The Silent Overturned Hat
I tried Patreon once for a little over a year. I never made so much as a dime. No one will ever see your Patreon page unless you personally send them there. Here at Medium you never know who might see your writing. Your writing here is open to strangers who you have not personally tried to get to go to your Patreon page. There is an actual audience of people who may have never read your writing before. This is definitely not the case at Patreon.
At Patreon you are trying to squeeze money out of your long-time readers. Here at Medium, if you’re lucky, you can reach NEW readers. That is simply not the case at Patreon. (Yes, I am actually saying something positive about Medium.)
Sometime after quitting Patreon I decided to put a Tip Jar at the bottom of my posts here on Medium. In just a couple of months I have received 500,000 times as many donations than I ever received in over a year at Patreon. Of course, 500,000 times more than zero is not necessarily very much. Heck, a penny is 500,000 times more than zero.
But I have been surprised. I have been hugely humbled. Gratitude has bubbled up in my being. It works. In just two months I have received enough donations to almost pay for one month’s worth of my electric bill. Like I said, that’s 500,000 times more than I ever received at Patreon.
But the best thing about my Tip Jar is that I don’t have to bribe anyone with coffee mugs or autographed copies of my numerous books. I don’t even have to mention the Tip Jar. I just put it there and people can choose to use it or not. No one is compelled in any way and I don’t have to become a pushy salesman. People don’t have to go through a complicated tier system of giving. They don’t have to subscribe (unless they want to) and they know that they can read ALL of my posts for free.
This way I can be a writer instead of a salesman. Whether or not I get any tips is solely predicated on the quality of my writing and how much it touches people. I don’t have to do any selling other than concentrating on the quality of my writing and I don’t need any gimmicks. I don’t have to beg or entice or sell or even say anything. It’s just there like the overturned hat of the folk singer performing on the sidewalk in the subway. That folk singer never even looks at the tips in her hat until she is done performing because she is fully focused on performing her art. And if that hat only contains two quarters and a nickel she is grateful. She is grateful for having an audience. She is grateful for being able to spread her love. She is grateful for being able to hone her craft in front of her fellow human.
And just maybe the next time she parks her carcass on the sidewalk in the subway and pours her heart out through her music someone might just walk by who walked by before but didn’t throw anything into the hat. Maybe this time they will throw a twenty into the hat and she might just be able to keep her electricity on. And if that twenty never lands in her hat she will still be grateful because the electricity within her being will keep pouring forth.
If you enjoyed this response/article then you might also enjoy my story, Tipping Is Not a City in China
