Hello, I wonder if anyone has any experience with growing your Patreon audience / advertising your Patreon presence. Can Google search find your Patreon content? I have a small app and a Patreon page. Most of the app is free, the Patreon patrons get to use the part of my app that teaches how to develop a witty sense of humor. My Patreon page also has articles on the subject of humor and related topics that I plan to expand and use as a user-engagement platform I realize self-promotion on social media might get some attention, but I doubt how effective is that. How about Search Engine Optimization for Patreon content? Anything else I could / should be doing? I'd appreciate any hints:=)
It seems like generally someone with a Patreon also has a YouTube channel or at least a blog or something. You need a way to funnel people into the Patreon. Cast a net out, grab their attention. The trap requires good bait.
Most of their patreons have their content locked behind a paywall to incentivize people to actually become a patron. And because it's locked behind a paywall, Google most of the time can't access enough content for Search Engine Optimization. In fact, I would say trying to find patrons via Google Search is the worst possible avenue you can take because most people who are googling stuff are doing it at a whim and will skip over your link if you have to pay to access most of the content, ensuring your google link goes lower and lower.
Of the successful patreons I'm aware of, pretty much all built their audience before trying to monetise. You'll need a lot of valuable content to grow your subscription income meaningfully. If you can consistently create a lot of quality content though, you're on the right track. There’s a 'freemium' aspect to it, as you’ve noted — offering some content for free and premium content for paying subscribers. As Xoic mentioned, you need to create awareness of your offering, which, alas, can require a commitment of funds and/or time. To understand what this might entail, you can work backwards from your income goal. How many paying subscribers will you need to meet this goal? Given the average Patreon subscriber conversion rate (between .005% and 2.5%), you can then work out how many people you need to attract overall to reach your target. This basic analysis can help you estimate the amount you might need to spend on advertising or the time/effort needed for organic growth to achieve those results.
Yeah, some kind of youtube or other social media presence that offers some kind of substantial free content. Thing is, you usually have to bait people to your free platform in order to then lead them to your paid one. That's usually done via trending topics. Certainly doesn't have to be politics; video essays are a good example of how this is done. When the next Hunger Potter: The Mockingjay's Stone comes out, a sewing enthusiast will make a video about the costumes for tag hits. When Gladiator 2 comes out (oh hey, that's not a joke! LOL) medieval arms channels will have hour long digressions about its historical accuracy. etc. etc. You find a popular thing, establish its relevance to your niche, spend hundreds/thousands of hours making content, then the geese come to roost. Hopefully. That's one "free" way of advertising. There are surely other ways, and you might discover a brilliant effective one nobody thought of.
