This article will cover how to go about setting up a post that will first be made visible to your paying patrons and then go live to the public after a certain number of days or hours. It will show you how to set access as well as how your patrons will be notified when the post goes live.
If one of your benefits is offering patrons early access to content before the rest of the world sees it, you can easily set this up within a post.
In this guide, we'll go over:
- How to create an early access post
- Scheduling your early access post to publish later
- How your patrons will be notified
Follow the steps below to create your first early access post:
Step 1: Click on the Post section of your page, and select New. Then make your post as you normally would.
Step 2: If you're on our Lite platform plan, you can set your early access posts once you've selected Patrons Only. For creators on our Pro, and Premium plans, you'll see the option to set your early access post with both your Patrons Only, and Select Tiers options.
Once you select who can view the post, the early access box will appear directly under.
Step 3: Check the early access box. You can customize how long the post will be patron-only until it is automatically viewable by the public.
Step 4: You can choose to publish your post now, save it as a draft, or schedule the post to publish later.
Keep reading below for more information on scheduling your early access post for later.
Scheduling an early access post to publish later
Schedule your post for a later time! If you're setting up future posts for your editorial calendar, you have the flexibility of scheduling your post to publish at a later date, and time.
To do this, select the drop-down arrow next to the publish button, and select Schedule.
After selecting the option to Schedule, you'll see another date, and time field appear. Click into the fields to set a publish date. Be sure to select a date before your post will go public, so that the early access feature serves it's purpose.
Can I schedule an early access post on the Patreon app?
Not right now! Scheduling a post is currently only available on the Desktop, and Mobile web versions of Patreon.
If you'd like to schedule an early access post, and are creating your post on the go, you can create your post on the Mobile web version (i.e. Chrome, or Firefox) of Patreon to schedule your post. Alternatively, you can save your post as a draft in the app, and revisit your post to schedule on Desktop, or Mobile web.
What if I decide to release the post early to the public?
If you’d like to release an early access post to the public ahead of the scheduled public date, you can update the post by clicking edit. You can then make the post public. That simple :)
Note: Once you make an early access post visible to the public, you won’t be able to make the post early access again. So be sure that you're ready to have the posts set as public.
To learn more about editing posts, check out this helpful article:
How do I edit or delete a post?
How do I edit or delete a post?
How will my patrons be notified of the early access post?
Patrons who have early access to your post, will receive an email notification letting them know that they're seeing your post before the rest of the world. Here's what that email will look like:
Once the post goes public on the date you set, all other patrons and followers will get an email notifying them they can view the post.