If you’re already using Patreon, you’d know that the membership platform has long been a game-changer for creators. Getting direct financial support from your audience instead of relying on inconsistent brand deals and partner programs can be the bedrock for a successful content creation career or side hustle. Even better, Patreon is now offering more than just the ability to sell memberships to your most dedicated followers — you can sell digital products on the platform to bring in more money.
Interested in learning how to sell digital products on Patreon? Here’s everything you need to know.
How to sell digital products on Patreon (6 steps)
Step 1: Identify your target customer
Let’s be real: only a subset of your audience is going to sign up for your Patreon, and it won’t necessarily overlap with the subset of your audience that will buy your digital products. You need to identify the characteristics of the target customer you’re building your digital product for, as that’ll help you in creating the product and promoting it.
So, where do you get that information? Creator platforms like YouTube often offer data on your audience, and they’re great places to start. Once you have gathered that data, here are the characteristics you want to figure out about your target customer:
- Their age (e.g. 20-25)
- Their gender (e.g. women)
- Their income bracket (e.g. $50K – $80K)
- Where they live (e.g. urban areas on the East Coast of the United States)
- Their job (e.g. visual artists)
- The problem you can solve (e.g. needing ways to streamline their painting workflows)
- The solution they need (e.g. Photoshop brushes)
Even with just this bit of information, you’d have a much better idea of who’s going to buy your digital product. This research can tell you which social media or marketing channels you should use to promote your product, how you should price it, and more.
Step 2: Brainstorm your digital product
Similar to how you need to research your target customer, take some time to figure out what kind of digital product you should build.
Here are a few aspects to consider about your digital product:
- Complexity: Should you be selling a large, expensive offering? Or multiple smaller products? For example, a photographer can sell a single pack of thousands of reference images for artists, or they can group them into smaller, cheaper packages.
- Format: This applies more to some products than others, but specific formats can make all the difference. Ebooks, for example, can be sold as PDFs, EPUB files, Word documents, and so on. You need to figure out which format is going to appeal to your target customer the most — in other words, most likely to bring you more sales.
- Details: Are Photoshop brushes for painting skin more popular — and profitable — than brushes for painting landscapes? Will an ebook with fewer, longer chapters outperform a similar ebook with more short chapters? These details will vary based on the product you’re selling, but it’s important to get them right.
Step 3: Study your competition
One of the best ways to take shortcuts without sacrificing the quality of your digital product is to analyze your competition.
Look at creators in your niche. What are they selling? What are their digital products like? Try buying a few and noting what you like and don’t like about them. If they’re being sold on platforms that support reviews, read those reviews. Find out if buyers have any criticisms — they’ll tell you what to avoid when you launch your own product.
Researching the competition doesn’t mean you should make a carbon copy of what others are selling. You might even decide to sell something completely unique and different from what’s already available online. But since so many creators are already making bank selling digital products, why not study them and see if you can fill any gaps in the market?
Step 4: Build your product and upload it to Patreon
You’ve done the research, and at this stage, we’re assuming that you’ve built your product. Now it’s time to get it up on Patreon. Here’s how:
- Log into your Patreon account and click on the Shop tab.
- Click +Add new button.
- Give your product a name.
- Set your product’s price (between $3 and $5000).
- Give your product a description.
- If you want to give paying Patreon members access to your product for free, hit the Advanced pricing button.
- Choose your product type and upload your file.
- Give your product a hero image (the thumbnail that shows up in your Shop).
- You can add additional images here if you want!
- Preview your product.
- Hit Publish!
And that’s it! That’s all you need to do to publish your first digital product on Patreon.
Step 5: Announce your new product on Patreon
Patreon lets you embed any digital product into a Patreon post, meaning that you can promote it directly to your patrons instead of having to fight the algorithms on other platforms. And since your patrons already support your content directly, they’re more likely to buy your product than a YouTube subscriber or TikTok follower who watches your videos every once in a while.
Here are a few ideas on what to post on Patreon when promoting your digital product:
- Sneak peeks: You don’t have to wait until your digital product launches to promote it! Give your audience sneak peeks at a new product you’re working on. Showing the product creation process regularly to your patrons can help build hype for your launch.
- Countdowns: If you really want to generate buzz, try counting down to your product launch. Have each post tease a different part of the product, or explain why you think it’s the perfect product for your audience.
- Official launch: To drum up interest, you should make an announcement on Patreon the minute your product launches. Give your audience a breakdown of what they can expect and think of ways you can really pique their interest.
Step 6: Promote your product using other channels
Remember that the digital products you sell on Patreon aren’t just for your patrons! Anyone can buy your digital product on your Patreon shop, even if they haven’t signed up for one of your membership tiers. That means you can promote your product through your other channels — like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Substack — so your audience knows you’ve created a product for them.
As far as hard guidelines go, Patreon only has a few restrictions on what you can sell:
- The digital products you sell need to be appropriate for all ages. That means they can’t feature any nudity or sexually explicit content.
- Your digital products also need to abide by Patreon’s Community Guidelines, which means anything that falls under the umbrella of hate speech and graphic violence (with exceptions like documentaries and fiction) won’t be permitted.
What digital products can you sell on Patreon?
Once you’ve checked those boxes, you just need to make sure your digital product is actually supported by the platform, meaning that it’s the right file type and doesn’t run afoul of certain limitations.
You can sell images, videos, audio files, ebooks, and more. For example, a podcaster may sell complete, never-before-heard episodes. A YouTuber may sell a video tutorial on building the perfect recording setup. Similarly, an author may sell short stories, and so on.
Digital product ideas to sell on Patreon
No matter what kind of creator you are, you can sell digital products on Patreon. Digital products take less effort to create and send to buyers than merch or other physical products. What’s more, they are a great way to diversify your income. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Ebooks: From writing an e-cookbook to dreaming up your own digital comic, creating an ebook certainly requires thoughtful planning and execution. However, selling it through Patreon makes the publishing process as simple as tapping a few buttons.
- Templates: No matter what your niche is, you’re probably using some kind of software to make your day-to-day easier, and someone out there will benefit from you sharing exactly how you do that. Whether it’s a content strategy template in a Word document or a productivity template on Notion, templates can be immensely profitable.
- Digital prints: Artists, cartoonists, and other creators with skills in the visual arts can offer downloadable, printable copies of their artwork through Patreon.
- One-off vlogs: Vlogging a special occasion? You can absolutely charge your audience for viewing the content. Think a behind-the-scenes look at an exclusive event, or once-in-a-lifetime experiences like sailing in the Komodo Islands.
- Individual tutorials: While Patreon isn’t set up for selling online courses, you can sell standalone tutorials on the platform. For example, artists can teach the esoteric art of drawing hands, financial creators can share their tips for retirement planning, and fitness influencers can offer exclusive workout routines.
Examples of creators selling digital products on Patreon
Looking for more inspiration? Here are a few examples of creators who are already selling digital products on Patreon.
Archewood
This cartoonist publishes a weekly comic on Patreon, using the platform to sell digital zines, cookbooks, and more.
Archvillain Games
This studio creates 3D-printable miniature models, sells downloadable 3D models of those miniatures directly through Patreon, and sells ebooks.
Chapo Trap House
This satirical political podcast shares exclusive podcast episodes on Patreon and sells mini-collections of their best archival episodes.
Hainbach
Hainbach creates electronic music that’s been described as ambient, experimental, and beat-driven. He’s got 200,000 subscribers on YouTube and uses Patreon to sell music samples and sound packs.
Loish
Loish is a digital artist with over 2.6 million followers on Instagram. She uses her platform to show off her works in progress, unveil finished pieces, and help other artists learn her process. She sells tutorials on Patreon in the form of video courses.
Cole Davis
Cole Davis is an upright bassist who uses Patreon to sell courses and lessons for aspiring upright bass players. His educational material covers everything from how to properly position your thumb when playing to scales, arpeggios, and studies of common riffs.
Who can buy my digital products on Patreon?
Anyone can purchase your digital products on Patreon. While it might be easier to get your paying subscribers to buy your products since they’re already used to visiting your Patreon page, non-patrons can purchase them, too. That means you can add a link to your Patreon shop in your social media bio, without worrying that your followers won’t have access to it.
Who’s eligible to sell products on Patreon?
As long as your Patreon — and the content on it — meets certain eligibility requirements, you can sell products on Patreon. Here are these requirements:
- Your content has to be safe for all ages, meaning you’re not offering content that features nudity or is otherwise sexually explicit.
- Your Patreon page has to be marked as “safe for all audiences.”
- Your Patreon account has to be in good standing. Generally, this means that you haven’t infringed Patreon’s Community Guidelines.
And that’s it! No minimum amount of patrons, no specific types of content, and no other requirements.
Does Patreon take a cut from digital product sales?
Like many e-commerce platforms, Patreon will take a cut of your earnings. That cut is spread out over a few fees. Here’s what you can expect to pay when you sell digital products through Patreon:
- 5% platform fee: This percentage is taken out of every successful sale you make on Patreon. So, if you sell a $20 digital product, Patreon will take 5 cents from each sale.
- Payment fee: The actual fee varies based on the currency being paid out. For a sale made in USD, for example, you’ll be charged 2.9% of the sale price plus $0.30.
- Sales tax on fees: In some jurisdictions, you’ll have to pay sales taxes on any Patreon fees.
- Payout fee: After you’ve made a few sales, you’ll want to see that money in your bank account! Pulling funds from Patreon incurs its own fee, which varies depending on how you receive your payments and where you’re located. For example, an American creator getting paid through PayPal will be charged a payout fee of 5% plus $0.10.
Why more creators should sell digital products on Patreon
Patreon is mostly known as a membership platform, and there are some great benefits to setting up paid memberships and exclusive content. But you don’t want to stop there! Even with a modest audience, there are some great reasons for selling digital products on Patreon:
- You own the revenue: Let’s face it, social platforms like TikTok and YouTube can be fickle. Who they pay, why they pay, and how much they pay can change so quickly it’s tough to keep track. When you sell digital products through a platform like Patreon, you own that revenue stream, meaning there’s no risk you’ll lose a chunk of income because a rewards program changed.
- Better margins: If you’ve ever sold merch or physical products, you know that the amount you get is a lot smaller than what’s charged to the customer. With digital products, you get to keep a lot more of the money.
- Fewer headaches: Even Print on Demand and similar done-for-you services come with potential problems, from unreliable distributors to low quality products. A digital product doesn’t have these problems, since you control every aspect of its creation and it’s a lot easier to make.
- Easier to scale: If a physical product starts doing numbers, the problems you run into when delivering that product get bigger, too. That’s not an issue with digital products. No matter how many orders you get (or where they come from), the selling process doesn’t change much.
Want to see more benefits of selling digital products? Check out our guide here.
Is Patreon the best platform for selling digital products?
So while selling digital products online is a great pursuit for any creator, Patreon might not be the best platform for everyone. If you already have memberships set up there, then adding your digital products is an easy win. If you don’t, just know that Patreon isn’t your only option, and it’s not always the best option.
Platforms like Patreon, Beacons, and Gumroad come with hurdles for content creators:
- Rarely mobile first: The boomers are right about one thing. Content creators and their audiences alike are glued to their phones. So why don’t these platforms let you build, sell, and consume digital products on your phone?
- Expensive: Gumroad is one of the most expensive platforms out there, and some of its alternative aren’t much better. You’ll pay fee after fee after fee.
- Big learning curve: Platforms that let you build digital products natively usually require a serious level of skill to get right.
So what’s a creator to do?
Check out The Leap. It’s a free, mobile-first, AI-powered platform for building digital products and selling them, all from one landing page. Put a link to your own digital storefront in all your social media bios and start making that digital product bank. It’s cheaper and easier to learn than the alternatives.
Get in for free and start building.
Ready to sell your own digital products?
Selling digital products is one of the best ways to diversify your income as a content creator, and Patreon’s newest Commerce feature helps you do exactly that. With just a bit of work, you can easily start selling and promoting your digital products on the platform.
FAQ
What kind of products can I sell on Patreon?
As long as you’re not selling 18+ content, you can sell pretty much any kind of digital product on Patreon as long as it’s a file Patreon supports:
Product type |
Supported file formats |
Video |
.mov, .mp4, .m4a, .mpeg, .ogg |
Audio |
.mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .wav, .aac, .oog |
Image |
.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif |
Other files |
.epub, .doc, .rtf, .txt |
How do I start selling on Patreon?
You can start selling on Patreon in just six steps:
- Identify your target customer.
- Brainstorm ideas for your digital product.
- Study the competition.
- Build your product and upload it to Patreon.
- Announce your product on Patreon.
- Promote your product on other channels.
You don’t need to meet any specific eligibility requirement to start selling digital products on Patreon. You just have to make sure you’re not selling 18+ content, since that isn’t currently eligible for selling on Patreon.
Does Patreon take a cut when you sell digital products?
Yes. Though Patreon doesn’t charge any money upfront for uploading digital products to your Patreon shop, it takes a cut of your sales, including the following fees:
- A 5% platform fee, taken from every successful sale.
- A variable payment processing fee, taken from every sale, depending on the currency you’re using.
- Currency conversion fees, for sales made in a currency other than your own.
- A payout fee, charged every time you move money from Patreon to your bank account.
When can I receive payouts from my digital product sales on Patreon?
You can receive funds from the sale of your digital products as soon as seven days after the sale is made. There are two ways you can receive payouts from your digital product sales on Patreon:
- Manually: You can manually withdraw funds after each sale if you’d like! You’ll just have to wait seven days from the time of the sale for those funds to be available.
- Automatically: You can also enable automatic payouts, and you’ll receive a payment on the 5th of every month covering the proceeds of sales made in that month.
Are my patrons the only people who can buy my digital products on Patreon?
Not at all! While patrons are probably more likely to shop from your Patreon, since they are already familiar with the platform, you can sell your digital products to anyone. That means you can add a link to your Patreon shop in your social media bio, and anyone who follows that link can buy what you have to offer.
What kind of payments does Patreon accept?
The payment methods you can use with Patreon will vary on the device you use and where you’re buying from. Generally, though, you can use the following:
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- Venmo
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Discover
- JCB
- Diners Club
- 3DS
Follow The Leap on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more monetization tips for creators. We also make a newsletter.
