Summer check-in: what's actually working for you?
We're in the final half of 2026, the perfect time to take a step back, look at all you've accomplished, and celebrate some wins.
We asked creators in our Creator Ambassador Program what's been paying off for them so far this year. Here's what they had to say.
1️⃣ Engage (and convert) your free members
Turning casual free members into paid members doesn't have to always involve a big pitch. Sometimes it just takes giving them a new way to experience what you offer.
Degrassi Kid set a community goal to reach 250 paid members, tied to a reward the whole community could unlock together: an in-person trivia night.
"We needed to gain about 20-25 new paid members in just two weeks, and I wasn't sure we'd get there. Members of my existing community started purchasing gifted memberships to help us reach the goal, which got us there in one week and let me invite even more free members into the paid community." - Degrassi Kid
Good Morning From Hell is using collaboration posts to cross-pollinate with their guests' audiences.
"We've been utilizing the new collaboration feature on both Patreon and YouTube to cross pollinate with our guests' channels. It's a great way to grow your audience, especially free members." - Good Morning From Hell
Terri Hardin, Walt Disney's Legendary Imagineer opens one of her monthly Lives to everyone, free and paid, so all of her fans can join.
"My big win is that I finally seem to be connecting with free members. Once a month I open my weekly live broadcasts to everyone so that they can choose for themselves if they want to come onboard." - Terri Hardin
📝 Curious how gifting works? Our guide to gifting memberships to your fans has the details.
2️⃣ Try a new format
Sometimes the biggest win is giving your work a completely different shape.
Lingthusiasm, a podcast enthusiastic about linguistics, started experimenting with zines this year.
"We're mainly a podcast, and it can be hard to convince people to hit play on a whole half hour of audio. Zines felt like a lower barrier to entry, people will just pick them up and flip through easily. We shared a few drafts with our [members] for feedback, and last week we finally launched the first batch publicly. The response has been great, way more people sharing and engaging with them than a usual episode launch." - Lingthusiasm
A few ambassadors are also finding new fans through Quips, short, public posts that can surface to fans who don't know your work yet.
"Quips have been a great way to help more people discover both me and what I offer on Patreon, and they've resulted in more free members and, eventually, sign-ups." - Erika Lancaster Artist
3️⃣ Build for the long run
Not every win is about growth. Some of the best wins are about making your Patreon sustainable, so you can keep showing up.
Tych Maps built a small team of contractors this year, after realizing they couldn't keep doing every part of their work alone.
"Handing pieces of my work over to someone else was intimidating, my brand is built around a very specific style. But I got lucky with the people I found, and the biggest proof it was the right decision: I just got back from a two-week family vacation and, for the first time in years, I didn't come home feeling like I was drowning." - Tych Maps
📝 Looking to bring someone onto your page directly? Team accounts let you delegate day-to-day work without losing ownership.
Estona Metalsmithing & Jewelry Making Tutorials committed to one non-negotiable hour in a workshop every day.
"By keeping it small, it isn't overwhelming. Sometimes I stay in here for just an hour, sometimes I spend the entire day. But that one hour is non-negotiable. I've been so much more productive since committing to this one hour a day." - Estona Metalsmithing & Jewelry Making Tutorials
Here's to celebrating what's working!
What's been paying off for you this year, big or small? Share what you've tried, kept doing, and can already point to as working for you and your community in the comments below, and help inspire fellow creators to find their own wins.
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Comments (38)
Having a low cost Tier as a tip jar to start the page has helped. I gave everyone a full year of content to get a feel for what to expect. Making some new tier structures in November so we’ll see what happens there. I have a little fear in doing that. The balancing of building something sustainable but also not shut anyone out. Getting lots of ideas from this post. 🫶
My podcast has a logo with a bloodthirsty King Kong analog in it, and I invited my patreons to give him an actual name. They ended up with Todd, which I think is fantastic, but it also turned into a chance to speak with a listener whose son passed away and was having a very difficult time about it, so I told her that I wanted to use her son's name as the middle name, and then shared her son's story with everyone, asking for any kind thoughts or prayers to share with her. Her son died young, and the idea that he would never get to make an impression on people as he grew eats at her soul, so I found a quick way too make it so people around the world knew his story. It made a huge difference in her life. Depending on your relationship with your audience, it can be thoughtfully integrated things that don't cost you a penny outside of your time that changes people's lives.
Glad to know these updates. As a NSFW creator I want to upload videos directly and waiting for the roll-out. As I don't want my members to go anywhere else.
Hey there, Patreon video and Quips have started rolling out to 18+ creators too, it's just taking a little longer since there's more work to do on the Trust & Safety side, so we're taking the time to get it right. More on this here:https://www.patreon.com/jackconte/posts/new-patreon-167204499
This is cool related to so many issues this times
You know what would be amazing, Patreon team? An affiliate program so for example both my models and I can both benefit from bringing in new members!
Every time I see posts like this of people getting members it reminds me how possible it is … and it’s beautiful to watch so many people thrive!
Right now, I'm doing a 90 days of Patreon Challenge. It's not catching yet, but I think it will. I was debating on using the tagging feature and nominating people I follow on here every day to do the challenge, but I worry that it would pressure them to do it. I will say this; I've been finding creative ways to provide to both the paid and free members in the same post with the Pay Wall feature. Also, while I haven't gotten any new free members, this challenge is converting my free members into paid members, and getting them to be more interactive
Усе це, звичайно, цікаво...та я не розумію, як тут все працює - у мене є тексти, а як їх тут виставити я не знаю...Отака. в мене, до біса! проблема...
I have started writing and posting this so that help me to follow alot of you and. To be able to create a good idea of mathematics
Hey. If Auto-mod (which I have turned off, because it's ridiculous) is going to hide a comment, I think it's fair that I should get the option to permit it without the warning when I discover that it's harmless, actually. :|
I feel like I'm flogging a dead horse. Tried various types of content. Various cadences. Have had problems getting anyone to visit our Patreon (from our reasonably big numbers of followers on other platforms) and almost complete failure to get people to subscribe, even free. We peaked at nine subscribers, now down to seven. Is it particularly hard for musicians? If we talked about a subject or did reviews I bet we could get interest. Obviously music is down to people's personal taste, and we are particularly niche, but I don't think that totally explains it.
Hey there, testing different post types and posting cadences is exactly the right instinct. Growth on Patreon tends to take time, so staying consistent counts for more than it might feel like right now. Liking, commenting, and showing up on other creators' posts also helps you get surfaced in more feeds, so it's worth keeping that up alongside the work you are doing on your page.
I have no idea 🤷♂️
I have seen growth from Quips and it has happened fast too. I would patreon to give was a feature that allows creators to manually rearrange tiers so that the cheapest one isnt the first tier shown and not have it highlighted in the banner of the home page.
Hey there, happy to hear you're seeing growth from Quips. On tier order and highlighting, that sounds like automatic tier highlighting is turned on, but which tier gets highlighted can be chosen directly rather than left automatic. More on adjusting that here: support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/9446293583501-Tier-highlighting If you'd like to submit a feature request for manually reordering tiers, here's where to do that:support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413425955213-Submit-a-feature-request-or-feedback
The quips. I think patreon has the potential to become a different version of social media through the quips and their organic reach. ✨
Thank you for this ❤️🍿👏🏼
Well done 🌟
Wow looooooove your page! Yay, another music artists. I’m trying to find you all on here. (:
I'm working towards 100 paid members. Once I reach that goal, I'll make a Patreon-exclusive zine <3
I really doubled down on Patreon in May when all the new features (including Quips) were announced. I was starting a new multimedia project – and now it’s the first time I’ve seen significant audience growth in over 10 years. I’m urging other indie artists to do the same: https://patreon.com/posts/why-patreon-158766730
Love your page! Very intentional. ✨
I really love the new quips feature. It’s easy going and I can post anything. However I find other people I am discovering on my Patreon… but I don’t find myself being discovered by others. Maybe hashtags or somthing needs to be implemented so my content is found amongst others? I comment and engage with other creators I discover through their quips. I just feel like no one is finding me.
Hey WolfDoll, we're happy to hear you've been enjoying Quips. On discoverability, hashtags aren't part of how the feed works. It's built more around signals like engagement and cross-creator interactions, likes, comments, and reshares between creators, which you're already doing, so keep it up! That said, the feed is personalized based on things like a person's memberships and what they've engaged with, so results look different from person to person, and there's no guarantee of a certain reach or visibility.
Create daily ✨️
I think I just need to find a marketing budget. Getting the word out is the hard part but putting time into that stops me being able to create.
Always good to read these tips. As a NSFW author, though, I'm really waiting for quips to become available for me. Cheers
Hey Blake, we're starting to roll out Quips to Adult/18+ creators. As with any feature rollout, we'll be monitoring usage and will expand to more creators when we're ready. Stay tuned!
Nice to see those Talented creators! ✨. I have grown a little bit since i started on April 2025, and part of this is thanks of Patreon and the tools you guys provided to me 💜
I haven't quite figured out the way to grow or convert. Keep posting ideas for us.
Hey there, growing on Patreon can take some trial and error. A few things from this post worth trying: giving free members a low-lift reason to upgrade, like Degrassi Kid's community goal tied to a shared reward, or Terri Hardin opening her Lives to everyone so free members can get a feel for what paid access looks like. In regard to growing and discovery, Quips are another good entry point since they help new people discover you in the first place. It might be worth checking out the Growing your Patreon collection too if you want more ideas to try: patreon.com/collection/2235387
Thanks for featuring our new linguistics zines! It's neat to see what everyone else is doing too and keep experimenting!
Thanks for sharing the shift you made, so other creators can see what's possible when they try something new too!
I'm definitely interested! I set up my Patreon only a month ago and I'm still getting familiar with the platform – I have no clue how to attract subscribers yet. So this would be super useful!
Thanks for featuring me. So cool to see what other creators are doing! The wheels are turning already!
Thanks for sharing your story with us! The trivia night as a shared reward was such a good call, it gave members something to rally around together as a community.
Very interesting ! It's always hard to know if we're doing things right 😅