How Watchpaintdry_minis drove one-third of his monthly revenue through Quips without creating new work

Meet Malte Dueholm, the creator behind watchpaintdry_minis, who teaches the art of miniature painting. He had one clear issue: he didn't have time to create new work, but wanted to reach new fans through Discovery on Patreon. Enter Quips—the short, public posts visible to anyone on Patreon, whether they're a member or not. Malte already had an archive of Instagram posts with high engagement. The question was: could they do double duty?

The answer was YES. Using mostly recycled posts, his Quips drove over one-third of his revenue in the last 30 days.

📝 What are Quips, anyway?

The work was already done

Instead of starting from scratch, Malte treated Quips as a place to reach a new audience for work he had already made and shared elsewhere. He posted Quips on Patreon 1–3 times per week by pulling from his Instagram archive asking two simple questions: does this post still reflect how I'd teach it today? Is the linked lesson still useful to someone new?

"The time investment is very minimal because I've already done the work for Instagram. I was initially worried Quips would be another feed requiring constant new posts — but I can effectively repurpose what already exists."

The same logic applies whatever your format. The archive you've already built is the perfect starting point.

What actually performs well

Not all posts translate equally. While other platforms tend to reward polish, Quips work for all levels of finesse. For Malte, a post showcasing in-progress work often outperformed a finished one. Viewers saw the unfinished piece and wanted to know how it turned out. For some, that curiosity turned into something bigger: how do I do that myself?

When digging through your archive, here are the formats worth looking for:

Works in progress. Work-in-progress posts illuminating the rougher parts of painting often outperform finished pieces because fans can see the gap and imagine closing it. A half-inked comic panel, a rough podcast edit, or an unfinished painting can all pull people in.

A specific challenge. The more precisely you name something your audience struggles with, the more a Quip feels like it was made for them. A post about painting transparent fabric draped over skin works because it speaks directly to a problem a miniature painter has likely faced and wondered how to solve.

What doesn't work: text-only posts with a bare link. Whatever your format, the Quip itself has to deliver something worth stopping for. The visual, the clip, the sketch: it has to carry the weight. The Quip below's low performance inspired Malte to pivot away from text-only posts and toward posting the visual of the work itself.

"For me, the best-performing quips showed something impressive, addressed a specific problem, and left room for the viewer to wonder how to achieve the same result."

Sharing freely builds paid memberships, not the other way around

Malte makes older tutorials available to free members, lessons that paid members have likely already consumed. Fans who land on his page from Quips end up exploring and often find something else worth sticking around for.

"I've realized I don't need to gatekeep my paid lessons as much as I initially thought. Community is becoming more important than I expected, and I'm learning how to use it as a selling point."

Sharing freely didn't hurt his paid memberships. It grew them.

Your turn. Here's what to take away from Malte’s strategy:

• Go through your existing posts on other platforms or in your archive and find ones that still hold up

• Don’t shy away from in-progress and behind-the-scenes posts—they might outperform polished finished work

• Always lead with a visual: text-only posts with links don't convert

• Try posting without a direct link and let viewers find their way around your page

• Unlock older work for free members and let it convert browsers into members

"I had the work. The audience just needed a way to find it."

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