YouTube offers another way for creators to generate revenue directly from their audience through membership giveaways, a feature comparable to subscriptions offered on Twitch.
This will allow viewers to purchase channel subscriptions for other viewers.
For viewers, it’s a way to support their favorite creators in a way that gives something back to their community.
A beta version of Channel Memberships Gifting is being rolled out to a small group of creators to begin with, and will be rolled out to other channels over the next few months.
If you want to access the feature sooner, you can express your interest by submitting a form linked at the bottom of this article.
YouTube channel subscription giveaway
Monetized YouTube channels have the opportunity to generate revenue by offering subscriptions to users.
A channel membership offers perks like special icons that display in a creator’s comments section, members-only live streams, and more. It’s similar to subscriptions, or “under”, on the Twitch steam platform.
Prior to the rollout of Membership Gifts, users could only purchase memberships for themselves. This meant that users could at most buy one subscription per month.
With the membership gift, channel members can purchase a set number of subscriptions [5, 10, 20] in one purchase. YouTube will “offer” these subscriptions to other viewers.
Viewers who receive a gift subscription get one month of access to your channel subscription benefits. Recipients don’t have to pay anything, and creators get the usual revenue share from each transaction.
How does the membership gift work?
Gifted channel subscriptions can be purchased on desktop while a creator is streaming live. Click it $ next to live chat to buy gift subscriptions on live streams.
Viewers must register in order to receive gifts on a channel. During the beta, users can opt-in by clicking “Allow Gifts” when prompted.
YouTube distributes gift subscriptions to viewers based on their level of interaction with your channel. Loyal viewers are more likely to receive gift subscriptions than new viewers.
Viewers are notified via a personal live chat message and email if they receive a gift subscription. A gifted membership is non-recurring and the beneficiary incurs no costs.
Gifted subscriptions, a boon for YouTube creators?
Given the popularity of gifted Twitch subscriptions, membership giveaways have the potential to significantly increase revenue for people who stream on YouTube.
If you look at the distribution of subscriptions for popular Twitch streamers, you can see that gifted subscribers make up around 5%-10% of their total active subscriptions.
How can creators sell subscriptions?
I reached out to Greg Jarboe, president of SEO-PR and author of YouTube and Video Marketing, for his take on this update and his example of how creators can make money from subscriptions.
Jarboe’s take is below:
Channel memberships are just one of the many options now available to YouTube partners. Others include:
- Advertising Revenue Sharing.
- Sell branded products.
- Great chat and great stickers.
- Premium Revenue Sharing.
Thus, membership giveaways will be an attractive option for the small percentage of content creators who currently make money from channel subscriptions. Who are they? Example :
- Rachana Ranada, a chartered accountant in India, who helps viewers learn more about financial literacy. She has earned over $100.00 offering memberships.
- Prince Oakham, a game maker better known as Prince Charming, uses channel subscriptions. It offers members the opportunity to play live video games with it. It also offers live streams, videos, posts, and custom emojis.
- Anna Yakimenkoa Milan-based Russian fashion consultant, uses channel subscriptions to offer her audience discounts on products, exclusive live streams and personalized fashion advice.
Now, channel subscriptions aren’t for everyone, so giving them as freebies will appeal to relatively few content creators. But, if they help keep the creator economy healthy and diverse, they should be seen as a great tool in the toolbox.
Channels wishing to have early access to this feature can fill out a application form.
Source: YouTube Help
Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
Comments are closed.