LKTV: How to Make a Successful Switch From Patreon to Fourthwall
LKTV made the switch from Patreon (1400 peak patrons) to Fourthwall to unlock more creative freedom and a better quality video player experience.
LKTV is a YouTuber and Twitch streamer who reviews Korean and Japanese music, shows, anime, webtoons & K-dramas. In this article, he shares his story of migrating his memberships from Patreon to Fourthwall.
What initially inspired you to offer Memberships on Patreon?
When I first started my YouTube channel that focusses primarily on reviewing Korean and Japanese media - mainly music and series', I never entertained the thought of offering memberships or turning content creation into a career. As the community grew though, I increasingly wanted to find ways to thank them for their support, so I started offering exclusive reviews and commentary based content on Patreon, and was able to create an even tighter-knit community in doing so.
What made you decide to transition to Fourthwall? Did you have any concerns? If so, how did you address them?
For some time, I've been relatively dissatisfied with Patreon as a platform. Not only do creators and supporters lose a significant amount of the pledges to payment and platform fees on the site, things are also very un-intuitive and disorganised. For myself as a creator, organisation, branding, and most of all prioritising the community is most important to me, so I'd started looking at other options.
When I'd been recommended Fourthwall with it's recently launched memberships platform, everything from site customisation, to the native video player, being able to gift website subs on Twitch, the feed and whole experience being super intuitive for members straight from sign up was just amazing. That was when I decided that it was time to leave Patreon and move to Fourthwall.
How did you approach the transition (porting over content, promoting to your community, managing your revenue strategy, etc.)?
I was really transparent with my community and just told them what I wanted to do and that I wanted to leave Patreon. I created some test tiers to help beta test with community members on what the membership site flow looks like, changing tiers, etc., and this proved really helpful in being able to create a walkthrough video with confidence to help promote the move to interested community members. Porting took around 3 weeks, but was done so with the help of community mods / admins who I added as part of my Fourthwall team which was extremely helpful, and in transitioning, we also tried to create new price points and value adds for our tiers, maximising not only revenue on this side, but delineating tiers and perks to provide more options for the community to enjoy content more.
What Fourthwall tools or features have you found most valuable so far?
The native video player is a big one, but also the ability to gift website memberships on Twitch is HUGE. Not only is this a lot of fun for those involved, but we've also figured out that you can create a 'bank' of giveaway subs. Essentially, those that don't wind up getting redeemed can be re-done at any time, and scheduling these or hyping the community up to come through for these giveaways has turned out to be quite the event. Video series' have been IMMENSELY helpful in organising and presenting content too!
How many tiers do you have? What perks do you offer?
I have 5 tiers in total. I offer exclusive video reviews and commentary for primarily Korean and Japanese media like K-Pop, manga and anime, and with this come Twitch sub only discounts for those who support the streams, regular weekly content, full and unedited podcast episodes, and also Discord benefits!
What advice do you have for other creators considering transitioning from Patreon to Fourthwall?
Obviously do what you think is best, but if you've ever thought about creating your 'home' for yourself and your community from the ground up, look no further than Fourthwall. Other platforms have their pros and cons and some are even more popular, but nothing beats having a place to REALLY call your own, quite like the experience that Fourthwall gives you and your community.
Where can we follow you?
Want to set up your own Memberships? Create your free Fourthwall account to get started. Already on Fourthwall? Click here to enable Memberships in your dashboard.
