Finding an artist to collaborate with can be challenging, but there are several ways to go about it strategically.

It happens from time to time — especially if you’re offering exclusive content on Patreon. Criminals (there’s no other word) access your site and use various means to scrape the content and post it in places where others can access it for free. As long as we, as artists, allow ourselves to be undervalued, there will always be people comfortable doing this. So, what can you do to stop it?

Is your Patreon actually growing—or are new members disguising a retention problem? Brad walks Dave through the process of calculating churn rate and shows how one number can unlock a much clearer understanding of a membership business. They discuss subscriber retention, lifetime value, onboarding, well-timed interventions, and how to determine whether advertising or convention appearances are truly worth the investment.

Topics include:

• Skunk Watch 2026
• What churn rate means for a Patreon creator
• Why total membership and revenue can give you an incomplete picture
• Finding the necessary numbers in Patreon Insights
• Two methods for calculating churn rate
• What constitutes a healthy churn rate
• Why one month of data isn’t enough
• Calculating your average churn rate over time
• Calculating your retention rate
• Estimating average subscriber lifetime
• Calculating average monthly revenue per member
• Determining the lifetime value of a Patreon backer
• Why retaining a current member is cheaper than acquiring a new one
• Using Patreon Autopilot to reduce cancellations
• Evaluating the quality and value of your Patreon rewards
• Improving the onboarding experience for new members
• Welcome messages, digital gifts, and personalized Bonjoro videos
• Brad’s one-week Patreon check-in
• Helping new backers navigate a complicated archive
• Using average subscriber lifetime to schedule a retention intervention
• Brad’s 18-month check-in and longtime-backer gift
• Repackaging older work into valuable digital rewards
• Rewarding and recognizing your longest-serving supporters
• Exclusive livestreams, previews, and “inner circle” benefits
• Calculating an acceptable customer-acquisition cost
• Evaluating paid advertising with lifetime-value data
• Tracking whether a comic convention was financially worthwhile
• Why free webcomics may still be the best customer-acquisition strategy
• Dave’s productivity tip: drawing to Brazilian Carnival music
• Using a webcomic schedule to force yourself to complete a children’s book
• Why serialized children’s-book pages may not satisfy online readers
• Publishing complete thematic sections instead of individual pages
• Building a new project into an established comic’s schedule
• The difficulty of building an audience for an independent children’s book
• When a traditional children’s-book publisher may be helpful
• Creative control, editorial notes, and refusing unwanted revisions
• Breaking publishing rules and trusting your own experience
• Releasing a finished independent book before seeking wider distribution
• Why experienced cartoonists may resist redrawing or revising completed work
• ComicLab LIVE at the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards

If you’re like most creators, your focus is probably on your subscriber count. The higher the number, the better. The same goes for your monthly revenue. But that number only tells part of the story. That’s where churn comes in.

Churn measures how many subscribers you’re losing over a given period. Knowing that number won’t just satisfy your curiosity — it helps explain why your membership is growing, stalling, or shrinking. More importantly, it gives you a way to measure whether changes you make—new rewards, better onboarding, special promotions, ongoing storylines, or improved communication—are actually encouraging people to stick around.

Let’s talk about how to calculate your churn rate and, more importantly, how to use that information to build a healthier, more sustainable membership program on Patreon, Substack, or any recurring-subscription platform.