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Who likes making content for free? And even worse, on someone else’s platform. A large draw to platforms like YouTube or Twitch, for example, is that they have an established viewership that will allow your content to be more easily found and, in turn, your audience will grow. This discoverability, however, comes at a cost. To use one of these platforms, you’ll be beholden to their guidelines, making it so your content could be restricted or removed from your channel altogether. And beyond creating content, your videos or streams can be monetized, but not before Twitch or YouTube get their cut.
These ideas and growing concerns among content creators are some of the very reasons we created Realms.tv. We wanted the control back in the hands of the creator, allowing conversations and interesting content to be posted without restriction. Our platform works well with YouTube or Twitch because you don’t need to give up your established audience and you can still make money on your streams, you’ll even have the opportunity to take more of it home.
Enter paywalls. The entire purpose of the system is to work between your established social media accounts, such as YouTube, Twitch, or Instagram, and drive traffic back to your individual realm.
What are paywalls?
Exactly like it’s spelled out in the dictionary: paid access to premium content. However, Realms.tv gives you more granular control over what features and experiences you can paywall, like:
- Limiting audio, video, or video quality for those viewing your stream from an external platform
- Non-subscribers not being able to access chat during the stream
- Non-subscribers not being able to access content from a premium channel
What are the benefits?
Although there are several ways to monetize your live stream, one of the easiest can be creating content behind a paywall. Here are a few cases to take a look at when considering whether paywalling would be a good fit for you:
- You have affiliate deals and are creating sponsored posts on Instagram, but aren’t seeing a stable income
- You have subscribers on Twitch, but you’re tired of giving such a large portion of revenue to the platform
- You have a YouTube channel with a large viewership, but your engagement methods have become stale
Features
Let’s get more in the nitty gritty of what Realms.tv can do. If you’re looking to paywall your YouTube, Instagram, or Twitch content, you’ll have the ability to:
- Restrict video
- Restrict audio
- Restrict high quality video
- Enable a video border viewable on external platforms that directs traffic to your platform
- Show a specific portion of the live stream unrestricted before cutting off access
How can I use paywalls for my videos?
Every community is different and can provide perks for paying members in different ways. Here are a few examples that might give you some inspiration for how you can paywall your content:
- A YouTube podcast is audio only and offers the video experience in Realms.tv
- A gaming streamer offers low quality video on Twitch and the full quality experience in their realm
- A digital conference offers 10 minutes of full access to YouTube and Facebook before restricting audio
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several different options for paywalling your content and driving traffic to your realm. By restricting audio or video and having the full experience on your realm, you have the ability to create content without concerns that your content will be taken down on another platform or you won’t receive your fair share of revenue for your content.
You can already start trying this method with our Free Forever plan that gets you up and running quickly. By watching our Realms.tv overview, you can understand in a nutshell how you can utilize your social audience but we’re always here to help guide you so feel free to schedule a personal demo with us!