Patronage is an interesting and potentially great model (ref: the "1000 true fans" approach), but it's kind of a half-step in the right direction. It is part of

Patronage is an interesting and potentially great model (ref: the "1000 true fans" approach), but it's kind of a half-step in the right direction. It is part of a fuller panoply, but not complete in and of itself. A step further would be segmentation (and subsequent addressing) of one's audience—be they patrons, regular customers, or casual viewers/listeners/readers. Create flexible, multiple ways for people to get to, consume, and pay for your content. Experiment with different channels, different messaging, different price points, and different versions of your content for those channels. Essentially, what you're doing is allowing consumers to segment themselves, by opting into the types of content (and according price points) that best fit their needs. This is different from a classic up-sell strategy. Up-selling is offering everyone the same baseline, then either encouraging or goading people into paying for "value-adds." Instead, consider that your audience is heterogeneous in terms of what it wants, what it likes about you, which aspects of your content (or you) it values most, and what it considers those aspects to be worth. One size does not fit all. So sell more than one size. [Note that this is not an inducement to cheat people. Don't try to pawn off the exact same content at different price points on different channels. If you're going to segment-and-address, you need to customize for each segment. Kickstarter campaign structures, for example, offer a decent framework by which to do this.]