Hey everyone, I've thought on and off about creating a Patreon/crowdfunding account for my stuff on here and other porny projects, but I'm very unsure for a bunch of reasons. I was wondering if anyone else in the community has considered/done this would be able to share their experiences with Patreon or other platforms. General thoughts would be appreciated, but I also have a few specific questions. 1. At the moment I have one story -- Look up "Slut Camp" on CHYOA -- and a few others that I've started but left in the pre-publish phase because they're only a few pages and don't have much sex in them yet. I also cut gifs and put them on RedGifs, but they're comparatively simple. The question is whether these projects are enough to warrant a Patreon. My plan is to promise more consistency/frequency, but that's really it. Do you think people who read my story would actually pay? 2. Discretion is another factor. I realize there are limits to how secret you can keep an account (if you get paid, you have to provide financial info), but I would prefer keep this stuff separate from the rest of my digital life. Is that manageable? Do you have any tips? 3. I'm vaguely aware that using a crowdfunding platform can lead to some creative limitations. (You can get banned for certain types of stories). Does anyone know what they are and if there are ways to protect yourself if your content gets close to the line? Again, any thoughts or feelings on the matter you have would be great. Thanks, Your New Best Friend
There are some users who monetize their content that way. I guess that's the decision of the people who donate. There are also services that allow donations instead of regular payments for a defined project. (Ko-fi?) They might be an option as well.
Hello, I recently created an account on Ko-Fi to monetize my story without the pressure on the patron to commit to a reoccurring monthly payment. I think you have a ton of content to work with. If you were to advertise it, you could lead with how many years you've worked on it and what the word count is at. You could even make a goal out of getting to a certain word count. The reason I'm cautious about keeping my Ko-Fi is that they specifically prohibit erotic adult literature on their platform. However, I have seen other Ko-Fi accounts that have adult content that have been up for months and not taken down yet, so I'm not sure how enforcement of that rule works. I will likely be transitioning to Patreon/OnlyFans to make sure that a stream of income from my work does not get taken down. You could also incentivize people to donate by giving them early access to chapters you are working on, or make a request for donations to commission artwork from an artist you think could depict your written scenes well. I hope it works out for you.
I've had Patreon for a while now (over a year) and to be honest, it's only been a glorified way to pay me for commissioned work on CHYOA. Now to be fair, I've not done all that much with my Patreon except offer commissioned work and I have exactly one post on Patreon. I'm admittedly pretty content with that as writing on CHYOA for me is more of a hobby and I like to go at my own pace. If you want my advice: Learn coding/3D rendering or team up with someone who does and create an erotic visual novel/game. I've seen Patreon's that rake in hundreds and even thousands through this sort of thing. Obviously, it's more work, but it's probably the best way that I know of making money whilst writing smut.
As unfortunate as it is that writing alone isn't enough, this is definitely true. Before I joined CHYOA, I worked with another interactive story creator called Twine, but I liked the simplicity of CHYOA more than I liked having to do everything myself. However, this comment, along with my personal experience, has really opened my eyes that this is the only viable way to make a good stream of passive income, which is ultimately my goal. For that reason, I've decided to write an ending to the story and move on to working with Twine again to create the story that I want in a way that is also profitable.
