How should you grow?
“How do I grow on Patreon?” Is that the question that brought you here?
If so, you’re in the right spot and you’re surrounded by great company! Lots of creators are asking themselves that exact same question.
Usually, that question comes with a few more following right behind it:
How can I get discovered by new fans?
How do I get more people to join my Patreon?
Should I redesign my tiers? Or reprice them?
Would a new offering help me grow?
Sound familiar?
You may already have a question you’ve been tossing around. A place where things feel a little stuck. An idea you’ve been meaning to test.
Those moments can be opportunities. A question, a plateau, or a new idea may signal that there’s something worth exploring, improving, or experimenting with.
So… how do you grow?
The answer looks a little different for each creator.
We’re here to help you figure that out. This collection is is designed to help you identify opportunities, choose where to focus, and build a growth strategy that feels right for you.
Think of each post as a different growth quest. You can start with one or two that are the best fit for where you are right now. Try the strategies. See what happens. Then come back for the next quest. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, come back and try them all over time!
Ready to embark on your valiant journey? Let’s begin by mapping your quests with these three tools:
🗺️ Patreon Insights → Your map. Shows you where you are today.
🥾 Growth Pathfinder Quiz → Your path. Helps you choose a direction.
📜 SMART goals → Your quest log. Turns a good idea into a solid plan.
These tools can help you identify opportunities, choose where to focus, and track your progress as you go.
Don’t worry about getting everything right on the first try. Growth is a journey. As your Patreon evolves, you can revisit your map, choose new quests, and set new goals along the way.
⚡ Pro Tip: Just getting started on Patreon? Our Launching your Patreon collection is a great place to build your foundation before diving into growth.
🗺️ Patreon Insights: Check your map
Before choosing a direction, take a look at where you are today.
Patreon Insights is a tool offered within your creator dashboard that can help you better understand what’s happening across your membership, earnings, engagement, audience growth, and post and Quip performance. Sometimes it may confirm what you already suspected. Other times, it uncover opportunities you may not have noticed.
Perhaps lots of people are visiting your page, but not many are joining.
One type of post consistently gets you a lot of engagement or conversions.
Or your audience is growing while earnings have leveled off.
You don’t need to understand every chart or metric. Just think of it as simply looking for clues.
The more often you “check your map” (or visit your Insights) the easier it becomes to spot those clues. Insights help you stay connected to what’s changing in your community over time and spot where new opportunities for growth might appear.
Not sure which opportunity to pursue? That's ok! The Growth Pathfinder Quiz in this post can help you turn those clues into a direction to explore.
💡 New to using Patreon Insights or need a refresher? Visit the Help Center resources to get familiar.
🥾 Growth Pathfinder Quiz: Choose your path
You’ve explored your map. Now it’s time to choose a direction.
That’s where the Growth Pathfinder Quiz comes in. It can help you focus your time and energy on the opportunities that may have the biggest impact right now.
Take the quiz at the top of this post! Answer a few questions about your Patreon and you’ll get a short list of recommended posts from this collection to get you started on your growth journey.
Think of it as a shortcut taking you from “where do I even start?” to “I’ve got a plan and it’s heading this direction!”
And remember, this is your path right now.
Your ideal growth quest may be different a few months from now. That’s a good thing! You can always return to the quiz as your Patreon evolves.
📜 SMART goals: Track your quest
You've explored your map. You've chosen a path. Now it's time to turn that direction into a plan.
A clear goal can make growth feel a lot more tangible. Instead of saying, “I want to grow,” you’re declaring what growth actually looks like for you.
Think of it this way:
“Grow my Patreon.” vs. “Increase my monthly earnings by 10% over the next 60 days.”
One gives you a direction to wander, but the other gives you a direct destination to set forth on; that's a SMART goal.
SMART stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
This is a framework that offers a structured way to set goals that are clear enough to track, test, and learn from.
Here's what that looks like in practice. A SMART goal is specific enough to act on and time-bound enough to track:
✅ Mention my Patreon in two videos per week for the next month
✅ Collaborate with one creator in my niche over the next 45 days
Compare that to "promote my Patreon more" or "reach new audiences." Those are great directions but SMART goals turn them into something you can actually track, measure, and learn from.
Every creator's goals will look a little different because every creator's growth quest is different.
A creator focused on growing membership may set a goal around increasing free-to-paid conversions. Someone focused on reaching more people might experiment with collaboration posts or Quips to help new audiences discover their work. Another creator may focus on growing earnings by increasing the value of their memberships or adding new offerings. What’s a specific, measurable goal for you?
Use your map (Insights) and your path (Growth Pathfinder Quiz) to choose one or two goals for the next 30-60 days.
Then use the Growth Quest Log post to keep track of what you’re noticing in your Insights data, quiz results, and goals. You’ll come back to it throughout your journey.
Note: The worksheet link will prompt you to make your own copy so you can fill it in (this requires a Google account). You can also download a PDF version at the bottom of this post.
🧭 Your next steps
Growing on Patreon comes from experiments, consistent effort, and paying attention to what resonates with your community. Your quest is waiting for you. It’s time to get started.
Review your Patreon Insights.
Take the Growth Pathfinder Quiz.
Set 1–2 SMART goals for the next 30–60 days.
Use the Growth Quest Log to map your quest.
Start exploring the posts recommended for your current growth path.
Visit our Launching your Patreon collection if you’d like extra support setting up the foundations of your Patreon.
📌 How helpful was this material? Click to let us know: 👍 | 👎
Comments (56)
I hoped to get impressions through regular posts and reach broader audience with fully free access but it seems really difficult so far. Would love to know experience of other small creators, who did not bring their audience from the other platforms.
This is very helpful 🙏🏽
Hi team Patreon, does the quiz still work? It showed 403 forbidden when I tapped the link above.
Hey Sugar, sorry to hear you're having trouble with the quiz. Are you able to refresh the page and hit the "Start" button at the bottom of the Growth Pathfinder Quiz (it's underneath the text that reads "Time to complete: ~5 minutes")?
Im new and have been posting. Do hashtags work?
Hi FrequencyXO, welcome! Hashtags don't increase reach on Patreon. The Explore tab looks more at things like your page description, tagline, and the work you post, so being specific and descriptive there helps more with discoverability. Posting publicly, sharing Quips, and engaging with other creators can help too. That being said, search and Explore results are personalized, so what shows up can look different from person to person. This post on helping fans discover you has some more tips that might help: https://www.patreon.com/PatreonforCreators/posts/help-patreon-you-161998895
love using patreon instead of youtube as the algorithm on youtube was killing me. I would love to see better mechanics for video uploading like the ability to upload in 1080p.
Incredible. Thank you so much!
Now if we could only remove the 18+ from my second tier…because it’s “all ages” :/
Thanks Patreon 👌🏼❤️
Great info thanks 💜
Hi Patreon for Creators. I am wondering what can be done to get my page to show in the Explore results when someone searches "philosophy". I understand that the results are not curated by hand but that key words and such on one's page are detected by software. "Philosophy" is a key word in my tagline and all over my page. I don't know what change I could make to get the software to pick up my page. My page comes up when "philosophical" is searched, but that's not as helpful. Thanks!
Hey there, since the Explore tab looks at things like your page description, tagline, and the work you post to figure out how to surface your page, the more specific and descriptive you can be across those, the better your odds. Your about me section is worth a specific look too, since it's an easy way to naturally work in relevant terms. Since "philosophy" is already in your tagline, it might help to also work in related terms and phrases throughout your page and posts (ethics, critical thinking, philosophical discussion, etc.) Posting publicly, sharing Quips, and engaging with other creators can also help boost visibility overall. That said, search and Explore results are personalized based on things like a person's memberships and what they've engaged with on Patreon, so results can look different from person to person, and we can't guarantee your page will show up for an exact term like "philosophy." This post on helping fans discover you has some more tips that might help: https://www.patreon.com/PatreonforCreators/posts/help-patreon-you-161998895
By treating supporters as friends, following the principles of deliberate practice, and continuously refining your approach, you can eventually develop a relationship akin to that of family, thereby bringing positive influences to your life.
Thank you Patreon 🩷
Thanks Patreon.
Thank you for this content and helping us on our quest! ⚔️
Let's go! ⚔️ What growth path did the Growth Pathfinder Quiz send you on?
I would like to take this quiz, but can’t even find something that opens it
Hello! It's embedded at the very top of this post.
The last Q on the quiz didn't give me a chance to respond - it went straight to the end page! Looking forward to rejuvenating our Patreon pages, comunque! Thanks All at Patreon :-D
Hey Clare and Vincent, sorry about that. If you'd like to try again, you can refresh the page to restart the quiz. Happy rejuvenating!
Thanks
Thank you! 🤗 This quiz is so timely! As my Patreon evolves, I've just started exploring a new path to grow my community. I'm a symbolic artist, and alongside my process videos, I began sharing the coffee ground patterns from my morning cup that inspire my sketches. It’s a very unique source of insight, and I'm excited to see where this direction takes me!
Hey Inn Gi, thanks for sharing this. We're curious, which path did you end up getting from the quiz? We also love how you've woven your morning coffee ritual into your creative process by sharing the coffee ground patterns that inspire your sketches.
Thank you, Patreon!
I took the quiz. I read the articles it pointed me to. I found a lot of advice about steps I've already taken or - as a writer - have no content that fits the recommendations. So I feel no further along toward understanding how to get a valuable foothold and a following on Patreon.
My SMART goal is to launch my page on September 30! ☺️💪 I've done enough research: I just need to start trying stuff and do my best! Thanks for the tips Patreon! 🖤
Update: gonna need another month on that launch! 🙃🤕😁 The last 2 weeks have been unbelievably hectic (incl. losing Internet for over a week☠️) so I'm gonna be pushing for an October 30th page launch. (Spooky 🎃 season is more aligned with my page anyway. 🖤) Wish me luck!
1. Patreon Insights isn't giving me any useful information today because I only have six free subscribers, and none of them show any engagement. I don't even know whether they're reading my posts. I don't think they are. 2. I have no need for Growth Pathfinder because I'm publishing posts I've already written over the past 15 years. I have more than 1,000 of them, and I publish one every day. So my path is already set — I know exactly what my focus is. 3. Do I need a plan? Here's my plan: • Publish one post every day for the next three years and beyond. • Share links to my posts on my social media accounts and in the comments under other authors' posts. • Share links to my Patreon on my social media accounts. • Wait. The drop hollows the stone not by force, but by constant falling.
Where is the quiz?
HI there! It's at the very top of this post. :)
Once again, Patreon for Creators raising the bar for how and what a platform should be doing. Other platforms “You want more people to see your content? Pay us.” “You want to grow? Here’s a link to a bunch of outdated, incorrect information where 60% of the links are broken” 💗 Patreon 💗 “Here’s some useful general information, let’s go through a simple process to figure out what you actually want to achieve, and give you actionable steps to do so” The only improvement I’d like to see is make the Smart Quiz update and populate the Growth Quest log and make that available as a separate live document alongside insights. Make it an actual interactive journal so we can track what works, and what we have done. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for that feedback! We'll look into that!
Translate please...
Thanks.
Great info! I was looking at my insights and noticed most of my traffic is coming through “Direct.” Is there any way to dig a little deeper into that and see where it’s actually coming from? Thanks so much for all the help—really appreciate it. I’ve grown my channel to 800+ members now, and I’m focusing on improving how I convert more of my free members into patrons. If anyone here is also a watercolor artist and wants to brainstorm ideas around growth and conversions, I’d love to chat and swap ideas. :)
I appreciate this platform so much. It is 100% better than everything else. That you give MEANINGFUL support and tools to your creators is something so unique. Thank you Patreon!
I appreciate the information, but we are not growing at all. I wish that you had a coaching program, or a live/prerecorded tip/training class that can be watched.
Thanks Patreon! (≧∇≦)ﾉ
https://www.patreon.com/PatreonforCreators/posts/help-patreon-you-161998895
I know the answer now. I’m leaving Patreon and building my own website with a frictionless, easy checkout, no more messy UI. Thank you for such an inspiring experience! It’s honestly incredible how motivated people have to be to navigate this mess. I’m so proud of my supporters, but no one should have to suffer through that. Creators shouldn't force terrible UX on the very people who want to support their work and help them make a living.
Thats cool
Thanks for this! I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to build a bit more focused structure into my plan for Patreon 💜
Thanks hope i can grow my page
This is great, but I do feel that some creators are limited by Patreon’s current approach. I think it would make a big difference if the search feature worked for all creators across every niche, rather than only the less edgy ones. At the moment, if people search for creators like us, we simply don’t appear in the results, making it much harder for potential supporters to find us.
great !
Thia is all good and well but it's just going to result in creator burnout as it loads more and more things creators have to do to keep and grow their audience and less and less time to create.
Assuming we have time in the first place. Between a full time job and my writing, I have no clue what I can squeeze in to the remaining time to achieve anything on Patreon. I have yet to even generate enough traffic to make the Insights useful. So...now what?
Thanks Patreon. Hope I can grow my page
Much appreciated for the insights, as I will be going through this material to see how I can improve what I do. Thanks.
Thanks Patreon 😊
Thanks Patreon! 😆
That was useful! Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks! I just started out and could really use some feedback :)
Thanks Patreon 😊