Back in the day, the subscription business model was normally used to sell gym memberships, magazines, or newspapers. With the introduction of the internet, a transformation took place: newspaper agencies, for example, introduced digital subscription services, but for a long time they did not perform as expected. Now, after seeing an astounding growth in the past decade, there is a subscription service for almost anything you can think of - from food and skincare to hobbies. Online subscriptions also saw a rise with SaaS and app-based offerings. Now, creators who are part of the vast creator economy are changing the game with content subscriptions. Is the time finally here for creative people to make a living from their passion?

Over 50 million people worldwide consider themselves as creators. Of these 50 million people, 46.7 million consider themselves amateurs, while only a small number of just over 2 million consider themselves as professional creators, earning enough from their content to consider it their full-time income. For the professional creators, YouTube is the most popular platform, followed by Instagram and Twitch. For amateurs, the most popular platform is Instagram, followed by YouTube and Twitch. Many amateurs are able to somewhat monetize their passion thanks to their creativity but it just doesn’t cut it as a full-time income. However, with the rise of new technology, the barriers to making money from content dropped and new opportunities emerged.

Typically, content on social media platforms is offered for free, but this dynamic is quickly changing with new tools that offer creators the opportunity to monetize their creations and earn a steady monthly income. Some, like Reno Gold have made fortunes from offering content as part of a subscription. He earns $100,000 per month from people subscribing to his OnlyFans content, which includes adult photos and videos. Not bad for a 24-year-old, but too bad OnlyFans commissions 20% of all creators’ incomes. Nevertheless, it goes to show the endless possibilities of making a living from whatever type of content.
Curious if you can earn as much as Reno Gold with content subscriptions? Calculate how much you can earn with the calculator on our homepage!

As a result, Twitter and even Instagram announced that - among other content monetization features - they’re exploring the option of content subscriptions for creators’ content. But it still isn’t here, and new platforms - that are designed for creators to make money off their content - are rising. Take the success of OnlyFans in the adult industry. These creators are making a ton of money by selling subscriptions to their photo and video feeds.

Endless Ideas for Valuable Content

The OnlyFans model is a bit one-sided though and focuses mostly on adult content. You can also start earning money from your content in many other ways, on your own website. Fangage creates a website for creators in under a minute, for them to make money off their creations, no matter the industry they're in. Fangage can be used for all sorts of influencers like travel, cooking, fitness and models. Further, you can easily calculate your earnings. Here are some of today’s most widely-used content types that you would be able to monetize with your own Fangage website:

• Apps
• Artworks
• Blog posts
• Courses
• Discounts
• Downloads
• eBooks
• Early access
• Games
• How-to guides
• Live Events
• Masterclasses
• Merchandise
• Music
• Photos
• Videos
• Virtual experiences
• Webinars
  

The Creator Economy is exploring new ways for smaller creators to make a living from that content. Paid content (offering a single piece of content for a fixed price) and subscriptions (offering a wide array of content for a monthly subscription fee) are becoming increasingly popular for these smaller creators, as it allows them to finally start earning a steady monthly income from their creations. Because of this, selling these types of content on your own site - which you can try out in a few clicks with Fangage - makes much more sense as you can keep up to 100% of all profits, unlike other platforms such as OnlyFans or Patreon who are still much more limiting for creators.

It’s All About the Benefits Fans Get

However, according to Jeff Minnichbach - founder of No Limit Creatives - consumers are generally not necessarily big fans of purchasing subscriptions. In fact, the requirement to sign up for a recurring subscription often makes it harder for most companies to acquire customers - because they are only willing to subscribe to automated purchases if they’re getting real benefits from the content. According to Dou (2004), this already happened in 2004, when newspapers started experimenting with content subscriptions: the newspapers that helped people achieve their professional goals did better in online sales than those that didn’t. This indicates that fans are open to buying a monthly subscription as long as the benefits outweigh the price they pay.

Personalization Is Key For Fans

According to a McKinsey study, in order for fans to continue subscribing, they expect personalized subscriptions to become more customized over time. Imagine your favorite creator sending you a little personalized birthday gift just for being a paid subscriber. This will lead to an increase in word-of-mouth and positive online reviews, giving your brand more trust and encouraging new fans to sign up for your subscriptions.
Fans who sign up like the element of surprise and value convenience and personalization as reasons to subscribe. For your content subscription to be a successful part of your business model as a creator, you need to provide your fans with cool experiences in addition to valuable products or services.
You need to help them grow, whatever their goal is to grow themselves. While focusing on your content subscription is an essential part of making it successful, you also need to get your followers to buy your subscriptions. As Reno Gold says, "The most important part of my work is on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok, where I run ads daily to promote my OnlyFans page." The same goes for other platforms like Fangage, where you sell paid content or content subscriptions. You need to use your social platforms to convert the unpaid followers you have there into monthly paying fans on your website.

The beauty of having a Fangage-powered website is that as you sell subscriptions, you also become the owner of your fans’ data. So you have access to your fans' phone numbers, email addresses, locations, and more, which allows you to directly communicate with them on a much more personal level. Not only is this more valuable to you, but it also improves the overall personalized experience for your fans, which is a win-win.