It's a living: Earning patronage on Patreon

In 2013, musician Jack Conte made a music video called "Pedals." He spent seven weeks and $10,000 building the set: "I remember the blood, sweat and tears, the months of pain, and hours and hours, and days and days of creation," he laughed.

The video quickly racked up a million views on YouTube.

And for that success, YouTube paid him … $166. "I felt undervalued, I felt resentful," Conte said. "I started to feel like, 'I can't keep doing this.' I've told this story 10,000 times – I still get emotional, like, when I think about this. And I sat down at my kitchen table and I sketched out this idea for a better system, a better way for creators to make money and build businesses."