Hey honeys and hustlers,
There are a lot of platforms that promise to help creators and entrepreneurs make money. Patreon. Substack. Stan. Beacons. Buy Me a Coffee. Ko-fi. Circle. beehiiv. Kit. Kajabi. Podia. Teachable. Luma. These platforms promise to make your life easier. Handle payments. Host your media content. Manage your community. Send your emails. All so you can focus on creating and growing your business. And they do make your life easier. Until you realize that every dollar you earn is also making them money.
I'm not saying that's inherently bad. Building and maintaining software is expensive. Servers cost money. Payment processing costs money. Customer support costs money. These platforms deserve to get paid for the value they provide. But as a creative entrepreneur, you need to understand the economics of the tools you're using. Because once you understand what's in it for them, you can make smarter decisions about what's in it for you.
Most creator monetization platforms take a percentage of your earnings. This is the most common business model, and it's brilliantly aligned: they only make money when you make money. But the percentages vary wildly:
Patreon: 5-12% depending on your plan, plus payment processing fees (roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
Substack: 10% of paid subscriptions only, plus payment processing fees from Stripe (roughly 3% per transaction)
Buy Me a Coffee: 5% platform fee, plus payment processing fees from Stripe (roughly 3% per transaction)
Ko-fi: 0% platform fee (they make money from optional premium features and tips from creators)
Stan: 10% on the free plan, 5% on paid plans, plus payment processing
beehiiv: No revenue share on ads or subscriptions; they charge a monthly or annual subscription fee based on subscriber count
Kit (formerly ConvertKit): Monthly or annual subscription fee based on subscriber count; they take a cut of paid subscriptions on the free plan (roughly 3%)
Some platforms bet on your revenue (percentage model). Others bet on your audience size (SaaS model). Some do both. The percentage model scales with you—if you make $100, they make $10. If you make $10,000, they make $1,000. At scale, this can be significant. The SaaS model charges you based on your audience size, regardless of revenue. So if you have 10,000 subscribers, you're still paying the same amount each month even as your revenue grows. Neither is inherently better. It depends on your business model and revenue.
When Platforms Compete, Creators Win (Sometimes)
Substack added Notes (their answer to Twitter). beehiiv added a recommendation network and an ad network. Kit added a creator store. Patreon added video hosting. Stan added an AI solution for posting on LinkedIn. Everyone's trying to be the "all-in-one" solution.
But no platform is actually all-in-one. They're all really good at one or two things and mediocre at the rest. Substack is great for publishing once and distributing everywhere. But their email deliverability is not great, their website design options are limited, and their analytics are basic at best. beehiiv has incredible email tools and growth features. But their website design and product features are still in their infancy. Patreon is excellent for membership and recurring revenue. But it's not a great place to sell one-time digital products or run a traditional newsletter. Kit has powerful email automation and email design. But it's complex to use for beginners, expensive at scale, and lacks true website functionality (please don’t get me started on their landing pages).
Most successful creators use multiple platforms. They're not loyal to one tool—they're pragmatic about picking the best tool for each job.
Newsletter on Substack, Kit, or beehiiv
Community on Discord or Circle
Course hosting on Podia or Teachable
Video content on YouTube
Event ticketing on Luma
Link-in-bio with Stan or Beacons
This is smart. But it also means you're paying multiple platform fees, managing multiple dashboards, and dealing with integration headaches.
The Real Opportunity Cost
Let's say you're making $5,000/month in paid subscriptions on Substack. They're taking 10%, so that's $500/month or $6,000/year going to Substack. You could migrate to Ghost or beehiiv and potentially save that 10% and pay only according to how many total subscribers you have, which could be significantly less, but potentially lose the network effects of Substack notes. Is the $6,000/year savings worth slower growth if you haven’t figured out other ways to market your newsletter? Maybe. Maybe not.
In any case, you need to own your audience data.
Export your email list and articles regularly (I need to get better at this)
Have a direct relationship with your community (email, not just platform messaging)
Diversify where your revenue comes from (don’t just rely on paid subscriptions, memberships, or ad revenue)
Substack creators learned this lesson when they realized they couldn't easily export paid subscriber payment data to migrate elsewhere. Patreon creators learned it when the platform changed its fee structure and faced backlash. Instagram creators learn it every time the algorithm changes and tanks their views.
For some creators, paying the platform tax is worth it for the time and mental energy saved. For others, especially at scale, bringing things in-house and paying directly for what you use makes more sense. There's no universal right answer. But you should at least know what you're paying and why.
What platforms are you using to monetize your creative work? Are you happy with them? Reply and let me know.
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