Nire Bryce on cohost

people are saying just move to <one of 16 different ways to do patreon style funding> and i just want to warn you that maybe 10% of people will actually move to any given one because half of them want it to be the one of the sixteen they already use, and most of the others don't want to move to yet another app. I've seen so many people try to move.

if you think patreon is going to get bad, start planting the seed sooner, research the options, pick one, and talk about it going forward. but just. be aware that it probably won't break anywhere near even with what you get now, and to maybe start rationing your budget so you can set aside enough to buy time to recover.

we don't know that patreon is dying, but if the IPO happens it's a lot more likely. If you're in a group that's uncomfy to the Christian anti-queer-media campaign, perhaps start earlier even if patreon seems fine.

but, like, get your patrons used to the idea before you have to mobilize on it.

Yeah, if the past ~2 years with Twitter doing ITS slow-motion implosion have proven anything, it's that even when the Dominant Service gets obviously worse by all objective measures, it's actually Pretty Hard to rebuild a viable audience on a new service with 1% of the Dominant Service's userbase. Like, we've been doing a whole proof-of-concept thing for a while here now, and it'd be good to take some lessons from it!

The best time to start building lifeboats was always Yesterday, but Right Now is the 2nd-best - what you DON'T want to be doing is trying to get set up on a competing service the day after the Dominant Service goes down. And don't just start an account so you can squat on the username! Some tips to set yourself up for as much success as possible:

Try to keep the new service as up-to-date as your current one. Maybe this seems like a no-brainer, but probably the most important thing to convey to your audience is "I consider this a viable alternative and will be treating it as such", and NOT "this is just an afterthought"
Consider offering an archive of a certain amount of your Patreon-exclusive as a reward, assuming your work is easily-archived. I've written before about the importance and utility of maintaining good, accessible archives of your work as a creator, and bringing over the old stuff is a nice way of ensuring continuity between services for your subscribers
As @julian mentioned on their post, mailing lists/newsletters are an EXTREMELY useful means of keeping in contact with a solid core of your most-dedicated fans. @baiyu and @nomnomnami have a couple of posts here breaking down a lot of options. Remember, if Patreon decides to send your account to Super Hell, you won't be able to send your current patrons any kind of update through their platform, and you can't always count on people catching updates on Twitter/Insta/etc. Being able to send people updates directly to your e-mail (that they can then share with other fans who might be wondering where you've gone) is pretty crucial!
Even if you don't feel like starting a new creator account just yet, consider subscribing to a couple creators on the platforms you're considering and paying attention to what you do and don't like about how the platform handles things! Every platform has its own character, its own strengths, its own frustrations and foibles. You aren't going to understand these things automatically the moment you start posting there!
Really want to restate what @NireBryce said above about the importance of both starting your account and starting your messaging to your current patrons (the people, historically speaking, who are most likely to continue giving you money) about your presence on a new service as early as possible. If you create writing, make sure everything you write has a little "Check me out on Subscription Service X!" blurb at the bottom. If you create art, make sure every post has an extra image detailing where else people can find you. If you create videos, make sure every one has a bumper where you tell people where else they can find you. This serves two functions: first, people might sign up right away, and that's good! But second and arguably more importantly, it will start building awareness in your subscribers that there are other places they can subscribe to you if the current service puts you in the toilet.

Patreon might go IPO, it might not. If it goes IPO, it might crack down on queer/kinky creators, it might not. It might start squeezing patrons more to provide worse services, it might not. All of that is, currently, uncertain. In the best case, Patreon remains private for the foreseeable future and no more vulnerable creators are cut off from vital income streams, and I very much hope that's what happens! However, it's a very very good idea to not count on the best-possible outcome to the exclusion of all else.

And, hey, look at it like this: let's say you put in a bunch of work building up a SubStar (or whatever) along with a well-populated mailing list, and Patreon winds up remaining private and everything works out for the best. Ah fuck! You'll have wasted all that time and effort only to have, uh, a robust new income source and the added security of having a direct line to a substantial number of your subscribers. Like a CHUMP.

EDIT: Great addendum in a share from @baiyu:

Small add-on I wanted to contribute for those who may be wondering "how do I get those email addresses?" Go to your Audience tab and download a .csv of the groups you want to keep in touch with (AKA your active Patrons, paid or not). It might be worth getting a .csv of Patrons who have deleted their pledges and shooting them an email once since the account I managed often had exit surveys saying things like "finances are a bit tight! I'll be back!" or something to that effect.

Oh, and: get yourself a website now. carrd works fine for something minimalistic, linktree if you just need a landing page, neocities can be fun. Doesn't even need to be a custom domain, just make sure that this URL is a lot more stable than any singular social media site because you can bet the internet will get a lot more ugly in the coming months.

Zuki

@zuki

untidy anarchist dirtwitch heap

patreon, alternatives, and switching costs