Do You 'Patreonize' Your Favorite Blogger?

Do you get paid for doing what you love to do? Who wouldn’t want to be able to afford to do what they love most? If you’re an artist, musician or writer who counts on a day job to subsidize your passions, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’d happily sing “Take This Job and Shove It” if it were an option. This topic was inspired by a post by Mark Schaefer: Content Under Attack...and a Solution where he introduces us to +Patreon an application that “allows fans and readers to give a little back.” By setting up an account with Patreon, you can donate as much or little as you want to someone’s blog, in this case, Mark’s. While I empathize with artists not getting their due, especially musicians since the advent iTunes and music streaming, I’m struggling with it when it relates to blogging as I see that as a promotional tool for the writer. As a professional blogger/writer, I expect to be paid for my content. As a consultant who uses my blog to help others and in so doing, show off my expertise, I haven’t expected someone to sponsor me. (Although, if you’re offering…) Since Radiohead released their album, In Rainbows on their website in 2007, artists have been looking at other pay models. We’ve spoken about gated content before on the show. Would this be an alternative or used in conjunction with it? Does the financial situation of a creative person figure into whether you choose to support them? Would you give Seth Godin a monthly sponsorship as a token of how much you enjoy his blog or be more prone to support a relatively unknown writer?