Why I tried Patreon and then pulled the plug
Y’all, this has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. I hopped on the Patreon train for the reasons below. I was prepared to pull the plug for my site platform and my newsletter and move it all over. Then I got stressed out and decided to unpublish my Patreon page, because I just don’t feel like it’s the right time for me to start up a monthly membership with regular deliverables. Things are going well enough on YouTube, and even though I still feel like I want to de-Google my life fully, now is not the time.
Here’s the original post from Patreon on why I originally wanted to move away from YouTube. I hope it still helps provide some context as to why I did a little bit of platform hopping. Anything in [brackets] is my added commentary from today.
Ironically enough, I recorded a video today and ended up putting it on YouTube even though I plan on moving away from YouTube. BUT, I will need to have videos there still in order to have "proof of life" videos, i.e. "demonstration of living status" (lol thanks powerthesaurus.org), and to help drive traffic over here, too. [Obviously I will no longer drive traffic to Patreon.]
Anyway, while I go into it a little bit in the video, I also wanted to give you the full low-down of why I'm going to start publishing content here instead of YouTube.
i want to de-google and de-meta
Well ok. Starting with the heavy hitter.
With the state of the nation being what it is, I'm well aware that we're in a surveillance state more than ever before. Any quick trip down the Privacy and DeGoogle subreddits will show you why anti big-tech is a thing… especially now.
So, I've gone down a big privacy rabbit hole and have started to de-google my life… meaning getting off of gmail, google calendar, and especially google photos. I am well aware that AI is going to end up with our data and facial recognition anyway, but I figure I'll start to do the work to erase and control as much of my digital footprint as possible.
So one big question for me was obviously YouTube… owned by Google, of course.
Almost serendipitously, I came across Megan Rhiannon's content again and was reminded that she moved most of her video content over to her Patreon, and is posting photos here instead of Instagram. [Let me note that Megan Rhiannon is a total queen of planner and journaling content with a much bigger audience than mine… which is part of the reason why the Patreon model works for her.]
I took a 4-month sabbatical from Instagram starting in Oct 2025 through Jan 2026 and… I honestly didn't miss it. When I tried to come back, I was underwhelmed, and I felt that I kept in touch with the friends I wanted to keep in touch with via text and old-fashioned meetups.
I was very much anti-Meta before now because of how it manipulates our time and attention, causing us to become more addicted to our phones more than we already are, and I think with blatant alliances I am ready to be done with it fully.
i want to change my income source
It really stinks that my main income source for my creative endeavors right now is… ads. I still get a nominal fee every month from YouTube via Google AdSense, but ultimately what that payoff for you is an interruption and more ads. You don't actually gain anything from seeing those annoying YouTube ads, either…. It's really no good in my perspective from an integrity standpoint and also just a peaceful vibe sort of thing.
[I still have an internal ethics battle going on in my mind for this… I don’t love viewers trading attention for my profit.]
By moving to Patreon, especially as a small channel, of course I risk losing people [ok, a lot of people]. But I believe that by doing so, I will have more of a leg to stand on when I create content, which will make me want to create content again (instead of feeling like I'm just feeding the machine). [All of this made me realize that I can just start blogging on here again….]
i want to make more art
Much of the joy I get in my journaling and planning is from making and using stickers.
Also, when I make little illustrations with my kids during family art time, I get to play, which is something I definitely need more of.
By opening up a Patreon, it will get me to create art on a regular basis so I can have fresh illustrations for you to download and print out and use in your own journaling and planning practices. [And yes—I can make art and publish it on HERE for sale, and I won’t have to push my bandwidth and force myself to create content every week. I don’t do well with weekly commitments in any part of my life.]
i just want to blog
The elder millennial in me just wants to blog again. And I know Substack is great for that, but for whatever reason it feels different to me than Patreon. Patreon was made for artists and content creators, and so therefore it shall be my home ✨ [Just kidding, obviously. Squarespace is my home.]
Also I totally haven't touched my Squarespace in such a long time, and I feel like Patreon gives me all that I need and would serve me more than a (very expensive) platform like Squarespace. [Lol. I am so fickle. And I was able to downgrade my Squarespace plan to meet my needs.]
A big part of my artistic growth journey wants to find validity in my output… we spend so much of our time feeling like we're not good enough. So by me asking you to spend a small fee per month, it's a bit hurdle for me to overcome. I want to make it worth your while, and so here I am. Open for feedback and requests. [I may never offer a subscription again… but I am still open for feedback, content requests, and illustration requests.]
I hope this post was helpful and resonates with you, even though I flip-flopped. I am only human.
