YouTube gives creators another way to earn revenue directly from their audience by awarding memberships, a perk comparable to gifted subscriptions on Twitch.
This will allow viewers to purchase channel memberships for other viewers.
For viewers, it’s a way to support their favorite creators in a way that gives something extra to their community.
Channel membership gifts are being rolled out to a small group of creators in beta to get started, and will be expanded to more channels over the coming months.
If you’re interested in getting early access to the feature, you can express your interest by submitting a form linked at the bottom of this article.
Gift YouTube Channel Membership
Monetized YouTube channels have the option to generate revenue by offering memberships to users.
Channel membership grants perks like special icons that appear in the creator’s comments section, members-only live broadcasts, and more. It’s similar to subscriptions or “subscriptions” on the Twitch livestreaming platform.
Before membership gifting was introduced, users could only purchase memberships for themselves. This means, at most, users can purchase one membership per month.
By gifting membership, channel members can purchase a set number of memberships [5, 10, 20] in one purchase. YouTube will “gift” these memberships to other viewers.
Viewers who receive memberships as a gift get one month’s access to your channel’s membership benefits. Recipients do not have to pay anything, and creators receive their usual revenue share from each transaction.
How does membership gifting work?
Talent channel memberships can be purchased on desktop during the creator’s live broadcast. tap on $ Next to the live chat to buy gift memberships in the live broadcast.
Viewers must subscribe to be eligible to receive gifts on the channel. During the beta, users can sign up by clicking Allow Gifts when prompted.
YouTube distributes gift memberships to viewers based on how engaged they are with your channel. Loyal viewers are more likely to receive gift memberships than first-time viewers.
Viewers are notified with a personalized live chat message and email if they receive a gift membership. Gifted Memberships are non-recurring and the recipient is not charged any fees.
Are talent memberships a boon for YouTube creators?
Given the popularity of Twitch gifted subscriptions, gifting memberships has the potential to increase earnings in a noticeable way for people who stream on YouTube.
If you look at the breakdown Subscriptions For Twitch celebrities, you can see that talented subscribers make up roughly 5% to 10% of their total active subscriptions.
How can creators sell memberships?
I reached out to Greg Jarboe, Head of SEO-PR and author of YouTube and Video Marketing, for his share of this update and example of how creators can make money with subscriptions.
Take a jerbo below:
Channel membership is one of the many options now available to YouTube partners. Other types include:
- Ad revenue sharing.
- Selling branded merchandise.
- Super Chat and Super Stickers.
- Premium revenue sharing.
So, gifting memberships would be an interesting option for the small percentage of creators who are currently making money through channel memberships. who are they? Examples include:
- Rachana Ranada, a chartered accountant in India, helps viewers learn more about financial literacy. I have earned over $100,00 offering memberships.
- Prince or ruler, a game creator known as Prince Charming, uses channel memberships. It offers members the chance to play live video games with him. It also offers live streams, videos, posts, and custom emojis.
- Anna Yakimenkoa Russian fashion consultant based in Milan, uses channel memberships to offer her fans discounts on merchandise, exclusive live broadcasts, and personalized fashion advice.
Now, channel memberships aren’t for everyone, so offering them would be of interest to relatively few content creators. But if it helps keep the creative economy healthy and diverse, it should be considered a great tool in the toolbox.
Channels interested in early access to this feature can fill out a Application Form.
Source: YouTube help
Featured image: Tada Images / Shutterstock
