Why we started with patreon and why it isn’t stupid to pay (or ask money) for creations
In this blog post, we talk about the platform Patreon and how we use it, and why it is an interesting way of creating income. For everybody who is thinking about becoming a Patron or starting a Patreon page, it is an interesting read.
If you never heard of Patreon, Patreon is a beautiful platform that enables creators to earn money from their free accessible content like podcasts, videos, music, photographs etcetera, The platform makes it possible for people to provide monthly financial support to their favorite content creators. In exchange, the supporters, they are called ‘patrons,’ most of the time receive extra’s, such as exclusive uploads, early access to new work, ad-free content, the ability to give suggestions etc.
Although we love it that you like our videos and want to support us financially in making them, our primary goal for Patreon is to create a membership page where we give you real value and a lot of exclusive content.
The basic principle
Not weird or stupid
We actually are fans of this platform because of the thought behind it - reward creators that inspire, entertain, or teach you in some kind of way. We know that there are people that find the concept of asking money for your free accessible creations is weird or even stupid, but really it isn’t. If people inspire you or you enjoy their content Patreon is a great way of showing your gratitude. It is a win-win situation. You enjoy, or get inspired and maybe even learn a few things, and the ones who create get acknowledgment for their time and effort.
And YES we are also strong believers in sharing is caring that is why we share so much on all our social platforms, and if you enjoy our videos you are in no way obligated (and we definitely don't expect you) to become a Patreon. By liking, subscribing, and commenting you already support us in many ways.
But for us - and this is our point of view - sharing goes both ways and not only from the creator's side. That is also why we ‘share’ our income to support a lot of ‘creators’ who ad value for us with their content. We do this in different ways: by paying them per creation and becoming a Patron, buying their products, joining their paid memberships, doing a course, or buying a service.
If people inspire you or you enjoy their content Patreon is a great way of showing your gratitude. It is a win-win situation. You enjoy, or get inspired and maybe even learn a few things and the ones who create get acknowledgement for their time and effort.
And yes sometimes we buy a product and it doesn’t turn out to be that great, but in the end, it isn’t that product that we are so eager to have but supporting them to keep creating and inspiring us.
And that is the REAL product we enjoy, we learn from and that enriches our lives.
We added a highlight ‘creators’ on our Instagram account - these creators inspired us with their content. And we don’t have an affiliate deal or sponsored in any kind of way. We are genuinely excited, this actually goes actually also for all the brands we work or have affiliate deals with.
Note: YouTube recently launched a similar platform - we have no experience with it and we actually don’t like the idea of becoming too dependent on one platform and their fees are extremely high compared to Patreon.
How does it work
There are a lot of possibilities, so we choose to focus on being Patron or a creator of videos on YouTube. As a creator or someone who wants to become a Patron, you have to make your own profile - Patreon is very user-friendly and helps you through the process quite easy and you can choose your own payment method.
Patron/member
As a member/Patron you search for your favorite content creator in the search bar - just insert their name (most content creators also have their direct Patreon page link in the comments below their video, on their website, or in their info on their social platforms, here you can also find our Patreon page). If you found their page, there you can find a welcome note and description about who they are and what they do. On the page, you can find their ‘tiers’ as well. These are the ‘memberships’ you can choose from. Depending on the creator you pay per month or per creation, most YouTube creators have tiers based on pay by creation (just like us).
Most creators developed more than one tier and every tier has its own extra’s. You can choose which tier and which extra’s you would like to have. The higher the tier, the higher the amount per video (which is called pledge), and the more extra’s you will receive. After you choose your tier, you have the possibility to even increase your pledge (amount) and limit it per month to one or more. Just select your payment method and confirm and now you are a Patron.
We have Patreon that pledges more than the tier, unlimited or limited their pledges per month.
You only pay for the YouTube video’s which the creator will post as a paid Patreon post with a link to the video on YouTube - probably an early access video just like how we are doing it. For other posts, behind the scene videos for patrons only, posts with updates, or other extra’s you will not be charged (at least not on our Patreon page).
How We use Patreon
We see Patreon as the perfect platform to further connect with and give extra value to our truest fans and community who support us in keep making our videos. It is becoming a community of sharing insights and helping each other out, this can be about sailing and maintaining or refitting your boat, realizing dreams, designing your own life, or just weekly inspiration and entertainment. And it goes both ways, we are very blessed with our yet small but active community who share a lot as well to help us keep making videos and expanding our audience.
This is why we give our Patrons/members a lot of extra value and content. We created 7 tiers (different ‘memberships’) with their corresponding pledges per YouTube video and extra’s
Step In
EUR 3,-*
early access YouTube video’s
access to archive patron only posts
new patron only posts & video’s
frequent live Q&A’s
Basic
EUR 5,-*
all of the above
+
limited access to our special brand deals (see our website for the brands)
5% discount on Feel the Breeze products (coming soon)
Premium
EUR 15,-*
all of the above
+
full access to our special brand deals (see our website for the brands)
10% instead of 5% discount on Feel the Breeze products (coming soon)
access to Feel the Breeze meet-ups and events
Exclusive
EUR 25,-*
all of the above
+
exclusive Feel the Breeze key chain (after 2 months)
thank you card - and the right to have a tour on our boat
Golden
EUR 100,-*
all of the above
+
15% instead of 10% discount on Feel the Breeze products (coming soon)
card with a personal message from us from somewhere around the world (after 2 months)
Platinum
EUR 250,-*
all of the above
+
an exclusive thank you video and invitation to come on board for a day sailing (after 8 months)
*Don’t worry, you can give a monthly limit just in case we get super excited and start creating videos daily. We also use monthly limits with our Patron pledges for other creators.
And we share bonus content, like behind the scene videos, modules from our online courses, podcasts for patrons only, exclusive product deals and we keep on surprising our community with exclusive meet-ups, group sailing trips etc.
We would love to welcome you to our community on Patreon, click here to join our journey around the world.
Special exclusive tier
We even have one extra limited tier……to thank all the people who have supported us from the beginning - Feel the Breeze family tier of EUR 5,-. You will get full access to everything and all the extras except the card with a personal message, the video, and a day sailing. We have limited spots available and will be a once-in-a-lifetime offer.
We will not create such a tier again and
we only have 25 spots available
10 are already taken.
Yeah!!! Without even telling we already had 9 patrons and some of them even decided to pay more per episode than the offer. How amazing is this?
We love you guys!
Click here for our special offer and we would love to welcome you to our community on Patreon.
Can you realize an income out of it?
If you look at YouTube creators like Sailing La Vagabonde, Sailing Uma & Sailing Nandji (we are Patrons of them) they can earn quite a good income with Patreon. To be honest, these guys are really amazing, experts at vlogging and editing and are already years on their way.
It is a process and it isn’t easy, a lot of time and hard work goes into it, but it pays off in the end.
For us our first financial goal for Patreon is to have the direct costs covered in making the videos.
Looking forward to welcoming you to our Patreon community!
Have a great day and Feel the breeze!
Rianne & Gerben
If you enjoyed this blog post and it was helpful in any kind of way, it would be great if you shared it with friends, family, or on social media and help us in reaching more people.
You can do this easily by clicking on one of the short links below (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & copy link - feel free to share it on Instagram as well).