Why Full Ownership Over Your Audience Matters
For creators who want to make their creations their business
2025-02-07 22:56:53 - Giovan Santiago
If you're a content creator and are at a point to begin selling merch, paid subscriptions, sponsorships, and all that good stuff, then I am here to tell you why full ownership of your audience matters. More importantly, I will explain why Wallafan is the best place for audience monetization.
No Middlemen!:
As mentioned in the previous post, your audience is your livelihood; your entire business as a creator centers on them. They want to buy your products and support you monetarily in return for the best content and merchandise you can put out. Sure, you can place your eggs on multiple social media platforms and have those platforms take a percentage of your earnings. But wouldn't you prefer to keep ALL of it?
Take a look at the list below:
• Patreon - 12% Platform Fee (Premium)
• Ko-fi - 0-5% Platform and Sales Fee
• YouTube - 45% Platform Fee (Good Lord XD)
• Instagram - 2.9% Percentage Fee
• Facebook - 2.9% Percentage Fee
• WordPress - 2.9% Sales Fee
• Fiverr - 20% Sales Fee
• Upwork - 10% Sales Fee
What do these platforms have in common? They take percentages of revenue made from individual sales and contributions and take an even greater percentage of your earnings when you sign up for their upgrades. Not even simple tips are safe from being short-changed by the platform holder. Simply put, starting on them is free, but making money on them is not.
When your audience subscribes to you or buys your product, these sites take a piece of that revenue for themselves. They also collect your client's transactional data. In some ways, this is beneficial as they handle the numbers for you, especially for beginners. However, this goes at the cost of forgoing a major section of your business by not taking direct charge of your clientele's data. That data is key to maximizing your growth, and third party platforms gatekeep you from it. You need to go on your own.
But how can you?
Go Build Some Bridges:
Your job is to develop a close 'partnership' with your clients. If you're just starting out, then letting the third party handle the numbers is fine, but as you grow and want to monetize further, you'll want direct access to your fan's/clients' data. One tried and true method you can implement to accomplish this is creating an email list and newsletter. Having access to their email builds a two-way bridge between you and the fan/client. As you make more bridges, you'll want to slowly direct them towards a place where the third parties can't interfere: let's say your Wallafan account.
With direct access to your client's buyer information, you don't have to worry about the platform getting in the way and potentially taking attention away from you, the creator. More importantly, it also allows you, the creator, to individually curate WHO you do business with while giving you the edge on upselling, content distribution, and audience insights. Direct ownership also lessens the threat of the potential ban hammer crashing down on you, taking away precious hours of effort.
At the end of the week, it's still YOUR audience, YOUR clientele, not the middleman's. If anyone has the right to direct your fans and make the most money from them, it's YOU, the creator.
Our Promise:
At Wallafan, we're all about turning fans into clients. We provide you with the platform necessary to elevate your passion into a business and the tools you need to make the most business out of your passion. Obviously, we can't tell you what to do, but it's important to consider your options and how third-party monetization is ultimately out of your control.
So, I'll leave you with this: When you sign on with us, know that we won't get in the way of you or your clientele, and we encourage you to take full ownership of your audience. By owning your audience, you will, therefore, own the business and, ultimately, the monetization, which, as a content creator, you'll need every bit of. It's all on you and in the data!
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About the Author:
Giovan Santiago is an US-based freelance blogger, writer, actor, and social media manager with a passion for video games. For two years, he’s written about curious happenings in the tech scene, created taglines and sales copy for tech startups, and provided media coverage for local game events and studios. He hopes to branch out into content creation and become a published author.