ben

hello and welcome.

3 minute read

knockout combo

Here’s a template for starting your online music career quickly. Using the power of Patreon + a Charity + ConverKit you could setup a system that pays for itself in two weeks.

For your purposes ConvertKit will end up being $9/mo, but if you work fast you could have that paid for by patrons before the end of the two week free trial. If you miss that deadline you can still operate decently under the free version.

setup a patreon

Sign-up for Patreon Lite. If they give you default tiers just roll with them. Otherwise setup a $3 and $9 tier.

Add images and info, wherever you can. Make the payments scheme “per month”.

charity

Now’s a good time to choose a charity. Pick something that aligns well with your music and your personal convictions. Having a charity will help inform your message.

My charity is GiveDirectly. GiveDirectly simply hands the poorest in the world cash, so they can solve their own money problems. This charity works well for me, because my message is how fans should support musicians by giving them money directly.

message

Craft your message. Start with why and make it clear what the goal for your music careeer is. Articulate how the patrons benefits from joining and how you benefit from their support. That will help you know what to say in your tiers, the description and the intro video.

convertkit

To complete this one-two combo of a music career kickstart. Sign-up for ConvertKit. There are tons of reasons to do this. Convertkit helps you collect and manage emails. They allow you to set up automated email sequences and makes it easy to sell online products.

You can think of it as a pseaudo website and CRM. Don’t worry about those terms now. Most importantly, you can create a landing-page with ConvertKit.

landing-page

Create a landing-page for email sign-ups. This acts like a page on a website you can link out to, for requesting and collecting emails.

initial email

How do you get people onto your new email list?

You’ve gotta ask them.

Write a 3-line, 1-link email to send down your personal contacts list.

You can read much more complete instructions in the essentials collection.

auto email

Before you send out your initial email, create an automated welcome email and thank your new emailee for joining the list.

A great choice here would be to surprise them with a free download of a song or something like that.

Then mention your Patreon lightly.

“If you’d like to be more involved in my music. Join me on Patreon! A portion of what I’m given goes to…my charity.”

sequence for the fan

Whoever you reach out to will have an experience like this:

1) Initial Email > 2) Landing Page > 3) Auto Email > 4) Patreon > 5) New Patron

Steps 2 and 3 are made possible by ConvertKit.

dramatization

I’ll dramatize it for you.

Hello I’m Trevor, your friend from high school that you haven’t talked to in a few years. I’ve done well as a coder. One day I, Trevor, receive a random initial email from you quickly informing me of your message as an artist and asking for my email to stay informed. I’m not annoyed and a little interested in getting back in touch, so I click on the link and enter my email. Instantly an automatic welcome email pops up in my inbox, thanking me for joining. Unexpectedly I’m given a free download as a nice gesture along with a light invitation to be more involved through Patreon.

I’m feeling good about this interaction so far, so I follow the link. There I, Trevor, look over your message and tiers on Patreon. I choose the tier that seems most reasonable and begin supporting you. Now I’m a partial and interested patron, hoping something interesting comes out of this. At the very least I don’t feel bad some of my money is going to your favorite charity; you must have a good reason for supporting it so strongly.

resources and references

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