How to Create a Patreon for Your YouTube Channel

how to create a patreon

When you're thinking well-nigh how to best monetize your YouTube channel, Patreon is probably one of the start options that comes to mind. Information technology's one of the all-time-established off-site monetization platforms out there.

In this stride-by-step guide, we'll show you how to create a Patreon folio for your channel.

But first, let's talk nigh Patreon for a moment.

angela anderson's youtube channel
Angela Anderson links to Patreon both in her channel banner and in video descriptions.

Basically, your fans tin can subscribe to you on Patreon to say cheers for the astonishing content you create. In general, you tin can offer different subscription tiers and y'all can make premium content — such equally boosted videos, worksheets, due east-books, or even trade — available at unlike levels as an incentive.

angela anderson's patreon
Angela Anderson's Patreon page - with its dissimilar membership levels and perks.

 Since it's one of the all-time-established players on the market place, it offers lots of integrations with platforms like MailChimp, Discord, Vimeo, and Twitch.

While there's no subscription fee, the platform always takes a cut of your income when you lot create a Patreon page.

How big that cutting is depends on your pricing plan: On the Lite plan, the platform fee is 5%. If you opt for the Pro program — which lets you lot create different membership tiers, for instance — you lot surrender viii% of your earnings. With Pro+Merch (11%) or Premium (12%), you're giving upward even more than, in return for extra features.

Notwithstanding, Patreon is one of the almost comprehensive monetization options in the creator economic system. Desire to become for it? Allow'due south get started on our step-by-pace guide on how to create a Patreon folio.

how to create a patreon

Patreon Basic Setup

Let's get correct to it! Go to Patreon'due south homepage and striking the Become started or the Create on Patreon button. Patreon will then take you through a 5-stride basic setup.

patreon homepage - sign up options

On the page that opens, sign upwardly with your e-mail and a countersign, or past connecting with Facebook or Google.

patreon signup page - email, google, or facebook

Describe Your Content

Side by side, yous need to option a label — or two, maximum — that fits the type of content you create. For your YouTube aqueduct, select Videos . If y'all also run, for example, a related blog or podcast, selection i of those as well.

pick a content or business type

Patreon will then enquire you whether your content should be rated adult — peculiarly for nudity, only also for whatsoever other reason.

Picking Yes is mandatory in those cases, simply you should know it'll also limit your visibility on the platform itself.

patreon asking whether content is adult-rated

Setting Up Currency and Merch

Next upwards: Picking the currency yous desire to be paid in. Patreon currently offers over a dozen of them.

Supporters tin can also pay in any of these , and the platform volition convert them for you. This comes at a 2.5% conversion fee, though.

picking a currency

The next question is whether you desire to enable Merch for Membership. This feature lets y'all ship sectional merchandise to supporters after a gear up time, every bit a loyalty reward.

We'll look at this in more particular farther downwardly. For at present, you merely need to know that information technology'due south limited to Patreon's higher tiers — significant a higher platform cut — and that information technology's not a store.

option to offer merch for membership
Merch takes the platform fee to xi% on the Pro programme.

Connect to Become Verified

The final step of bones Patreon setup is connecting a social media profile. This lets the platform verify that yous actually own it, and it's too required to claim a custom URL (information technology'll look something like patreon.com/yourChannel, and y'all can prepare it after on).

To add together your YouTube aqueduct (or whatsoever other of your profiles), hit Connect and sign in to allow Patreon access it.

connect your creator profile
Connect a social aqueduct...
youtube successfully connected to Patreon
Success!

So far, so skilful! If everything went alright, yous should now see a bare-bones page. Note that it's not accessible to the public until you explicitly Launch it – then take all the time y'all need to gear up everything up.

how to create a patreon

Ticking Off the Patreon Launch Checklist

With the bones setup done, you tin can at present flesh out your profile.

There are a few more things to exercise earlier launching, all in a handy checklist correct there on your page. There are also some recommended creator resources to become you started.

patreon launch checklist

Contour Settings

A good beginning is choose your profile pic (256 10 256 px) and a page banner (1600 x 400 px minimum).

You'll besides demand a proper noun for your Patreon page, a tag-line of what you do, and a slightly longer virtually-yous text. Here is as well where yous can set your custom URL.

adding title, profile picture, and other details to Patreon page

Ignore the Getting Paid settings for now — you tin can simply make changes here once yous've launched your folio and prepare a pay-out method. We'll show yous how to exercise that at the finish of this guide on creating your Patreon page.

patreon's payment options
No options withal - though you can modify your preferred currency here.

Folio Settings

Next, go toFolio Settings. Many creators use some handle for their work, merely Patreon needs your real name and location . Enter those in the required fields, and the basic checklist is checked off.

Here, you lot can also choose the color of buttons and links on your final page – if you uploaded a imprint and profile motion picture already, Patreon will fifty-fifty try to guess a suitable brand color.

page settings - enter name, location, and your brand color

Yous tin then preview your future Patreon page, and fifty-fifty share that preview link with others if you want some feedback from friends or family. Note that your folio isn't public yet – you'll have to explicitly Launch information technology to brand it accessible.

a preview of your patreon page

Check Out Pricing Plans

Before you launch — or gear up any advanced features — take a proficient look at the Patreon'due south plans. You'll see them correct adjacent to the preview to a higher place, or likewise hither.  You'll notice that our page has been set to Pro + Merch, a programme on which Patreon takes an xi% cut of our earnings.

In addition to that cut, Patreon also subtracts payment processing fees (see the bottom of the next paradigm).

overview of Patreon's plans

The " + Merch" , of class, refers to the Merch for Membership characteristic.

If y'all've picked a suitable plan, you're set up for launch — which will brand your page publicly accessible, and too lets yous make some special promo offers.

You might want to hold off on that a chip still, though.

In the next sections, nosotros'll testify you lot how to set up Patron Tiers and Merch on your Patreon page — and how you actually get paid.

how to create a patreon

Setting up Patron Tiers

Creating tiers is fast and simple, merely you  as well need to be able to deliver what you promise.

It tin be a skilful idea to restrict fourth dimension-consuming perks to the highest tiers – and yous can also limit the number of subscribers to each tier. This'll as well add a touch of exclusiveness, of course.

Patreon offers some templates here, and they'll already include a basic tier structure, consummate with suggested pricing and perks.

some of patreon's templates for tiers

Selecting the "Video Creators" template lands you with the following basic setup, which you can see under Tiers in your page settings.

patreon tier settings and overview

Simply let's add together another tier here merely to run into how that works, and how to customize it. Hitting Add together Tier leads you to a setup page.

Hither, you commencement add a title, a monthly price, an heart-catching image, and a brusk clarification. Patreon will show you plenty of practiced tips on this.

creating a tier

Farther downwards, we get to the center of it: Select the benefits you want to requite members — and there are lots of options. Under Advanced, you can limit the number of patrons on this tier.

tier settings: benefits and limiting the number of subscribers

There are a few more than options here. You can connect your Discord server to manage roles, and use proper sales taxes for your jurisdiction.

You lot tin likewise ask new patrons for their shipping address — which you'll demand if you want to send them anything, and especially for Merch , which we'll set up in the next section.

If you're unhappy with this tier later, yous can always edit or unpublish it (on the bottom right).

tier settings: discord and miscellaneous. also, the un-publish button.

Then simply save the tier, and you'll encounter it appear in the overview!

the new tier shows up on the overview page

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Setting up Merch for Membership

Patreon'sPro + Merch andPremium plans allow you to transport actress perks to select member tiers.

Hither's how to create merch for members of your Patreon folio. Get-go, go to theMerch tab in your settings.

merch overview page - no merch yet

You supply designs, pick a few unlike items, and Patreon volition automatically deliver them to patrons of the required tier – once, or every 3 months for a year.

The item volition be charged to you – and then brand sure to calculate that into your tier prices .

patreon merch schedule - once or for a year

Select the kinds of item you desire to offer, and on what schedule to ship them.

You can either send one detail afterwards three months of membership, or four spread out over ane year. The following procedure is the same for both, simply nosotros'll show yous the year-long option.

In either case, Patreon will accept care of the printing and shipping.

select items - like prints, or posters - for the loyalty program
We notwithstanding need a 4th fourth detail for this twelvemonth-long programme.

Give this perk a little description, and — more chiefly — select which member tier will receive information technology. Patreon will make a few suggestions here, and helpfully too calculates some revenue figures.

selecting a tier to add merch to

At present, add together your design to the individual items (at to the lowest degree the first 1, for at present), and finish this stride.

adding artwork to merch

Allow's take a moment to review everything we've only ready upwards, then — if everything's in order — we tin publish the Merch feature for the selected tiers.

merch final overview before publication

Finally, Patreon takes you back to the mainMerch settings tab, where you tin can now meet your newly set-up loyalty program.

merch overview page

how to create a patreon

Launch and Monetize

At present, if y'all've set everything up to your liking, hit Launch . Patreon may — in some cases — take a few days to verify you and your content, only it's usually much faster.

Finally, announce your shiny new page to your various followers!

Patreon as well allows y'all to fix a number of special offers for your launch, which we won't embrace hither.

Soon, hopefully, you'll encounter some cash menses. But how do y'all get paid?

Now that you've launched, the view of the folio you've created now changes to something like the following, with new settings available.

page as it looks like post-launch

Clicking on the Settings here — you can find the others underPage now — takes you to a different menu. There, go for Payouts and taxes to add a payout method.

payment settings

Yous'll be asked what kind of concern you run — and whether yous're a U.S. resident, for taxing purposes.

business and residence question

On the adjacent screen, y'all tin can connect a PayPal or Stripe account. These accept their own platform fees, which you can see below:

pick a payment processor

Patreon will and then tell you that any account balance will be put on hold for a few days for security reasons. After that comes a tax grade, W-ix if you're a U.South. resident, though filling it is beyond the telescopic of this guide.

Y'all might want to get some legal and financial communication on this, because y'all'll have to pay taxes eventually.

add a W9 tax form

That done, you're all gear up up! Patreon can at present actually pay you any funds that yous may take accumulated at this point.

And that concludes our set-up guide for Patreon, too.

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