How to copy similar Patreon creators

So... we don't advocate literally copying another creator's work, but copying (or at least learning from) their social and monetization strategies should be something you do to grow your own Patreon.

When it comes to setting up or growing a Patreon page, it makes sense to see what’s working for your given vertical, whether it's podcasting, asmr videos, mini 3d print templates, etc.

Researching what’s working for other creators is fairly straightforward, but in case you’re new to internet stalking, here’s the rundown:

Step 1: Identify similar creators

If you already follow some creators doing similar work to you, skip ahead to step 2.

Find creators who exemplify what you’d like to build your Patreon to look like. Look for similar audiences and similar styles of content. Take a look at Graphtreon's broad categories to find creators that are doing what you do or use Patreon's native search.

If you’re a more niche type of creator, even googling “_____ + patreon” can yield some matching Patreon pages.

Step 2: See how these similar creators are using Patreon.

Cruise through your chosen creators’ Patreon pages (or even better, become a member) to look at things like:

• What rewards do they offer? And what does their pricing look like?

• How often do they post to their Patreon page? What kind of content? Do they post to free members?

• Do they have public posts?

• How do they distribute rewards (if applicable)?

• How do they engage with their Patreon community if at all? Discord? Patreon comments? Email?

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Set up automated emails that convert more free members, recover declines, and reactivate former patrons.

Step 3: Do some Google stalking

Do some basic stalking to see how your chosen creators have built their following. Just searching their creator name should pull up enough info to work with.

The basic things to pay attention to are:

Social channels:

• Where are they active?

• Where did they start posting first? How did they build their following? Because Patreon is not where you build your audience, its where you monetize your existing audience.

• Where do they receive the most engagement?

• How do they engage with their community on these channels?

• How often do they post?

• How do they advertise their Patreon? How often do they mention their Patreon?

Distribution sites:

Where does their content get posted/shared regularly?

Other monetization channels:

Do they sell their content in other places? This is especially good to take note of since it can help you determine how to set up your Patreon rewards so that you can sell the same content (eg: send out content as monthly Patreon rewards but then use that same content a couple months later to sell as a package on Gumroad) and diversify your income streams.

Step 4: Test out what you’ve learned

Another thing to look at while you’re stalking creators is, how long has it taken them to build out the audience they have. The answer is, probably a while. So pick and choose the things you want to test because there’s nothing to it, but to do it.

So let’s put this into practice:

(If you’re the creator we’ve used as a random example and you don’t want to be featured, please email us.)

Alright, let's assume we’re a comic creator with a fantasy-ish subject matter.

So let’s look for a comic artist who is doing similar work.

Let’s start by looking at the comic category on Graphtreon so we can find someone who does similar work and has a well established Patreon.

I’m going to go with this artist, pocketss, because they’ve openly disclosed their Patreon income and their content is similar to our fantasy-ish vibes.

From pocketss's Patreon page, we can see that they focus mostly on early releases, exclusive process art, and mini comics as their main rewards. If you look at the top comic creators in general, a lot of them offer Patreon exclusive comics as the main sell.

pocketss posts only gated content for paid members, no public posts, which makes sense given how they use their social feeds to post all their public content.

Googling reveals a heavy presence on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr as their main social channels. Each of these channels shows active community and engagement.

If we look at their social channels, we can see they’ve had the longest presence on Tumblr, and built their initial following from fanart there.

Their work gets reposted on Pinterest, Reddit (on subreddits like goblincore, WitchesVsPatriarchy), and Imgur. So it’d be ideal to seed some content there regularly too.

Monetization wise, pocketss is pretty much Patreon only other than a tip jar at Kofi. They link to their Patreon from all their social channels, but do not mention their Patreon on every post. Particularly interesting to note is that Pocketss does not have their own website other than Tumblr and points most of their social traffic to Patreon. Overall, pocketss is a very minimal creator when it comes to self promo and monetization as a whole.

So the takeaways from pocketss if we're a similar creator?:

• Get active on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr if we aren’t already because those are the channels that are working particularly well for pocketss.

• Look into reposting content in similar subreddits and Pinterest boards.

• No need to build a website if we have a strong enough social presence.

• Even without actively marketing Patreon (other than linking to Patreon in the profile), a strong enough following can generate a stable monthly income in this segment.

Written by Naomi @ Okoa. Okoa is an email marketing and analytics platform for Patreon creators. Okoa increases Patreon income by converting more free members to paid, recovering declines, and reactivating former patrons. Interested in increasing your Patreon income with less work? Try Okoa for free.