Black Friday
When urgency, scarcity, and popularity work together, we get the Black Friday phenomenon. People stay up all night to be first in line. They elbow each other to grab a limited product, and the frenzied crowd rushing from the same item tells us the product is popular! Everyone wants one, or so it seems.
We may not like the fact that we are so easily influenced on a subconscious level, but we can’t change it. Humans respond to social triggers. The only people who don’t are hyper-rational sociopaths, and they are not in the majority. Marketers must learn to dance with people the way they are, not how we wish they were. 
To motivate people to back your campaign, you must understand what causes people to act and how you can use social triggers to propel them.
Urgency
Why is urgency important? 
Creating a sense of urgency in your campaign is more important than ever. The modern education system trains us to wait until the last minute to act. For example, most people cram for a test the night before rather than the week before. 
We are chronic procrastinators, and we don’t act without a deadline. That’s why Kickstarter and Indiegogo have built urgency into their platforms via the countdown clock. The countdown is a powerful motivator. Every second that ticks away brings users one moment closer to losing their opportunity to get rewards. 
As a creator, you can make a big deal about the deadline. Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing approach is better in this regard. On Kickstarter, if your campaign is not completely funded by the deadline, not one backer is charged, and you will not receive a dime. It creates a greater sense of urgency for you and your potential backers. 
For most people, there has to be “blood in the water.” Consumers must buy on Black Friday, or they’ll miss the sale. 
Urgency doesn’t have to mean a lower price. Apple uses urgency even though they don’t discount their products. Users who want to be the first to own the latest iPhone rush to be first in line on the day it releases. 
Strategies for Creating Urgency
Reverse Coupon
The reverse coupon offers a limited-time, low price that will increase at a certain point in the future. When I launched my course, The Five-Year Plan to Becoming a Bestselling Author, we priced it too low. We occasionally raise the price to remedy the problem, but we make a lot of noise about it before we do. We warn our subscribers, patrons, and listeners that the price will increase on a certain date. The only way to get it for a lower price is to buy it before the increase. The threat of missing out on the lower price provides urgency and causes people to purchase.

Creating a solid sales page is the key to success. In this episode, you will discover the necessary secrets for: storytelling and the value of vulnerability and for crafting a sales page that sells.
Introduction

This is the meat and potatoes of your Kickstarter campaign.
If you do your promotion right, people will spend hundreds of hours looking at this page.
A good page not only convinces them to back the project, but also to invite their friends to back the project.

Storytelling and the Value of Vulnerability

You’re not crowdfunding a product, but a story.
Frame the value of your potential product by telling a compelling story about WHY you are creating what you are creating and WHY it will make the world better.

Make you laugh
Educate you
Entertain you… whatever.


Be willing to be honest and vulnerable. You want your audience to RELATE to you.
It’s ultimately NOT your story; it’s their story. Bring them into the story.

Crafting a Crowdfunding Sales Page that $ells
This is the heart of your campaign. The quality of your kickstarter page will be an amplifier on all your other  efforts.
Elements of a sales page:
Project Image

The first thing people will see on Pinterest, Facebook & Google Plus
Consider paying for a logo/cover before starting your Kickstarter campaign.
99 Designs or Fiverr is cash is tight.
This will pay for itself.

Project Title

This is the only thing people will see in a Tweet.
Think about SEO
Provide a Clear Benefit

Category

Only get to pick one so pick a child category.  This should be pretty straight forward.
If you are an author pick either fiction or nonfiction on Kickstarter
Pick Writing on IndieGoGo

Short Blurb

This is the larger font text right under the video shown within Kickstarter.
135 Characters on Kickstarter
160 Characters on Indiegogo

Funding Duration

The benefit of short campaigns:

Intensity,
Faster money
Less of the sagging middle.


The benefit of long campaigns:

More time to raise money.
Time to make adjustments and make up for mistakes.



Project Location

Kickstarter will show people projects near them.
If you don’t live in a big city select the nearest big city. Give the answer you would if you are in a conference in another state and someone asks where you are from.

Page Copy

Headings Headings Headings
Zoomable
Tell your story in images.
You can change (improve) this as you go.
FAQ
Testimonials from others (Video).
Your credibility. (Mary showed her books.)
Other places on the web where you’ve discussed your topic. (Trust symbols)
A gracious, thankful tone.

Risks and Challenges:

Spend some time thinking about this. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Common Risks & Challenges:

Launching on time
Going over budget



Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

Today we are going to talk about email.
But first, I would like to say we are not going to have an episode next week. I will be at the New Media Summit all week and won’t have a chance to record an episode.
Why Email is So Important for Creators

Platform Independent, if YouTube or Facebook keeps you from contacting your subscribers you need a way to tell them you’ve moved to a new platform.
While your fans may not see every Facebook post or YouTube notification they will get every email if you follow the advice I will give you in this episode.
Email is often the primary driver of new Patrons and Backers. For my Kickstarter campaigns, it is not uncommon for 60-80% of the backers to come from email

Before we talk about email, let’s talk about how to have an excellent email newsletter, but first let’s talk a bit about respect.
Respect:

Spam is in the eye of the beholder.
Creepy / Charming (thin line in between)
Permission

Tip 1 Give People A Good Reason to Subscribe

* The initial incentive you give someone to subscriber to your email list is called a “lead magnet.”
* If you are a band, give a free mp3 of one of your songs.
* If you are an artist, give a free wallpaper.
* If you are an author, give a free short story.
* If you are a guru, give a tip sheet or a resource guide.
* How to Create a Lead Magnet

Tip 2 Create an Onboarding Campaign

The emails that automatically drip out to your subscribers is sometimes called a drip campaign.
These emails are great for introducing new subscribers to you and your work.
It allows you to focus on true fans in your periodic emails.  
We having an example of this for authors at the Novel Marketing podcast.

Tip 3 Provide Consistent Value.

Only send out emails that your fans want to read.
New Book Announcements
Concert in Your Area (MailChimp makes this easy)
Fan Art for Your Book
New Video on Youtube (if you don’t post often)

Tip 4 Use MailChimp at First

It’s Free
Everyone uses it so tutorials are easy to find
Integrates with everything
Has decent onboarding features
I am an affiliate and have used MailChimp for over five years. If you want to support this show, use my affiliate link.
Once you have over 10,000 subscribers, there may be reasons to move to something more powerful like Drip or Convert Kit.

Tip 5 Be Consistent

Don’t Boost Your Frequency Without a Good Reason
Don’t go dark for too long or you will hit spam traps.

Tip 6 Experiment

Split Test Your Subjects
Emotional Headline Analyzer

Tip 7 Measure Your Results

Read your email campaign reports
Poll Your Readers.
Ask them what they want. www.SurveyMonkey.com.

Tip 8 Keep it Short and Simple.

Beautiful emails are more likely to go to gmails “Promotions” tab
Beautiful emails get fewer clicks
Beautiful emails sell fewer products.
Beautiful emails are more work to make.

Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

Welcome to the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., your fellow companion on the journey of making money doing the creative work you love, whether that’s video, audio, or the written word.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about how to break past the Patreon plateau. If you feel like your Patreon has stalled, where new backers are being offset by canceled pledges, this episode is for you.
Patreon CEO Jack Conte recently shared research during a Hang Time session, and I was there. Today, I’ll share some highlights from that research and offer some of my own insights along the way.
What was the research about?
Patreon analyzed campaign data to determine what successful creators did to break past plateaus. This wasn’t a manual study; it was computer-driven data analysis. While that has its pros and cons, the findings were valuable, and I’m excited to share them with you.
What strategies helped creators grow their Patreon?
1. Revamp your tiers and benefits.
The number one factor linked to increased patronage was updating reward tiers. Many creators are hesitant to make changes, fearing backlash, but I’ve never seen evidence that people get upset when you adjust tiers. In fact, feedback shows the opposite. People like it when you change things up based on their input.
There’s a saying in business, “The system you have is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re getting.” If your reward tiers aren’t attracting new patrons, they’re doing exactly what they were built to do: not attract new patrons.
Keep in mind, improving your tiers doesn’t always mean adding more content. Sometimes it means removing perks that no one values. For example, on the Novel Marketing Patreon page, we offered access to a free monthly resource. It’s great for email list building, but our patrons didn’t care about it.
Track what resonates. Remove what doesn’t. Remember that some people back you just to support your work. Others are only there for the rewards.
2. Use more locked posts.
The second tactic that moved the needle was increasing the number of locked posts. Locked posts are posts that are only visible to paying patrons. They are highly motivating, especially to non-patrons or lower-tier patrons who feel like they’re missing out.
Since hearing this advice, I’ve increased the number of locked posts I publish, and guess what? My patronage has gone up.
You can also add teaser text to locked posts. This is visible to everyone and helps create curiosity. So if only $2-and-up patrons can access the post, use the teaser to show what they’re missing.
3. Offer limited-time promotions.
The third strategy, which I’ve seen work in my own experience, is offering a limited-time deal. People procrastinate, and urgency helps take action. But to be effective, the offer must be authentic and not gimmicky.
One great example Jack shared was from his wife, a musician. When she launched a solo album, she offered to include the names of anyone who became a patron before the end of the month in the CD booklet. This wasn’t a gimmick because the CDs were going to press, and the deadline was real.
This type of offer creates urgency and relevance. You can use the same concept by saying, “Be featured in my next album, video, or book if you become a patron by [date].”
We tried this on the Novel Marketing Patreon by offering a $50 discount on our Book Launch Blueprint course to patrons. That discount was only available for a limited time, and it worked. Patronage spiked. Most people signed up to get the discount, and we’ll see how many stick around. Even if some drop off, others are likely to upgrade from the $2 to the $5 tier, which is our sweet spot.
4. Personalize your appreciation.
But how do you keep patrons?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to membership sites, one is to use a 3rd party platform like Patreon, and one is to do it yourself on your own website. I want you to hear from people from both schools of thought, which is why I’ve invited Ravi Jayagopal to the show.
Ravi Jayagopal is the Co-Founder of DigitalAccessPass.com, a premier membership platform for WordPress. He also hosts SubscribeMe.fm a podcast about making, marketing & monetizing your content with membership sites, online courses & subscriptions.
Questions

* Why would someone want to host a membership site on their own website rather than using a platform like Patreon?
* What are some of the downsides of hosting it yourself?
* How do you design a membership program people want to join? What do you include with the membership?
* What are DOGPOO and DOSAA?
* Let’s Talk About Membership Models. When do you go lifetime? When do you go recurring?

Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

In this episode, we talk about how to make money by creating informational products. I also share an example of how to do it from Novel Marketing.
Thank you for your kind reviews.
I was feeling very low yesterday and for some reason I stumbled across the reviews for Creative Funding Show (which I haven’t checked in months.) There were a lot of really kind reviews. I’m glad you are enjoying the show!
So far, I have not been getting much mail. So it is good to know that you are out there listening.
Today we are going to take a deep dive on info products.
What is an info product?

Ebook
Audio Course
Video Course

The key is that it is distilled and it solves a very specific problem that your audience has. Better fit for educational creators rather than entertainment creators.
How To Create an Info Product

* Start with your audience. What questions are they asking?
* We have a lot of listeners ask us about launching their books.
* A lot of this materials is repackaged and re-recorded from the podcast, but focused on the book launch.
* All the audio is new, but the lessons have been taught before, at least some of them have.
* We have over 50 hours of audio recorded, this course focuses on the critical info.

Here was our process:

We started by writing a draft of the landing page, and focused on the benefits that people would get from taking the each session,
We outlined the sessions
We recorded the sessions
We developed the handout/homework for the session (this sometimes happened before.)
Then we developed the actual landing page
Got feedback from our Mastermind Group
Went back and reworked the landing page.

Our students are getting more than just lessons. Part of what people are paying for is the community aspect. We will create a students only Facebook group. This is where a lot of the value is going to come from.
Now let’s talk about promotion.

The main way we are going to promote this course is via email.
Mary, Jim and I will all email our lists.
We developed an editorial calendar of when the emails will go out and from who.
We are also promoting it on the Novel Marketing podcast
Novel Marketing Patrons save $50 on the course. This encourages people to sign up as patrons.

Example Episode from Novel Marketing
 
Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love. I’m your host, Thomas Umstattd, Jr., and with me again is Mary Demuth. She’s an international speaker and podcaster, a novelist of both fiction and nonfiction, and has published over 35 books. Her latest, The Seven Deadly Friendships, is coming out in about a month.
Mary loves to help people re-story their lives. She lives in Texas with her husband and is a mom of three. When Mary was on the show last time, we talked about her Patreon and brainstormed ways to improve it. After the episode, we kept brainstorming, and I joked that once she doubled her revenue, we should have her back on the show. Well, she contacted me and said, “Hey, I doubled my revenue!”
So true to my word, I’ve invited her back.
What is “Pray Every Day”?
Thomas: Tell us a little bit about your podcast.
Mary: I have a podcast called Pray Every Day, where I pray for people based on scripture. I usually go through books of the Bible in order, like Philippians, James, Psalm 119, and the Sermon on the Mount. In my next episodes, I’ll be praying through relational verses from The Seven Deadly Friendships. So if you’ve got some broken relationships and would like some prayer, you can check it out.
What did Mary’s Patreon look like before the changes we brainstormed?
Thomas: What were you doing on Patreon before our last interview?
Mary: I had shared my Patreon with my email list and got a few subscribers that way. These were diehard fans who supported me no matter what, which was really humbling and sweet. At that point, I only had one reward level. Anyone giving over $5 a month would receive an original art piece from me each month. People loved it because they had already asked for it in the past. And I enjoyed doing it; it wasn’t a burden at all.
That’s how it started, but we’ve added more levels since then. I also started promoting it more on the podcast, and that’s when I saw real change.
What difference does a big promotional push make?
Thomas: One thing we talked about was borrowing a strategy from CBS or NPR and having a focused pledge drive instead of a constant slow drumbeat. CBS, for example, does an intense pledge drive once or twice a year. Wikipedia does the same around Christmas. They don’t ask for money every time you visit, just during that one period. You tried something like this. Tell us what happened.
Mary: Initially, I sent it out to my list and did a big push. That brought in the first wave of patrons. But then I started doing what you call the “drumbeat” of mentioning it regularly. Every few days, I’d see another $1, $5, $10, or $20 come in.
I also added several new levels in addition to the Art Level. One was called “The Brick.” I created a graphic that looked like a wall of bricks, similar to the donor bricks you see at libraries. Anyone who sponsors the podcast gets their name on a brick, and that wall appears in all show notes and on every podcast episode. It’s like advertising year-round.
Then I followed your advice and added an exclusive audio podcast for $20-level patrons. I don’t have a ton of patrons at that level, but I’m grateful for the ones who are there. I record a casual, heartfelt update about what’s going on in my life, what I’ve learned, and answered prayers. It’s about 15 to 20 minutes long each month.
Why offer higher-level Patreon tiers?
Thomas: One thing Bremner Morris from Patreon mentioned is that people want to give at higher levels. A common mistake creators make is only offering low-tier options.
We saw this on Novel Marketing.

The Creative Funding Show is a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love. I’m your host Thomas Umstattd Jr., and with me today is Steve Olsher,  who’s known for helping individuals and corporations get exceptionally clear on the one thing they were created to do. His no-holds-barred approach to life and business helps his clients achieve massive profitability while leading lives of purpose and contribution. He also runs the New Media Summit and hosts Reinvention Radio.
Is podcasting just a fad?
Thomas: You have a podcast, and the New Media Summit is specifically for podcasters. What would you say to people who think podcasting is just a fad?
Steve: I think there was a time when people questioned whether podcasting had staying power. It started in basements, so to speak, and some folks weren’t sure it would go mainstream. But that’s no longer the case.
Now that Wi-Fi is standard in cars, Apple CarPlay and Google CarPlay are more prevalent, and NPR and other major media outlets have podcast momentum, there’s no way podcasting is still a fad. It’s growing rapidly. In fact, I recently heard that, for the first time, podcast listenership has surpassed satellite radio, which is huge. That happened in the first quarter of 2018. So yes, podcasting is alive and well, and the fear that it’s a passing trend is behind us.
Thomas: I come from the terrestrial radio world. I used to host a radio show, and people have been predicting the death of radio for over 60 years. TV was supposed to kill it. Then 8-tracks and then cassette tapes. Yet radio’s still around. If radio can last, I think podcasting has an even longer road ahead.
Steve: I agree. In fact, I think podcasting may eventually lead to radio’s final demise. Having done interviews on both platforms for 20 years, I can say that most radio goes unheard, while most podcasts are actively chosen by listeners. Podcasting is a pull medium. People raise their hands and say, “I want that.” Nearly 100% of podcasts are listened to. It’s the opposite of traditional radio.
Why is podcasting better for measurement?
Thomas: There’s a reason I now have several podcasts and no longer do radio. Coming from the marketing world, I was used to measuring everything. With radio, you have no idea how many people are listening. They use clumsy methods like surveys or tracking devices, but it’s not precise.
With podcasting, you get much better data. YouTube is even more advanced. You can see exactly which second someone stopped watching. That transparency helps creators adapt more quickly to what their audience wants and improve their content.
Steve: I completely agree. We still have room to grow in podcasting when it comes to tracking and metrics. Some platforms are trying to improve that, but generally, when someone downloads your show, you don’t really know who they are. That’s one of the few downsides. Still, it’s far ahead of radio in terms of engagement and feedback.
Thomas: It’s one of the last anonymous things you can do online. A website knows everything about you, but when you download a podcast episode, all the host knows is your device type, app, and maybe a few more details. That’s it.
Do you need your own podcast to profit from podcasting?
Thomas: Let’s talk about the money side. Do people need to have their own podcast to make money from podcasting?
Steve: Not at all. We actually have a course called Profiting from Podcasts that focuses on monetizing the guest side of the equation. You can absolutely make money as a guest without having your own show.
That said, I’m a big advocate of starting your own podcast. As you get clearer about your topic of influence (...

In today’s episode, I’m going to take a deep dive on Patreon and Email.
Why this is important.
For the Novel Marketing Patreon, there are several rewards that we want patrons to get automatically. The biggest is a series of coupon codes that give them discounts on our courses and plugins.
Right now we send these emails by hand and that means there is sometimes a long delay from when someone signs up and when they get the email.
You would think there is a way in Patreon to craft a custom thank you email that would have all this information, but there is not. That said it can be done and I will walk you through how to do it in this episode.
The other reason this is important is that it gets your patrons out of Patreon and into your email app. That way if something happened to Patreon or you wanted to move away for some reason, you have all your subscribers in a place you control. Also, it is nice to be able to send out emails to all your patrons.
TL;DR
The short version is you setup a Zapier Zap with a Patreon “New Patron” trigger that triggers a MailChimp action to add the patron as a subscriber. Then you create a MailChimp onboarding campaign that has the welcome email. If that didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry I will walk you through the process step by step.
 
Step 1 Sign Up for Zapier
Zapier is a tool used for connecting online services. It has a free forever plan which is all we will need for this.
Sign Up for Zapier (Free)
How Zapier Works:

A “trigger” in one app can create an “Action” in another app.
Right now Patreon has 3 triggers

New Pledge
Updated Pledge
Delete Pledge


There are thousands of Action apps. For instance, you can setup Twitter as an action so that as soon as someone becomes a Patron, you send a Tweet thanking that person.
Zapier has some built-in actions and can send out emails itself, so you could skip all the following steps if you don’t care about building an email list in MailChimp.

 
Step 2 Sign Up For MailChimp
I am going to use MailChimp as my example in this episode because it is the most popular app. You can do this with nearly any other email service like ConvertKit, Drip, or Active Campaign.
MailChimp is the most popular email marketing platform on the internet.
MailChimp is free up to 2,000 subscribers. After that, it is on the cheap side of the platforms. It’s not the cheapest or the most powerful but it is a solid option for a lot of people.
Sign up for MailChimp (Affiliate Link)
There are many tutorial videos to help you with signing up for MailChimp, and there is a good chance you already have a MailChimp account so I won’t spend too much time on it here.
Here is a guide on How to Sign up For a MailChimp Account.
Step 3 Create a “Zap” between Patreon and MailChimp
To start this step, the easiest thing to do is click the link in the show notes that will take you to the specific Patreon to MailChimp recipe in Zapier. At that point, you will just follow the steps.  
In short, you will verify your Patreon account and Verify your MailChimp account.
Patreon to MailChimp Zapier Recipe
Tips:

You want Patreon to be your “trigger app”
You want MailChimp to be your “Action”

Step 3.5 (Optional) Create a “Patrons” Group in MailChimp

This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love. I’m Thomas Umstattd, Jr., and with me today is Bryan Cohen, the dashingly handsome co-host of the Sell More Books Show.
Bryan helps authors sell more books and make more money by helping them write better book descriptions and market their books more effectively. His podcast is one of the most popular in the publishing world.
Thomas: Bryan, you’ve been on Patreon for almost two years now, so why did you start the Sell More Books Show?
Bryan: It was at a time when I really wanted to use some of my skills that weren’t being used in my book writing. I have a background in theater, improv, and comedy, and I love connecting with people through audio. I had done voiceover and video work before, but I didn’t have an outlet for it.
The story of the show is that Jim Kukral, my co-host, was looking for someone to join him. I barely knew him, but I saw his posts on social media. I knew he had an audience from his Author Marketing Club service, so I said, “Hey, I’d be interested.” We had a short interview, and I came up with the idea for the format of delivering the news.
Lo and behold, we’re now at episode 223. We’ve never missed a week. Sometimes one of us takes a break, but the show itself has run for 223 consecutive weeks.
Why did you focus on indie publishing?
Thomas: Your news-and-commentary format could work well in so many other industries. There are a lot of political news podcasts, but not many focused on news in specific professional niches. Yet there are hundreds of industries that could support vibrant, profitable shows like yours.
You do a great job covering publishing news, especially indie publishing. Why did you decide to focus on indie authors?
Bryan: Part of it was that Jim and I both had more experience in the indie world. While Jim had a traditionally published book, he didn’t have a great experience with it, and that perspective influenced our early episodes. I’ve never been traditionally published.
So it was really “podcast what you know.” Indie publishing was our world. Our show became a niche within a niche. It was about indie publishing for people who actually want to know what’s going on.
That hyper-focus has been great for our businesses. Plus, having to report on industry news each week keeps us constantly learning.
How does the podcast support your business?
Thomas: Let’s talk business. You use your podcast to promote what you do. Walk us through how that works.
Bryan: We had been podcasting for about a year when I launched my main business in May 2015, which is a done-for-you book description service called Best Page Forward.
At the time, I didn’t have much of an email list. My only real audience was the podcast, so I promoted the business there. We didn’t do a hard pitch. I just explained what it was and sent details to our podcast email list, which was maybe up to a thousand people.
In the first 60 days, I had over 100 orders. Our listeners immediately said, “Yes, this is what I need. I hate writing book descriptions.”
Since then, we’ve used the podcast to promote other services, webinars, and sales. We even launched a live conference based on the podcast.
Thomas: That’s such a smart approach. Instead of building a product and then looking for an audience, you built the audience first, then asked, “What do these people need?”
For example, a lot of authors would rather write a whole new book than write a two-paragraph sales pitch for the one they’ve already written, so you created a service to solve that problem.

James Rubart is a bestselling author, audiobook narrator and podcaster (Novel Marketing). He is also our intro guy, so his voice may sound a bit familiar to you.
Audiobook sales are the fastest growing segment of books. If you have ever thought about writing a book, you need to also think about recording an audiobook.
Questions:
Why are audiobooks important?
#1: The Size of the Audiobook Industry is Nearly a Billion-Dollar Industry.
#2: Book Mavens Listen to Audiobooks.
#3: Audiobooks Protect You From the Oprah Effect.
#4: Audiobooks Boost Paper & eBook Sales.
#5: Audiobooks Give You Access to Non-Readers.
#6: Having an Audiobook Makes You Easier to Find.
#7: Audiobooks Are Not that Expensive & Easy to Make.
How does someone record an audiobook?
What are the advantages of recording it yourself?
What are the disadvantages of recording it yourself?
What advice do you have for someone who wants to hire a professional narrator?
Where can we find you online?
Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love without selling out. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., and with me is Bremner Morris, the head of Patreon’s Creator Partnership and Success Teams.
Today, we’ll talk about newbie mistakes people make on Patreon. Bremner consults with a lot of creators. In fact, his main job for several months was helping people take their pages to the next level. Just having a page on Patreon is not enough.
How does a creator know when they’re ready to start a Patreon page?
Thomas: When do they know their fan base is big enough to justify it?
Bremner: It depends on the individual creator. Some creators only have a few thousand fans but do really well on Patreon because they have a deep and unique relationship with their audience. Others have millions of fans but lack that connection, so the outcome is different.
From our perspective, it’s about whether you’ve developed a deep enough relationship with your fans that they would want to support you on an ongoing, recurring basis. You also need to consider if converting, say, 0.5% to 10% of those fans would be a compelling return on your investment.
We help creators see what their potential earnings could look like. We typically explain it this way: you have your total addressable audience, which is people who’ve maybe seen your show once or a few times. Then a smaller portion of those become actual fans. From that fan base, a smaller group (between 0.5% and 10%) might convert into paying patrons.
Thomas: Do you have an online tool where people can plug in their numbers and get an estimate?
Bremner: Not yet, but that’s one of our opportunity assessments for our product teams. We want to build something like that so creators who are thinking about launching a Patreon page can get a sense of the potential return.
It’s important to remember that launching a membership business is an investment. You’re not only marketing and educating your fans about your membership but also committing to fulfilling rewards on a regular basis. That recurring relationship comes with responsibilities.
Thomas: One mistake is launching with just five backers and suddenly feeling obligated to do a ton of work to keep those five backers happy.
Instead of charging monthly, you could charge per piece of content and set a rule that says, “I’m not going to charge anyone until I have at least 50 backers.” That helps protect against overcommitting too soon.
Bremner: Yeah, that was our earliest business model. When Jack first launched Patreon, it was based on pledging per piece of content. So when he released a video, fans pledged a set amount per video, often with a cap like 10 videos per month max.
But we realized that many creators were essentially turning it into a monthly subscription anyway. So we built that into the platform. Now, most creators use the monthly membership model. It’s more predictable and easier for patrons to understand. They know exactly what they’ll pay each month. And it aligns with how the industry is shifting.
Thomas: Yeah, it’s scary to say, “I’ll charge per YouTube video,” and then realize you’re posting 10 videos a month. Even though you can set a cap, I get the impression that not many people actually do.
Bremner: We don’t have specific data on how many people use the cap, but most patrons are your most loyal fans. They want to support your work no matter how much you create. So I’d guess a lot of folks don’t bother setting a cap.
What are some common mistakes creators make when launching their Patreon?
Thomas: Let’s say someone has a solid base of maybe 300 loyal fans or 10,000 casual ones, and they think they’re ready.

This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love without selling out. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., and with me today is Bremner Morris. He’s the head of Patreon’s Creator Partnerships and Creator Success Teams. He helps creators join the platform and become more successful once they get on Patreon.
What is Patreon?
Bremner: Patreon is a membership platform for artists and creators to get paid by their most loyal fans. What I mean by that is artists and creators can use Patreon to engage with their audience on a monthly, recurring basis. They establish a membership fee with those fans by offering them something exclusive and unique as part of that membership campaign. Today, we have about 70,000 creators on the platform, processing about 150 million payments a year. To date, we’ve processed about 300 million payments back to creators. So it’s pretty exciting.
Thomas: It’s very exciting, especially when you consider 150 million a year and 300 million total. That means the growth curve is up and to the right quite a bit.
How many new creators are joining the platform on a given week?
Bremner: We’re adding hundreds of creators per week. We have a lot of folks who join the platform just to test it out. But we also have many who join and see significant outcomes because they have a very established fan base. Patreon is really for folks who have an established fan base. They’re simply converting their most loyal audience into paying subscribers.
Thomas: If no one knows who you are, Patreon is not going to help very much.
Bremner: We have an internal term that says we’re not for the “zero to fan” problem, we’re for the “fan to member” problem.
Thomas: I’ve noticed that many people are surprised by how much their most loyal fans are willing to give. There’s a curve, and at the top are a few fans who would happily give you hundreds of dollars a month, sometimes without even wanting the rewards. That’s the big surprise. You put together these amazing perks, yet some fans never even send you their mailing address. I’ve heard creators say, “Yeah, I reached out, and they replied, but they didn’t care about the rewards. They just wanted to support me.”
Creators who aren’t using something like Patreon are leaving money on the table. If you’re an author just selling books, your most passionate fan and your most casual fan both pay the same $10. But that passionate fan wants more. They want a deeper connection with you, so you just have to give them the opportunity.
Bremner: There are probably two motivations for a patron to sign up. One is a support motivation. Patrons really love what you do and want to continue supporting your craft so you can make it a sustainable lifestyle. The other side of the coin is a benefits-oriented patron. Patrons sign up because of the exclusive benefits they get for being a member. Interestingly, these motivations merge over time. We’ve seen that folks who sign up as support-oriented patrons tend to migrate toward being more benefits-oriented, and those who sign up for extra episodes or exclusive merchandise begin to feel great about supporting creators they love.
The average patron spends about $12 on the platform, which is more than a typical subscription to a music or video service. Some creators offer benefit tiers in the thousands of dollars and have patrons converting at that rate.
Thomas: It’s remarkable. You spend $10 for Spotify, and it’s split among tens of thousands of songs. Whereas if you’re spending $12 on Patreon, it’s probably split between five or six creators. That’s a much bigger piece of the pie. If I’m an artist on Spotify, any given listener may be giving me a few pennies.

This is the Creative Funding Show, a podcast for authors, YouTubers, and podcasters who want to fund the work they love without selling out. I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr., and with me today is Jacqueline Isaacs. She is the strategic director of Bellwether Communications, where she crafts measurable, well-researched content strategies for clients. She is also co-author of the book Call to Freedom: Why You Can Be a Christian and a Libertarian, which I’m sure is not controversial at all. It successfully raised $8,000 through Indiegogo in the summer of 2016.
Where did the idea for Call to Freedom come from?
Jacqueline: The idea dates back to around 2012. The six of us who went on to write the book, our editor, Elise Daniels, and five chapter contributors, met in a book club in Washington, DC. The club was sponsored by a Christian nonprofit and gave young Christian professionals a place to talk about faith, culture, and how to live out our beliefs in the highly political environment of DC. Most of us leaned toward the free market side, from conservative to libertarian.
A conference called the International Students for Liberty Conference needed to fill some panel slots. They reached out to members of our group, and the six of us proposed a panel titled something like, “Is Christianity Coercive?” In libertarian circles, coercion and the proper use of force are important issues.
Thomas: Libertarians are not big fans of the use of force.
Jacqueline: Right, especially not from government or authorities. That’s where tension often arises between faith and libertarianism, since being a Christian means accepting authority from God, the Bible, and the church. Some libertarians resist that idea. Our panel explored this question. It was at 9:00 a.m. against other interesting panels, so we didn’t expect a large turnout, but we packed the room. Students asked thoughtful questions. Some were from Christian campuses where being libertarian caused conflict; others were from secular campuses where being libertarian was fine but being Christian was the source of tension.
A recurring request from these students was for a resource they could take back to campus to explain how they could be both Christian and libertarian. We could recommend books on economics or faith and culture by great scholars, but there was no single book tailored to young adults who wanted to articulate both their faith and libertarian political philosophy.
How did you turn the panel into a book?
Thomas: You had this successful panel and realized the book you wanted to recommend didn’t exist. You decided to create it. What did you do next?
Jacqueline: It took us about a year to craft our proposal and pitch it to traditional publishers. We didn’t immediately consider self-publishing because there were six of us, all with full-time jobs, and no one volunteered to take on the logistics. Eventually, we were picked up by a publisher specializing in academic publishing, which was more focused on textbooks and classroom resources. They liked that we were targeting college students, but they didn’t offer much support for promoting or marketing the book.
Why did you use crowdfunding?
Thomas: Basically, they would make the book exist but wouldn’t sell copies. What was your plan to get the books into students’ hands?
Jacqueline: That’s when we decided to crowdfund. I had studied crowdfunding academically, and 2016 was when crowdfunding surpassed traditional venture capital in funding volume. We wanted to raise money to market the book and connect with our audience before release. Crowdfunding let us generate preorders and build buzz ahead of the launch.
Thomas: Crowdfunding creates urgency with a definite end date. It triggers scarcity and popularity cues, turning a launch into an event. You were going to publish anyway, but crowdfunding made it easier to get attention.
Jacqueline: Exactly.