Monetizing your podcast has never been easier, thanks to Captivate’s Memberships and Tips features. Now your loyal listeners can support your show with a recurring membership or a one-off donation. Here’s how it all works!
What’s the difference between Membership and Tips?
As the name suggests, Memberships open up exclusive features for being a “Member” of an exclusive audience for the podcast. Think of Memberships as a way to support your favourite podcaster (as a listener), or to offer exclusive content to your listeners for a monthly fee. Tips, on the other hand, are one-time donations with no recurring payments.
How do I activate these options?
Setting both Memberships and Tips up is super easy, and managed within your Captivate dashboard under Monetization. You can create a custom landing page to send supporters too, as well as a custom thank you message for both Memberships and Tips. Check out our Membership and Tips help articles to get started!
What options can I set up?
There are several options available to you.
Tips: you can choose to display three default amounts (you choose the amount), or leave it up to your fans how much they want to tip you. You’ll also be emailed each time you get a new tips (unless you disable this) so you’ll know exactly when you’re earning!
Membership: here you can create Tiers for your members (including a free trial), which will determine what kind of exclusive perks they get for their support, like early access, exclusive content, and more. You can add custom text to each tier, explaining what benefits they get, as well as how many supporters get access to each tier. You can also choose to display how many members your show has on your landing page for supporters, and whether we email you as soon as you get a new member.
You can also offer Timed Exclusives to make an episode exclusive after a certain date, as well as view your earnings for the month, who supported you, what Tier they’re on, and share your latest Tip straight to Twitter to encourage more supporters.
Can I change how much I charge for Membership Tiers and Tips?
Yep, you can add new tiers at any time, or archive existing tiers and replace with new ones. For members on existing tiers, they will continue to pay the same monthly amount until they cancel, and receive the same benefits from when they originally signed up.
How do I get paid?
We use Stripe for Membership and Tips, so you’d need to either create a new Stripe account or connect an existing one. Once you’ve met the minimum payout threshold, you can withdraw your Membership and Tips earnings and they’ll be sent to the bank account connected to your Stripe account.
Note: Captivate uses Stripe Express. Some countries may not be supported. If you don’t see your country in the drop-down list when connecting Stripe, we’re sorry but that country isn’t currently supported.
Are there any fees?
Captivate wants you, the serious independent podcaster, to grow your show and make money with it. While there are fees, we’ve looked to keep this to the minimum. You can view the fees and associated Stripe costs here.
How do my members receive exclusive podcast content?
When setting up your Tiers, you’ll choose what exclusive content they’ll receive. For early access (where they receive episodes before anyone else) or exclusive (where only members receive the content), they’ll use the encrypted link they’re sent for your show when signing up as a member, and receive the content there. For other content (newsletters, live streams, etc) you would manage this via your preferred platform for each.
Can I remove a member?
Yes, this can be done under Memberships, and the dropdown next to the name of the member in question. Simply use the delete icon to remove the member’s access.
Do you support multiple currencies?
We support the same currencies used for our podcast hosting plans: USD, EUR, and GBP. We automatically convert into your currency for payout, and show the exchange rate in your Earnings screen.
Do I have to pay extra as part of my hosting plan to use Memberships and Tips?
No, this is included as part of your plan - the only costs are the Captivate fees and the transactional costs from Stripe.
Recommended reading: How to Set Up a New Stripe Account or Connect an Existing One