That said, Patreon works best as a secondary income source, rather than your sole foundation.

Aim for fewer tiers, align rewards across tiers to reduce workload, and price based on your net payouts (after all the fees are deducted) to maximize your return on effort.

Most Patreon page failures are tied to operational issues, rather than creative ones.

Issues like tier sprawl leads to burnout. Broken reward promises lead to subscriber churn. Both have a direct impact on your month-to-month net income.

That said, when pricing tiers, creators need to account for their specific fee exposure.

Because of how fees are structured, lower-priced tiers are hit the hardest, which can significantly impact your net take-home revenue.

When it comes to fees, Patreon's are layered and cumulative.

Between the platform's service fees, payment processing, currency conversion, and tax handling (VAT, sales tax, all location dependent), the platform's take can add up quickly.

Since Patreon lacks strong in-house discovery, your Patreon page's growth, as a creator, depends on how well you can redirect your audience from other platforms into paid supporters.

Its best to think of Patreon as a monetization layer, rather than a discovery platform.

Where other platforms have discovery algorithms, Patreon relies on creators converting audiences from external platforms (Bluesky, etc.), which can add friction to the path from follower to paying supporter.

That's all for VGen for now. If there’s another platform you’d like me to look into next, I’m always open to suggestions!

On the whole, VGen works best for artists who value structure and consistency.

It’s a marketplace with a project-based design that can amplify income swings and burnout risk, but understanding those dynamics can make the platform easier to navigate.

When payouts are gated and work is project-based, timing is especially important.

Artists without much buffer (financial/time) often feel pressure to discount heavily, or overbook requests during slow periods, increasing stress and burnout potential.

Another thing to keep in mind: payouts are gated behind request completion. Platforms gate payouts like this to manage risk. For artists, it can create pressure to deliver quickly and increase burnout risk when requests stack up.

As an artist, two fees typically affect payouts.

One is VGen’s 5% platform fee. The other is a payment processor fee that varies based on whether Stripe or PayPal is used, as well as where the artist is based. (US vs. Non-US)

Being aware of both helps to avoid surprises when payouts hit.

Money moves through VGen in a pretty straightforward way:

1. A client submits a commission request
2. The artist completes the work
3. The client accepts it and the platform releases payment

Simple on the surface, but a few details matter.

These are SO MUCH COOLER.

I got… shoe.

I feel that. Is liminal time a thing? If not it should definitely be a thing.