Tweak #36: Set up a Patreon
It's not just asking for money; it's nurturing your audience relationship
Maybe one of the biggest obstacles to my podcasting success is this: I hate asking people to do things for me. Running my promo on their show, dropping an episode of mine in their feed, voting for me in awards, giving me money—it faces me with the question “Am I really good enough to be asking for this?” and it’s very easy for me to decide the answer is no.
The good news is I’m slowly getting over it. But asking for money still feels weird! Which is the main reason I’ve never started a Patreon for my podcast.
But I watched a keynote at Podcast Movement 2024 that made me consider it. Eric Silver and Amanda McLoughlin made an impassioned case for the idea that the podcast industry is not dying—it’s just relying more on listener donations than corporate funding, and the listener donation landscape is looking healthy.
One slide especially got me excited: In 2023, podcasters collectively earned $350 million on Patreon. Listener donations are a $350 million dollar industry.
This shows that people are willing to support the shows they love. They want to pay back their favorite podcasters for the time spent with them, and giving them that chance only strengthens the host-listener relationship.
So I asked Eric to answer some questions/assuage some fears of mine about starting a Patreon. The bottom line: Don’t think of it as asking listeners for money. Think of it as nurturing your listener community.
Ashley: What benchmarks, if any, do you think a podcast should meet before they start a Patreon?
Eric: I think a podcast doesn't need any prerequisites to have a Patreon. The relationship building that is core to why people love podcasts—how listeners feel close to their podcasts and podcasters because it's being send directly into their brain, the regularity and consistency of episode releases, and how podcasts accompany people during their most mundane life taste—is the same relationship that Patreons are built upon. Let people pay you for your work! Let people pay you for bonus content!
Ashley: Aren't Patreons a lot of work? I don't have a ton of extra time to be making rewards for patrons.
Eric: They can be, but not if you identify 1) what people actually want and 2) integrate it into your workflow. A Patreon is optional; there's no reason to make it anything other than what you want it to be.
Ashley: What kinds of rewards/tiers do you recommend?
Eric: We recommend four tiers for podcasters:
$1/mo: Thank you! No rewards, but your support is enough.
$5/mo: a bonus podcast! It can be about anything: it can be 45 minutes about your personal interests, a spin-off of the podcast's topics, anything you want it to be. This should be unedited, but still mixed and mastered, and should be much less work than your actual show.
$10 or $15/mo: They become a Producer! Every episode, you thank producers by name in the beginning of the show. Plus, they get the bonus podcast. Maybe you can add video for the bonus podcast here too, which works becuase it's unedited. But make sure to put the mixed audio in the video!
$50 or $69 or $100/mo: I know this looks ridiculous, but it’s supposed to. Psychologically, this is here to make the other tiers look more appealing, but if someone wants to sign up, let them. Because there will only be a few folks who ever get to this level, think of something personalized you can do with them. Let them give you a topic for an episode or do a special (non-recorded) episode just for them. Be sure to clarify they must be at this level for a certain amount of time before you plan the special prize. Plus all the other rewards!
Ashley: What if I don't get that many patrons at first? Don't they list your total on your page for everyone to see? Won't that be embarrassing?
Eric: You can hide both the number of patrons and the amount! None of it is public. I also don't think it's embarrassing at all for people to see that, but that has more to do with fighting the culture of hidden and juiced numbers we see throughout podcasting (thanks, iHeart!)
Ashley: What's a realistic amount of money to expect from a Patreon?
Eric: You can expect 1% of your active audience to become patrons. From there, they'll gravitate towards the middle tiers the most. However, there's a lot of variance as you're depending on other people here. All you can do is update regularly and give people what they want.
Ashley: Anything else that's important to know?
Eric: There is important podcast specific stuff that Patreon outlines on their website. Make sure to turn RSS feeds on so that folks can listen in their podcast player of choice and you may need to jump through hoops so that Spotify users can do that too.