Wherever you are on your journey, Patreon offers the tools to confidently reach, engage, and get paid by your most valuable fans. This article overviews what you need to get started and how to grow your community and business on your timeline.
Your space, on your terms
When you start your Patreon page, you unlock free tools to grow your community, customize your page to your unique brand and perspective, and share your most authentic work with fans who support you the most. When you're ready to grow your business, we have multiple ways to help you get paid that you can add anytime.
Customizing your page
Getting started is easy, just visit patreon.com and click the Get Started or Create on Patreon button to begin.
We're launching new ways for creators to directly reach their biggest fans, strengthen their communities, and grow their businesses. Click on the link on comingsoon.patreon.com for access to new ways to do more with Patreon.
Once you’ve created your account, you can upload a profile image and cover image for your header space and pen an about me section to let fans know what you’re all about and why they should join your community. Once you’ve created your page, you can start sharing your work on your page and start engaging with your members. Visit our guide for customizing your page to learn how you can make your page unique to you.
Fans can join your community
If you have early access to let members join for free and are new to Patreon, it will automatically be available when you create your account or publish your page. Members get email notifications about your new public posts directly to their inbox, so they never miss an update. You can track how your community is growing with powerful member insights, and you have a direct line of communication to grow relationships with your members naturally.
Reach your most engaged fans with posts
As you get started on Patreon, posting public posts ensures that your work reaches everyone — your fans and members alike. Public posts get fans excited about joining your community, and free members get notified about your new public posts in their inbox, so they don’t miss out on your announcements and new work.
Creating a public post
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- Click the
Create button from the left navigation, or on your page
- If you’re not seeing the create option, then click on your name in the bottom-left corner > select your Creator profile from the menu
- Choose what you’re creating from the post type dialog. If you'd like to open your draft in another tab, you can right-click or ctrl+click and select Open in another tab
- Give your post a title (required) and upload your file, type your text, or paste your link
- Under Who can see this post? choose the Public option
- You can publish your post immediately, schedule your post to go live at a later time or exit the editor and we’ll save your work as a draft
- Click the
- Not seeing the Create button? Click on your profile image in the top-left corner > click on Switch to Creator Profile button
- Click on Make a post
- Give your post a title (required) and upload your file, type your text, or paste your link > click Next
- Click on the Who can see this post field and choose Public
- You can publish your post immediately, schedule your post to go live at a later time or exit the editor, and we’ll save your work as a draft
- Click the
Track the performance of your posts with post insights
Once your public post is published, you can track engagement and views on your post with post insights in a couple of places:
- Your Post dashboard daily post impressions, post page traffic sources, and likes and impressions for your most recent 15 posts. Learn more about your Posts Dashboard
- When viewing a post on your page or directly on the post page, you can open the insights dialog for any post by clicking on the
more insights button in the right corner of the post
- You’ll see overall post impressions, members who liked the post, and members who commented on the post
Expand your business when it feels right for you
Whether you want to sell digital products to customers or get recurring revenue through paid memberships, we’ve got you covered with tools to grow your business in the way that’s best for you.
Offering paid membership
If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that your most valuable fans want you to succeed, and quite a few of them are willing to pay to get more of the work they love. Adding paid offerings to your page lets you build your community into a sustainable business to help financially support your work. Visit our guide to adding paid offerings to your page to learn more about how to enable paid membership.
Resources for paid membership
- 5 steps to define your goals — and actually achieve them
- How to structure your membership and price your benefits
- How to combine exclusive content and community to delight your fans
Seamless commerce tools to sell your products
You can sell digital products like videos, podcast episodes, images, and other files directly to customers, whether they’re a member or not, through Commerce. Our commerce tools let you sell digital products on your Shop tab and give you powerful insights into customer behavior and your earnings growth over time.
Selling digital products is great if you have a collection of capstone work that you want to release and get paid for, if you want to open another revenue stream, or if you want your work to be available for purchase by anyone, whether they’re a member or not. Visit our guide for selling products to learn more about how to get started with Commerce.
FAQ
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Patreon offers tools to help you get paid whenever it feels right for you. There’s no obligation to offer paid membership when you start your journey on Patreon. If you have early access to let members join for free and have turned it on, anyone can join your page for free.
There are multiple ways to get paid when you’re ready:
- You can also sell digital products through Commerce - learn more about Commerce
- Adding a paid membership to your page
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Ultimately, you know yourself and your business goals best. Adding a paid membership might be right for you if:
- You create consistent digital or tangible work that you can offer fans regularly
- You’re making exclusive content or work that you want your most dedicated fans to have access to regularly
- You make episodic content (think podcast series or if you’re writing a book)
There are a ton of unique benefits that work great with paid membership. If you think you’re ready to take the next step in your journey, we’ve created a guide on how to structure your membership and price your benefits to help you get started.
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We categorize Patreon campaigns as “Safe for All Audiences” or “Adult/18+” because the payment processors we rely on to get creators paid require this distinction.
The “Adult/18+” category is for pages with one or more works (audio, text, or visual, including depictions of human beings and animations) containing sexually explicit content or nudity. Visit our Should my campaign be marked Safe for All Audiences or Adult/18+ article to learn which categorization is best for you.
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Share your page with your online community via social networks or with family and friends. If you have a podcast or video channel, you can thank your members on Patreon for supporting the work or link to your page where fans can join your community.
We’ve got great tips for growing your audience and promoting your page in our Creator Hub.
