Time for a new paradigm

Wikipedia’s entry on Patreon

Thinking out loud – 4

Times change and businesses and organisations have to change too. You see the same situation in ecosystems: weather patterns change, or a new species of plant or animal moves in, and the balance shifts. Plants and animals that used to thrive begin to struggle or even die out, others prosper.

Internet conditions have been changing, and continue to do so. YouTube, pressured by the popularity of Tik-Tok style short video clips is bringing YouTube ‘shorts’ front and centre, and longer, more serious videos are both more expensive to host (because they are longer, slower to upload, and need more storage), and less popular with younger audiences (a recently growing sector.) Blogs have become less popular for the same reasons. Print media have been suffering too, everyone wants video reports on current events. Even TV channels are suffering, seen as boring and not for the current generation.

So what to do when the old models fail? That was the issue Fraser Cain faced.

Here’s a story of frustration and hard work when a website failed, revenues had been trending downwards for some time and the YouTube part of the operation proved problematic for a different reason. The solution? Patreon, and a new (old) approach to funding. Watch Fraser Cain’s video below where he shares the full story of the website failure and reconstruction, the problem with YouTube, and the new emphasis on Patreon going forward.

Patreon

The answer, as you have seen, was to find a new model; or perhaps it’s just an even older model come back in disguise! Provide material, perhaps in large part for free, but then charge a weekly or monthly subscription for extras. These might be coverage in greater depth, providing additional topics, giving an opportunity to provide feedback, or win prizes, or sell ‘merch’, or whatever other benefits you might think of.

Patreon is becoming more and more popular with creators, and for very good reason – the model is extremely successful. It works well for creators, and it works well for viewers who can enjoy an ad-free experience. Not everyone will be willing to pay for the extras, but that doesn’t matter. As long as the income exceeds the costs of production it’s a success. so the more people a creator can sign up, the lower the fee can become. It’s a great idea, it works for everyone.

See also:

Here are some further links to Fraser’s material, as well as a few other content creators using Patreon very effectively:

• Fraser Cain on Patreon – Universe Today
• Fraser Cain on YouTube – Fraser Cain
• Universe Today – The website

• Culture, history and life in Ukraine – Yaroslava Antipina
• Just have a think – Dave Borlace
• Mindscape – Sean Carroll

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