Are You Chasing Inspiration Instead of Paychecks?
Inspiration vs. opportunity | Patreon changes course | Last chance at a discount
Want to know what’s going up? The subscriber count! Thank you so much for that.
Want to know what’s staying down (at least for one more week)?
The price of becoming a Maker, which gets you all sorts of unique things, like the Makercast (members-only podcast), monthly digital downloads (like this one), and other extras that fly in at surprise moments.
Starting July 1st, the price is going up, so if you want to get your hands on the best deal ever until then, consider becoming a Maker at the annual enrollment.
Do Creative People Put Too Much Emphasis on Aspiration?
I used to work as an art director for a magazine publisher. The halls were filled with creative people: designers, photographers, and writers. Most of our magazines were automotive enthusiast publications, and our job was to provide aspirational content that made readers spend enough time flipping through the pages long enough to see as many advertisements as possible.
Most of those magazines are gone now, and most of those people have jobs in different industries, and of all those people who knew how to make reader’s eyes sparkle with beautiful words and photography, few, if any, were capable of transferring that talent to building their own business around their creative work.
Instead, they went looking for similar jobs doing the same kind of work because nobody taught them how to be more enterprising. They were only taught to write beautiful words and take beautiful pictures.
Patreon Pivots
Wednesday, Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) announced that Patreon is opening its doors to everyone, not solely creators who want to offer subscriptions. This likely is due to pressure from platforms like Substack and Beehiiv, where content is open to everyone, and membership is offered as a perk, not an obligation, but what does this mean for users?
Competition breeds innovation, and Patreon has been feeling the pinch of platforms with a lower barrier to entry. Opening the doors to general audiences will keep their current users on the platform and increase site traffic.
Substack lost money last year and had to invite retail investors (people like you and me) to help foot the next round of funding. Not only will they have to deal with revenue issues, but now Substack will need to up its game to continue taking market share away from Patreon.
Depending on which level you sign up for, Patreon’s entry-level revenue split is lower (8%) than Substack’s (10%), and for Patreon’s premium tier (12%), you get support from a dedicated account manager. Meanwhile, finding a way to contact an actual human on Substack is nearly impossible.
Substack still maintains an advantage with its interconnectivity and recommendations between users, which has always been a downfall of Patreon. Substack content also ranks higher in Google than Patreon, but that could be in part to Patreon having their doors closed before, and this new development could change that.
Also, Substack was built on the premise of email newsletters, where Patreon offers email messages as a secondary function. Between formatting and ease of use, Substack is the clear winner here. I used to use Patreon, and the clunkiness of the WYSIWYG editor, for both posts and emails, is a major deterrent for me.
The TL/DR on this is that when companies compete, the customers win (or get marginalized). As always, I’ll monitor these developments and report back whenever something might affect you.
NOTE: If you currently use Patreon and want to turn on the Free feature, here’s a recently updated article.
Tasty: Megan Woodard Johnson
Bold colors served up in dynamic ways, Megan Woodard Johnson knows how to make me smile.
Small Bites
UPDATE: Patreon also adds the ability to sell things directly on the platform.
Alex Hormozi breaks down a clear path to entrepreneurship for artists.
When Google killed its popular (but free) Reader app, it decimated the blogging world, but nature found a way, and blogging is back; different and possibly better, but what if you want to use your blog to make money?
Speaking of killing apps, Google is blowing up Analytics in July and replacing it with something worse.
Six artists talk about how they feel about Instagram.
I am not a fashionista, but I enjoyed watching Pharell William’s first collection for Louis Vuitton. Pharell was announced as the new Menswear Creative Director for LV after Virgil Abloh’s untimely passing in 2021.
Prime Day is coming (July 11 & 12—yeah, I know that’s two days, I don’t make the rules), and if you don’t want to miss out on all the rampant consumerism, join Amazon Prime now, free for 30 days.*
Roblox wants to create Adult level experiences, and I’m sure every kid under 17 will definitely not try to sneak in to see it.
The Hungry Artist now has merch (really just a hat, but more is coming soon). The merch is for a new referral program coming soon, but if you’re desperate for a rad hat, you can get one.
Dessert
I’m in the market for a new (used) vehicle and have my eye on this sweet ride.
If you enjoyed this edition, make sure to tell your friends.