For those of you who don’t know, I make the majority of my income through Patreon - a membership platform where people sign up for my art tutorials (and much more). Last year, I got the idea of replacing Patreon with my own membership platform so I had full ownership over everything (meant specifically for my own tutorials, not other artists like the Patreon model). The new site will be called the Fearless Brush Club. I announced it last year, and since then I’ve continued to develop my business strategy and make a plan for the new year.
Like I said, the goal of the Fearless Brush Club (henceforth referred to as FBC in this blog post, sorry doctors) is to replace my Patreon membership. I want to take back my power and own my content fully. I don’t want to rely on a third-party for the majority of my income anymore.
I had originally planned on launching FBC this year, but then life happened. Some really fun and exciting projects came into my world, and I accepted. That left little time for designing a website for FBC and especially for advertising that. So I set it aside and continued using Patreon.
On the plus side, Patreon is getting more popular so I have less difficulty explaining how it works. And overall it’s been fine. It allows me to do what I need to do for the most part. But year after year, they have increased their fees in exchange for very little increased value.
The Plan
Knowing this, I’ve made plans to get FBC up and running in January 2025 - kind of.
I will start simple. I’m going to rebrand my Patreon membership as the Fearless Brush Club. Since it’s still on Patreon, I can only do so much, like change my page title and banner. My hope is that it will create a more seamless transition to the new site if people are already familiar with FBC and what it offers.
My Patreon membership currently has a few different tiers - each one offering different levels of tutorials and guidance. I’m going to adjust them slightly to fit my new study plan which aligns better with my vision for FBC. But otherwise things are staying the same, for now.
Then, hopefully by spring 2025, my new FBC site will be active and I can start transitioning people there. I’m currently devoting about 10 hours per week to get that site ready, so in theory we should be good to go by March or April.
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I’m really excited about this because for so long I pictured my audience as a really fun art club. Even though we all live in different countries, we are each drawn to art and that becomes a universal language. I can envision future meet-ups with Fearless Brush Club members. How fun!
A Cautionary Tale
I have used Patreon since 2015. I’m one of the OGs of Patreon. I still have the “founding members” plan, which is supposed to make me feel some kind of way.
But in reality, Patreon is not mine. I don’t own it, I cannot change the design, I have no say in their business policies. And because of that, there is always the risk of losing it. Technically they have the power to change everything overnight, and I’d lose all my members. Not that I expect that to happen, but it wouldn’t be the first time a company did something drastic and a lot of people were suddenly out of business, would it?
The internet is like the wild west in my view. There are no actual rules. Companies come and go, setting up camp for as long as suits them. They can change their camp whenever they want, or just pack up and leave in the dark of night. They can pretty much do what they want. Big internet companies like Google, Amazon, Twitter (X) and more are so embedded into society that they know even if a big portion of the world “hates” them, they are still going to make millions.
If the internet is a sea, I am a minnow. Maybe even plankton. I have so little power. So little control. There are only two drops of water that I can fully control:
My website. I own the domain. I design it. No one can take it away from me. People willingly go to my website to look.
My newsletter. People willingly sign up. And it’s the only way I can contact my audience directly if social media suddenly disappears.
These are my drops of water and I love them and protect them.
Tip for other artists who are starting out - start a newsletter as soon as possible. Even if you don’t plan to send out many emails. Get that list started! People are interested in you and your art, not the platforms you share on. Your newsletter list is the most direct connection to your audience and no one can mess with it.
Despite knowing this, I rely on third-party websites like YouTube and Patreon to “allow” me to share my content in exchange for money. Which kind of scares me in the long run.
I have seen the internet evolve drastically over the past 30 years. It’s a strange immaterial entity that plays a massive part in our lives, and yet most of us have so little control. We are guests. We are allowed to use social media and streaming platforms and websites until we’re not - until they disappear, change, get hacked, get cancelled, etc.
Therefore making a living online is an even stranger and riskier business. Especially when you rely on a system of trust that the third party will not behave badly or worst case, disappear. Remember what happened to Tumblr? That’s obviously a morally complex case, but it still led to a seemingly overnight downfall of a huge platform. But even Patreon isn’t immune to controversy. In 2017 they announced a fee change for members which led to a huge backlash and ultimately they reversed their stance. (they’ve sinced increased fees for creators)
And Patreon’s most recent hiccup was due to Apple’s announcement that people signing up for memberships through the iOS app would incur an additional 30% fee. This led to a multitude of protests, but Apple is too big to care. Why would they? Even the likes of Patreon is a small drop of water in Apple’s sea. (by the way, the work-around is that you can tell members to sign up through a browser instead. But we all know that adding an extra step to any kind of sign-up leads to drop off)
To wrap up this rant, it comes down to ownership and control. The safest route is to limit (or get rid of) third-party control of your content. Easier said than done. But it’s possible! Take it from someone who wishes they had done this from the very beginning and is now wrestling with hard decisions and changes. This is why I’m excited for the potential of Fearless Brush Club. I’ll come back and update about this in the new year as things develop.
As always, hope you are staying inspired!