Now that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has managed to repeatedly send out its ad revenue sharing payments on time without any last-minute delays, engineer Eric Farraro is answering questions from users who still aren’t getting the payments they expect. Reasons include: 1) X users only earn ad revenue from other paying X users, 2) advertisers aren’t paying much to reach the demographic that the creator attracts, 3) the posts didn’t get a lot of replies, or 4) their content is not suitable for ads.
That first reason is one that X hasn’t exactly hidden. Here’s how Farraro puts it in his new explanation:
Ads are shown, but the audience is not Verified. Revenue is only earned for ads shown to Verified users. This is one of many ways we mitigate attempts to manipulate the program.
“The two biggest questions I get are: (1) I didn’t get a payment (2) My payment was low.”
X only issues payments to people who pay for a subscription via X Premium or Verified Organizations (and have a large enough audience to qualify). But also, any money paid to those people (from the money that advertisers pay X to show their ads) is based only on views from other people who also pay for a premium or verified account.
For a creator who posts on X, it takes three separate incoming payments, including the money a creator pays for their own verified account, to create the potential for one outgoing payment from X back to the creator. What those funding sources might look like when laid out as a polygonal shape is between you and your relationship with geometry.
You can purchase a Premium X subscription for as low as $7.99 per month if you’re still interested, and payouts are promised to arrive at a regular cadence if you can generate more than $10.