Premium Memberships -- Crowdstack

Why Use Premium Memberships?

Crowdstack's built-in premium membership system is designed for groups that want to charge money for access to premium channels. Premium Memberships may make sense if you think some members of your group may be willing to pay to support you.

Creators use them to monetize their audience, by offering exclusive content in their premium channel(s). You can also use them to offer special areas where only your paying members can share content with each other.

How It Works

Only your paying members will be able to access the channels that you designate as "premium", and you set the fee that you wish to charge. We handle all of the transactions for you via our Crowdstack Pay service, so you never have to worry about collecting credit card information. We charge a fee of 7.5%, so you keep nearly all of the generated revenue.

The nice thing about our premium membership service is that you can have a mix of premium and non premium areas, since it is based on access to premium channels, not your entire group. You are not forced to be completely premium (and of course, you don't have to use premium memberships at all).

Step 1: Activate Premium Memberships

You must be on the Fullstack plan in order to use premium memberships. Assuming you are on that plan, go to Manage Settings Premium Memberships on your Crowdstack and click on the "Activate Premium Memberships" link.

After you click on that link, you'll be taken a settings page, where you can complete the setup. Tell us what fee you want to charge and how you want to be paid.

Step 2: Add a Premium Channel

Now that you have enabled premium memberships for your Crowdstack, you'll need to create one or more premium channels; these will be the areas that only your paying members will have access to.

On your Crowdstack, click on the "Add Channel" link at the bottom of your Channels menu. When creating your new channel, choose the "premium" channel type. If you are a Creator and only want your own content posted to the premium channel, make sure you check the box for "Only allow Administrators and Moderators to post to this channel", so you can prevent any premium member from posting to the channel (they will still be able to comment and/or react).

That's it! Your premium membership is ready to roll. Now just start posting content to your premium channels. Non paying members will see the channel in your channel menu, but if they try to access the content in the channel they will be prompted to pay for access.

Common Questions

How often will I be paid? You'll receive your Premium Membership revenue once per month, on or around the 15th of the month (for revenue earned the previous month). You'll receive 92.5% of the net revenue earned for the previous month. You can choose to be paid by check or via PayPal. If paid by check, there is a $5 fee per check sent.

Can I offer more than one premium membership? At this time, no. You are limited to one premium membership for your Crowdstack. You can set up any number of premium channels within your group, but they are all linked to the one premium membership.

How are transactions handled? Your members will be paying us via our Crowdstack Pay service and we will handle all transaction disputes. If we have to issue a chargeback, that amount will be deducted from your net revenue. We also charge you a chargeback fee when this occurs. You can see all of our policies in our Terms of Service.

What payments are supported? We allow your members to pay by credit card - Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

Is there any kind of reporting? Yes, once you enable premium memberships, you will have access to a reporting area in Manage Settings Premium Memberships. Use to track transactions and run reports over specific time periods.

Can I offer a trial period? Yes, you may optional offer a trial period, which can be 1 - 30 days long.

Can I offer coupons to my members? Yes, you can! The coupon system is very flexible. Create coupons that are either for a fixed amount or a percentage discount. Set the lifespan for the coupon - single period, specific period, or forever - and specify the number of redemptions and/or a redemption date deadline.