Increase your earnings with one-time purchases

Let your work keep working for you by trying out new ways to earn. You can complement your membership business by selling one-time specials, popular posts, or series in your Patreon shop without any added effort. And fans like having more flexibility in how they support their favorite creators. Compared to last year, creators' monthly revenue from one-time purchases on Patreon has increased by 4x.

Let’s break down how this works:

Earn from new audiences

Some fans are only interested in one specific thing you create, and others aren’t quite ready to commit to a recurring membership. On average, over 80% of post or collections purchases come from fans paying the creator for the first time — making it a great way for you to unlock revenue from a new part of your audience.

"At first I was hesitant… I would rather them sign up for the subscription and I don’t want to lose people doing that. But this is a different audience looking for a lower price point or just a certain thing,” says Cassie of Popcorn in Bed, who sells reactions to specific movies and collections of franchises in addition to her membership. See more of Cassie's story here.

By using shops, you’re not only reaching new audiences, you’re also giving them a peek into your exclusive membership. If they’re purchasing your work, it’s a great signal that they may want more down the line.

💡 Tip: Consider reaching out to people who have purchased and offering a discount code for their first month of membership, or do this automatically through upgrade offers in Autopilot.

Price based on your goal

Like any business, try out a few price points and adjust your strategy over time. First, identify your target audience. You can make your work purchasable to only new fans and free members or to anyone, including your paid members, which may change how you price and promote.

• If the work you’re selling is exclusive, more valuable, or highly anticipated: Consider making it available for purchase to everyone and setting it at a higher price point. For example, Escuela de Nada, an improv comedy podcast, released their highly anticipated documentary exclusively on Patreon. They priced it at $10, $4 higher than their current tier price, and made it purchasable for everyone — leading to five-figures in sales and a 2x increase in monthly earnings in the first month of sales.

• If your goal is to provide a more accessible entry point to your work or give a sneak peek into your membership: Price it in relation to your tiers. You might price it at the same level or lower than your tiers to let more people get a taste of your work or price it higher to make your membership look more appealing right off the bat.

Make it easy to find what’s for sale

Promotion is key to let your fans know about your Patreon and the work you have for sale. Here are three easy ways to make it easier for your fans to shop your goods.

• Share your shop link or post preview as part of your promotion, making it easier for your fans to take an action. This could be a link under your YouTube video or in your newsletter.

• Highlight up to 3 items in your shop by selecting “feature in shop” to encourage fans to buy.

• Run a limited-time discount on shop items. You can share it to a subset of fans to make it an exclusive discount or share it widely as a larger promotion effort.

Getting started

• Easily test this out with your existing posts and collections. As a starting point, check out your post insights to see what your members are loving most. Then toggle on the 'Sell this post' option to make it purchasable by anyone.

• Curate your shop. Anything you set for sale will show up in your shop. Feature a few to highlight on your page and share your shop page in your newsletter, social media, or wherever your fans engage most with your work.

Currently, shops are available for All Ages creators. In November, we’ve started to roll this out to a segment of 18+ creators and will continue to expand access over the coming months.