My success today is a result of endless amounts of hard work and learning from my mistakes. This includes collaborating with other artists, sharing and promoting your work on every possible platform, and making a genuine effort to connect with people online.

I truly believe that NOW is the best time in history to be a creator.

We have endless resources at our disposal, with just the click of a mouse or tap of a finger. By being someone who people want to follow and support, and giving them something valuable back in return, you have the ability to create something meaningful.

          1. Treat Yourself as a Business

In order to be a successful community manager who provides value to his supporters, you need to be interacting with them as much as possible. Think of your social media accounts- FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and email as a storefront. For example, if you owned a shop and someone came in to browse, you wouldn’t ignore them. You would say hi and thank them for...

So, you decided to set up a Patreon page. Congratulations! This is a huge step in your career and you are on your way to making your dreams reality. However, the work doesn’t end here. Actually, it just started! A Patreon page is the first step, but you now need Patrons.

It’s best to create a Patreon page after you already have a decent amount of followers, because then you can use your existing influence to build a community of Patrons right off the bat.

This isn’t to say that it’s impossible to be successful on Patreon without a pre-established fan base, but be prepared to dedicate yourself to building a community of loyal supporters.

How do you build a community?

First, you need to identify who your supporters are. Then, you need to cater to them. Target your social media postings toward them. Create content you know they’ll love.

These are real people and they will be the reason why you are able to do what you love, so keep them in mind.

Once you have a solid understanding of...

So, you found your passion. And you’re ready to follow it. What’s next?

It is absolutely imperative that you form a solid understanding of how to

          Market yourself

          Run a business

          Communicate with your supporters.

Without these things, your art will exist only for yourself. This is great if you prefer it this way, but if your goal is to actually make a living doing what you love, it is essential that you grasp the following:

Your audience is your business, and without an audience you have no business.

Far too many creators continue to ignore this simple and unavoidable fact. The traditional music industry has changed dramatically in recent years; there has been a complete paradigm shift, in which the only way to monetize your art is to establish a relationship with your audience.

In order to make profits, you need to grow your follower base. Treat yourself as a business. This means committing yourself to increase your number of followers on FaceBook, ...