18+ Creator Community Resources
One of the wonderful things about being a creator on Patreon is that, as soon as you join, you become part of our diverse, supportive, and creative community. One portion of that community are creators who make things just for those who are over 18-years-old (and abide by our Community Guidelines) which we call 18+ creators.
We’ve heard from this community that, often, 18+ creators have unique needs, different from creators who make content for all ages. 18+ creators face challenges like high patron churn, online piracy, and even harassment. We strive to support our entire community on Patreon, which is why we have a number of programs and resources just for this portion of our community. Below, we encourage you to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, crafted just for 18+ creators. The newsletter contains relevant news and updates plus fun opportunities, such as creator features and collaboration opportunities — all designed for this community.
And, we’ve prepared this blog to be an ever updating home-base for all the resources and best practices we’ve gathered for 18+ creators. Let’s dive in!
Join Patreon’s Community spaces
- Patreon Discord, to hang out with 1,000+ creators all over the world, which has industry specific channels for 18+ creators to share their work and collaborate, as well as 18+ general and random channels.
- Join here.
- Patreon Forum, a place to have in-depth discussions, provide product feedback and suggestions, with an 18+ specific section.
- Request access here.
- Patreon events, as we often have meetups across the US, sign up for updates here: events.patreon.com
View online recorded workshops
- Optimizing for your best launch for 18+ content creators
- Your launch is a huge opportunity. Learn how to harness the power of the big day and hit your goals right out the gate.
- Tools for Growth on Patreon for 18+ creators
- If you’ve hit a plateau, it might be time for a change. In this session Anna, our 18+ Creator Success specialist, will teach you the best tactics to re-launch your page, re-engage your community and boost earnings.
- 18+ Creators: How-to raise your prices and revamp your page
- If you’re looking to refresh and re-energize your Patreon page, this session will teach you the best tactics to re-launch your page, re-engage your community and boost earnings.
Get resources from our Blog
Posts featuring 18+ creators
- 6 themes from SXSW, including a live Twitter thread on an 18+ sex positive panel
- How to run a mastermind group
- How to talk to your audience
- Illustrator rewards
- Keep creating when you want to quit
Blogs with topics relevant to 18+ creators
- What you need to know about online piracy
- Patreon’s strong stance against doxxing
- Chargebacks – what they are and how to avoid them
- Raffles and contests on Patreon
- Credit card fraud prevention
- Patreon’s DMCA policy
Check out helpful Support Articles
- Should I be marked as 18+?
- I’ve been flagged as 18+, what should I do?
- Where is my payout?
- Why are my numbers different?
Access other useful contacts
- 97% of creators and patrons find their answer on our help-site, without needing to write in.
- If you do need help, the Patreon Support team is here for you to help with bugs, payment issues, technical questions, or any general question you might have
- Contact the Patreon Trust and Safety team for guidelines help by email: guidelines@patreon.com or fill out this form.
- Contact the Patreon Legal team for all legal enquiries or help by email: legal@patreon.com
Top 3 frequently asked questions
1. I don’t think I should be marked 18+. How do I get unmarked?Email guidelines@patreon.com and ask them to review your page
2. What are the age restrictions on Patreon?You must be at least 13 years old to sign up for an account. To become a patron or a creator, you must be at least 18 years old or have written permission from a parent or guardian.
3. Do you allow this on Patreon? What about this other thing? Please email guidelines@patreon.com with any specific questions or content examples and they will be happy to help.
Lastly, get our top 10 quick tips for success
Here are 10 quick tips for you to consider. Not all of these may be right for you as each creator and their community is unique. You know your patrons best, but these are some common things we have found helpful for 18+ creators to employ for their Patreon page. Take a look and see if they are right for you!
1. Enable charge up front: Charge up front is an option for monthly creators that allows them to charge their patrons immediately upon pledging. We offer this option because once a patron pledges to a creator, they immediately have access to all posts available to the tier they pledged to. This includes posts made prior to their membership. This feature is not available for creators that charge per creation. Read more here.
2. Special Offers: A Special Offer is a marketing and business tool you can use to boost fan engagement, and increase your earnings. You create and promote a benefit — a digital reward, insider access, merch — that is only available for a limited time.
3. Collaborate with others: By joining the Patreon community spaces you can find other 18+ creators to collaborate with. It might be working on a joint cosplay, meeting up at the next con, or simply cross-promoting each others work.
4. Experiment sharing different Patreon links: When promoting your Patreon, you may want to see how effective it is sharing a link to different sections of your Patreon page. You could share a patron-only post, a public post, or a link just to your tiers. Reducing friction in patron pledges helps capture patrons in the moment.
5. Charge monthly: If you’re charging per creation, this article will show you how to change to charging monthly and how best to do it to minimize patron angst.
6. Raise lowest price of tier from $1: For many creators, having a $1 tier is something they are passionate about to provide something accessible for all. However sometimes creators are giving away a lot of value for $1 that, after fees, is much less for the creator. We encourage you to reconsider if your $1 tier is still right for you! This blog has more info.
7. Repeat high-conversion benefits: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it! Repeat benefits that are working for you and the most popular amongst your patrons. You can always poll your patrons to find out what they would love to see from you, and which might encourage them to stay longer or pledge to a higher tier.
8. Plan ahead for patrons leaving: Patrons of 18+ creators tend to fall off around the 3 month mark. To combat this, consider utilizing Patreon’s Special Offer feature, or reinvigorating benefits every 3-4 months.
9. Share content by posting paywalled posts on social: Create a sense of FOMO on your socials by sharing a link to a patron-only post on Patreon.
10. Limit sharing entire back catalog: We recommend creators limit access to their entire back catalogue to only very high tiers or to those you trust to limit the risk of online piracy.
We’re honored that creators of all kinds and mediums choose us as business partners, and and hope this post is useful as you build out your 18+ membership program.
