Every artist and creator faces the daunting task of pricing their work when they're just starting out. Is it determined by the size of your work or the countless hours of effort you poured into it? The true value of your work lies in something less tangible but incredibly powerful – your brand. In this article, learn how to price your commission and your patronage pricing to monetize your content.

How to Charge Your Commission?

Whether you're a social media manager, influencer, or artist, setting the right price for your services can be a challenging task. Artists may consider the size of their artwork, while content creators and influencers might calculate the effort they put in. However, it's essential to grasp the genuine value of your work, as it may not hold significant meaning to you, but it can mean the world to potential clients or companies looking to collaborate with you.

The value of your brand lies in the effort it saves these businesses when entering the market. Businesses often require the expertise of community relations specialists to establish a philanthropic image within specific niche communities. Hiring multiple individuals for networking purposes can never replicate the impact you've achieved. Attempting this without the assistance of influencers or a network in that space is a risky endeavor. Never understand how much companies are willing to pay. For example, the minimal price for a 15 second TikTok shorts can be $300 to $800+, considering you have around 5K to 10K followers. Company brands can never establish a social presence as effectively as your individual brand, your personality.

How to Negotiate Your Commission

Follower count is the currency. Companies primarily evaluate your brand based on the number of followers and engagement rate, with a particular focus on the number of comments. Understand the needs of your followers and clients, set a price accordingly, and iterate. It's crucial to ensure that the company or client you collaborate with can provide you with constructive feedback to help you improve. For artists, establish close communication with your patrons and gain a deeper understanding of their preferences. For influencers, you will need to learn a bit of digital marketing skills.

• You need need feedback on metrics such as views, click rates, and purchase volume.
• Ideally, you would prefer to collaborate with a client who can offer you access to a dashboard or utilize a third-party source for performance monitoring.
• Set up UTM links to know track the traffic going from your link to your client's website.
• If you have your own website with tech savvy skills, try out Google Tag. You can track how many times your button or events are triggered.
  

If you're confident in your conversion skills, you might consider negotiating a percentage-based fee. Alternatively, some companies prefer a flat fee for each campaign. However, if you're not entirely sure about your conversion capabilities, a fair approach is to agree on a fixed amount for specific milestones, such as $25 USD for every 1,000 views on TikTok. This ensures a mutually beneficial arrangement for both you and your clients. You can approach companies to make a lead generation deal, for example, set a link towards their website and receive a monthly payout based on the traffic. And all these are possible because you are the key traffic driver, the source, the leader of a community.

How to Structure Your Membership?

When beginning your membership business, it's crucial to focus on the initial setup and understand what resonates with your fanbase. Starting with a single set of benefits at an accessible price point simplifies the decision for potential members and streamlines your workload. As a patronage platform, we can tell you that only around 1% of your followers on social media is willing to be a paid member. The average price paid members is willing to pay is $5.

Setting patronage tiers is the art of business. Make sure you know the reason why fans are supporting you. You maybe making art courses but some of your fans may just want to see you make some art. Segment your fans with tier with progressive payments, meaning that you should set higher prices for your dedicated fans. Avoid starting the lowest tier too low, as your work deserves fair compensation. Make sure you If certain benefits or pricing structures don't work as expected, don't hesitate to make changes and iterate. Your membership should reflect your growth as a creator, and your members are often supportive of these adjustments.

One important piece of advice is to consistently monitor your audience demographics. You cannot control how your content is distributed and shared on any social media, so you will need to keep track of your reach on every channel. But why is this so important? Well, some of your fans might have a strong desire to support your work but may not have the financial means to purchase the tier you offer. In such cases, it becomes essential to adapt and localize your pricing to cater to fans in specific regions. This strategy has the potential to become one of your most significant revenue sources, especially if there's a sizable population of fans in that region.

Choose The Right Monetization Tools

It's essential to recognize that online content has a global reach, and your fans come from all over the world, especially within niche communities like anime fandom, gaming, and VTubing. Every platform in the current market has varying features and policies regarding NSFW content. Below are some of the features that you should look into:

• Unlock individual posts
• Create post collections for fans to unlock series
• Subscription plans with automatic renewal
• AI-powered features ( e.g. translation )
• Local banking options for payments and withdrawals
• Paid Private Messaging
• Shop/ eCommerce storefront
• Live streaming and video
• Video on-demand ( VOD )
• 3D model viewing
• Large upload/ download size
• Website/ app customization

If a significant portion of your fanbase resides in Asia, it's crucial to understand that Asian countries often have diverse payment systems. For instance, while PayPal is widely recognized in North America and Europe, it may come with high currency exchange fees. To provide a more convenient and cost-effective payment experience for your fans, I strongly recommend considering platforms that can integrate payment gateways like Wise or Stripe. For instance, platforms such as Etsy and Shopify offer these options. If that is the case, then Ko-fi and Patreon may not be the best options to you. Here is a list of alternative patronage platforms that you can explore to cater to a global audience effectively.