Taking a leaf out of Twitter’s playbook, Reddit on Monday announced a contributor program, which awards users with real money for posting viral content on the social media platform. It also shared details on the replacement for its old Reddit Gold system that let users show extra appreciation for posts or posts that they liked.
At the moment, the contributor program is limited to users in the United States, who are over the age of 18 and can verify their identity via Persona and Stripe. Accounts must have existed for over 30 days, and only safe-for-work posts can be monetized.
The company is marketing the system as a way to receive cash from your karma points, or the total upvotes your posts or comments have received from the community. But in reality, karma only plays a secondary role in determining a potential payout.
Instead, how much “gold,” or Reddit currency, your posts have also received is the biggest factor in calculating the full payout.
Today, the company revamped the gold currency, an additional way to reward a post you like. Gold currency is now available for all users to buy, instead of merely a free perk for Reddit Premium subscribers. But at $1.99 per coin, they’re not cheap.
Reddit plans on using the proceeds from the coins to reward users in the Contributor Program. The calculation works like this: If you received 100 to 4,999 karma points over the past 12 months, you can earn $0.90 per gold your posts received in a month. If you received 5,000 karma points or more, then you can earn a slightly higher rate at $1 per gold.
Hence, the earnings depend far more on gold coins received rather than karma/upvotes, which can be freely given. The other catch is that users will need to go through a “verification process” to participate in the program.
This entails submitting some personal information, including your legal name, date of birth, and possibly your government ID, if Reddit requests it. Users will also need to give a Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to receive the payouts from Stripe, Reddit’s payment provider.
In addition, Reddit is limiting the Contributor Program to user accounts in “good standing,” meaning that they never broke the platform’s rules. Posts made in Not-Safe-For-Work communities or that contain porn are also barred from receiving payouts.
Interested users in the US can join the Contributor Program by visiting their profile page on Reddit.
The company wrote in a support document:
On mobile, tap your avatar in the top-right corner to open the side-drawer. On reddit.com, click on your username in the top right corner for the drop-down to appear. You’ll see a tab for the Contributor Program with a wallet icon next to it. Select this to open the marketing page. If you’re eligible, the Get Verified to Start Earning button will be clickable.
