Connect with more fans for free on Patreon

Patreon is no longer just for paying members! Now it’s a free space for you and your fans to connect directly, outside of the noise of social media. You can reliably share your work, get fan feedback, and see what truly resonates with them, without the influence of algorithm-based feeds. Free members get public posts delivered straight to their email inboxes, and can easily upgrade to paid options at any time.

Why create free posts on Patreon?

• Community growth. More engaged fans connecting on Patreon means you can more easily convert them to paying members. Early access creators have seen a nearly 3x increase in the growth of their communities, without a decrease in earnings.
• Guaranteed reach to more of your fans. When you share something on Patreon, you know members will see it in their inboxes, the app, and on the web.
• Better member retention. Paid members who cancel will see the option to stay connected as free members, so you can maintain these relationships. 80% of paid members who cancel opt to stay connected as free members.

How to grow and engage your free community

Create a few public posts

If you don't already have public content, we recommend creating a couple of public posts or making an older paid post public, so free members will have content to browse when they join. Alternatively, you can gate posts to paying members using early access, before making them public for everyone.

Incentivize fans to join

Let fans know why they should join you on Patreon for free, and what they’ll get. Incentivize sign-ups with a couple pieces of “hero” content only available on Patreon, like extended and ad-free episode, or a tutorial or template.

Share ongoing updates

Keep free members engaged over time with the following kinds of posts:

• Regular newsletter or roundup-style posts. Brian David Gilbert shares a monthly “progress report” with his community, covering everything from recent collabs to preview clips of videos dropping in the next month. He’s doubled his member count since releasing these updates, with an equal amount of free and paid members.
• Early access to free content or fan-exclusive information: Announce upcoming paid content, preview upcoming merch, share tour dates, and offer first access to buy if they’re on your member list.
• Longer excerpts of paid member content: Take free members one step deeper than a post preview, with longer excerpts of paid content and a CTA to upgrade for the full piece.
• Occasional full pieces of paid content: Share occasional full pieces, like monthly or bi-monthly long-form video and audio posts.
• Companion content: Share content that complements work you already share on social platforms, like images, links, and notes referenced in a podcast episode. Worlds Beyond Number has given thousands of free members access to livestreams, episode transcripts, and more while saving their exclusive Fireside podcast for paying members only.
• Consolidated content: Share content fans would otherwise have to chase down
  on separate platforms, in one place.
• Community access: Cast Party is growing and strengthening their community by giving free members access to their Discord, polls to vote on new merch and what types of content they’d like to see next, and notifications about upcoming paid livestreams.