Patreon Powers Membership Across the Web
Introducing Our New Creator App Directory and Developer Portal
You creators are a tech-savvy bunch. From content distribution to email marketing to community engagement, no one knows what works for your fans better than you. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from watching you operate, it’s that you need choices about the best ways to connect your membership business across the web.
That’s why, today, we’re launching a new dimension to the Patreon platform. With our new App Directory for creators and Developer Portal, we’re making it easy to connect all of your communities and favorite tools with Patreon so that you can run one streamlined membership business.
The App Directory makes it easy for creators to connect tools that help them grow their membership businesses, and energize patrons.
Our Developer Portal offers all the details that technical creators and partners need to build amazing tools that help creators run their membership business.
The App Directory
The App Directory is the go-to resource for discovering integrations that you can connect with your Patreon page. Here are some ways creators are extending membership across the web:
Generate income via your WordPress site
Now, any publication that’s powered by WordPress can be turned into a membership site that gets you paid. Australian comedy podcast Sanspants Radio is using Patreon’s WordPress plugin to give their fans the benefits of paid membership. Fans can choose from various Patreon-powered membership tiers to receive access to patron-only content. This plugin can also provide patrons with an ad-free experience.
Joel of Sanspants Radio explains, “Being able to connect Patreon with WordPress enabled us to offer our supporters the ease of Patreon signup and membership with the convenience of RSS feeds served from our own site.”
Creating patron-only content to grow your membership business is easy with our new WordPress plugin. Within each post or page you have the option to select the membership tiers granted access to your content.
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Automatically connect apps to your Patreon with Zapier**
Zapier is a no-code-needed way to connect your Patreon with apps you use every day – automating workflows and reducing time-sucking administrative tasks. You can make your own automations by connecting Patreon with Zapier’s 750+ apps, such as MailChimp, Google Sheets, Twitter, Crowdcast, and more.
Patreon creator Fraser Cain of Universe Today uses Zapier to automatically add new patrons to his email list service, Nimble. Zapier also helps him automatically segment his email list into various patron pledge levels, which makes it easier for him to send patrons their special rewards.
Give patrons special access on Discourse
Discourse is modern forum software for your community. The Discourse-Patreon integration allows creators to offer special community perks to patrons. For example, creator FunFunFunction offers a patron-only forum called FunFunForum, where their Patreon fans are automatically granted access to this private group.
Another example from The Fantasy Footballers shows how you can offer special badging to recognize patrons. Their Discourse forum is open to the public but patrons receive access to private discussions.
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Offer patron-only chat rooms and features on Discord
Discord is a free voice and text chat app for gamers that works on both your desktop and phone. The Discord-Patreon integration launched in 2016 and is now used by thousands of Patreon creators. Discord is now part of the App Directory, making it even easier for creators to launch Discord rooms and features to their patrons. This integration automatically inputs new patrons’ emails into Discord so that no manual work is required.
Gamer & Videographer Danny O’Dwyer uses this integration to offer Discord perks to his patrons at different reward tiers, like special roles or access to exclusive chat rooms. It helps him keep in touch with his patrons — “the people who matter the most to this project” — and it even encourages his patrons to communicate with each other. That means his Patreon community is thriving even when he’s away on a shoot or fast asleep after a long day streaming.
Coming Soon: Instantly add patrons to Slack
Slack is a leading messaging app that is already offered by many creators on Patreon as a membership reward. The Slack-Patreon integration, which will go live later this year, will automatically add patrons to private channels in Slack, making it easy for patrons and creators to keep in touch in real time.
Patreon creator Tom Merritt of Daily Tech News Show uses Slack to quickly connect with his most supportive community members. His Slack community is as important to him as it is for his fans. He says, “I can go into Slack with a crazy idea and in a few minutes know if it is in fact brilliant, not crazy, or absolutely as crazy as I thought. The folks in our Slack really feel like extended members of the team.”
Even when Tom is busy working on new projects, the members of his Slack community can meet and exchange ideas with one another.
The Developer Portal
Are you a creator with technical chops? Are you a developer who’s passionate about building for creators? Our new developer portal offers APIs and documentation that make it easy for developers to create tools for Patreon everywhere across the web.
Some third-party developers are already building on the Patreon API. Patreon creator The Great War inspired so much World War I interest from their fans that they needed a custom solution to manage the questions they received across all of their community channels — Facebook, YouTube, Patreon, and more. The Great War teamed up with developer Yukka Software Solutions who built a custom Q&A application that prioritized questions based on popularity. It even gave special recognition to patrons, whose questions got higher priority and tagged with the Patreon logo.
We invite developers who are interested in building solutions for creators to join our community – check it out here.
We’re excited to make it possible for Patreon to connect hundreds of developers and apps, extending the power of membership across the web.
Our vision is that, by connecting your favorite online tools to Patreon, you’ll have more places to connect on a deeper level with your patrons. Expanding your membership business with these new apps will help you generate more income and give you more time to create.
And this is just the start. Our new App Directory and developer portal are the vehicles for membership across the web, but you hold the key. Let’s start this engine up and continue the journey to a new web. A web that properly values creativity. A web that gets creators paid.
