Five Tips For Upcoming Creators To Avoid Direct Payment Hassle

Rohit Pande Oct 04, 2022

Fathima Saniya, a 19-year-old student and creator, shares study notes online with fellow aspirants and has over 27k followers on Instagram and 5000 subscribers on Telegram. Fatima shares that she faced many hardships in monetising her content and managing everything independently as a budding creator and a full-time student - which is the hard truth for several upcoming creators in the country.

The creator economy in India is growing at a compound annual rate of 25 per cent, with many studies pegging the Indian influencer market at $75-150 million. Of the eight crore creators in India, the revenue earned by creators with 10,000 to 10 lakh followers is between ₹15,000 to ₹2 lakh per month as compared to creators with 10 lakh followers who have the potential to earn approximately between ₹2 lakh to ₹52 lakh per month. Although the numbers look promising, only 1 per cent of creators make all the money while the rest struggle or don’t stand a chance.

There are two ways through which a creator can earn - direct and indirect. Popular creator platforms, such as YouTube, offer indirect payment and creators only get a share of ad revenue. While subscriptions on open platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp offer direct payments where no third party is involved. However, there are various issues with direct payment like declined payment, maintaining subscriptions, losing out on recurring payments etc., that affect the consistency of cash flow.

Through this guide, we go over the hassles that creators face with direct recurring payments and how they can be solved.

1. Keep payment policies transparent and direct:

To run a business smoothly, one must have transparent payment policies. Hence it is necessary to mention essential clauses upfront so that your community is well informed of your payment terms and what they are subscribing to. The subscription fee, cancellation and refund policies, along with terms and conditions and late fees, are a few details that must be mentioned on your web page without fail.

2. Provide alternative payment methods:

It is not necessary that everybody would possess or have access to a credit card, it helps to provide more than one alternative to payment. It helps to have UPI apps and net banking options along with Debit and Credit card options for subscribers to choose the best payment mode. Unfortunately, creators often lose out on subscribers as they don't sign up due to non-payment.

3. Customise the payday cycle as per subscriber:

A common reason for transaction failure is insufficient funds. One way to resolve this issue is by aligning the billing cycle with the subscriber's payday cycle or letting them choose the payment dates that suit them best. You could also send them a pre-billing message notifying them that their billing date is advancing and a certain number will be deducted from their account.

4. Get permission for recurring payment:

No one appreciates a sudden unwarranted deduction message from their bank. It is necessary to get permission from subscribers to automatically debit recurring payments to avoid fraud and complaints from subscribers. In addition to identity verification, make sure you have their permission on the amount that will be debited, the day of withdrawal and the period over which the payment will continue.

5. Use tools to track and chase payments

A major chunk of a creator's day goes into conceptualising, producing, editing, writing, scheduling and posting content. Tracking payment would cost a creator 5 to 10 hours a week that can be better spent on creating content. It is also often awkward for creators to chase down payments from subscribers who are considered more than strangers in the creator ecosystem. Constantly following up can dampen a creator's relationship with their loyal subscriber base.

There are tools and agencies in the market to help creators collect recurring payments from the subscriber without the hassle of reconciliation and also access granular insight into their audience by staying directly in touch with them. So you get access to several benefits for the value of one.