- A monetization stack gives each kind of fan a way to pay: time, products, promotion or support.
- Example: a 30-minute call at 150 credits a minute is $45; the creator keeps $27 or $31.50.
- On store.fan, Starter beats Free Plus on platform fees once monthly sales pass $80.
- market.fan and mytop.fan pay out from $50; hello.fan pays out from $100.
- ads.fan is a cost, not income: 1 credit buys 1 second of video or 1 ad image.
On this page
- What is a creator monetization stack?
- Who is the example creator?
- How does Sam sell lessons by the minute on hello.fan?
- How does Sam sell downloads and a course on store.fan?
- How does Sam take sponsored posts on market.fan?
- Where does fan support on mytop.fan fit?
- How does Sam promote the course with ads.fan?
- What does each layer bring in per sale in the example?
- How do you build your own stack without burning out?
- Frequently asked questions
What is a creator monetization stack?
A creator monetization stack is the set of tools you use to earn, where each tool sells a different thing. Some fans want your time, some want something they can download, some just want to say thanks, and some brands want to reach your audience. One tool rarely does all of that well, so creators combine a few.
In this article we walk through one fictional creator and give each layer a job. All five platforms in the example are made by Premiums Only LLC, the company that publishes this site, so read it as a tour of our own products rather than a neutral survey. The prices are each platform's real ones at the time of writing; the creator and the quantities are made up.
Who is the example creator?
Meet Sam, a fictional guitar teacher. Sam posts short beginner lessons: how to hold a pick, three chords for a first song, how to stop strings from buzzing. Viewers comment with questions, a few ask for proper lessons, and a string brand once sent a message about a sponsored video. Sam has no team and limited hours.
Sam's stack has five layers. You do not need all five. The point is to see which job each layer does, so you can pick the ones that fit you.
How does Sam sell lessons by the minute on hello.fan?
The first layer is live time. On a hello.fan creator page, students video call, voice call or chat with Sam one-on-one, and Sam sets a price per minute for each channel, anywhere from 50 to 5,000 credits a minute (100 credits = $1). Video costs at least as much as voice, and voice at least as much as chat; chat can even be free.
A labelled example: Sam sets video at 150 credits a minute, which is $1.50. A 30-minute lesson is 4,500 credits, or $45. Sam keeps 60%, which is $27, or 70%, which is $31.50, with a linked store.fan shop on a paid plan. Students pay per started 15 seconds and only while both are connected, so a lesson that ends early costs less. You can try your own numbers in the earnings calculator.
Sam uses working hours, so the page goes online and offline on its own schedule, and fans who heart the page get an alert when Sam comes online. Students who want a regular slot book a weekly session inside those hours, paid up front. Students abroad can follow along with live translated subtitles in 30 languages. Payouts go to Sam's bank through Stripe from $100, after a quick ID check, and each earning is ready 14 days after it is made. Our guide to how much to charge for video calls helps with the price itself.
How does Sam sell downloads and a course on store.fan?
The second layer is products. Sam's store.fan page holds every link in one place and also sells: a PDF pack of chord charts, a beginner course, and 1:1 coaching calls with automatic Google Meet links through Google Calendar sync. Payments go to Sam's own Stripe account, and digital products are delivered instantly.
The plan choice is simple arithmetic. On Free Plus, store.fan keeps 30% of each sale, so on a $12 chord-chart pack it keeps $3.60. On Starter, at $24 a month at the launch price, the platform fee is 0%. The two cost the same in platform fees when monthly sales reach $80, because 30% of $80 is $24; above that, Starter costs less. A paid plan linked to the hello.fan page also raises Sam's hello.fan share to 70%. Pro, at $49 a month at the launch price, adds hosted course videos, which matters once the course has its own videos. The store.fan overview has the full feature list.
How does Sam take sponsored posts on market.fan?
The third layer is brands. Instead of handling the string brand's message by e-mail and invoice, Sam lists a short video on market.fan with a price, a delivery time and the revisions included, plus usage rights as a paid add-on. The brand pays the listed price through Stripe, and market.fan holds the money until the brand approves the delivery, or until 3 days pass after delivery with no reply.
A labelled example: Sam lists one sponsored short video at $200. Sam keeps 60%, or $120, or 70%, or $140, while the linked store.fan store is an active paid seller. Sam can withdraw from $50 to a Stripe account. Our guide to brand deals for small creators covers media kits and pricing in more depth.
Where does fan support on mytop.fan fit?
The fourth layer is for viewers who want to thank Sam without booking anything. On mytop.fan, a fan pastes the link to one of Sam's public profiles, picks a whole-dollar amount from $5 and pays through Stripe, with no fan account. Sam joins free and verifies each link first. Supporters earn badges, from Spark to Eternal, and Sam writes a small perk for each, such as early notice of the next lesson video.
A labelled example: a fan sends $10. Sam keeps $6 at 60%, or $7 at 70% after opening a store.fan creator store, adding its link in the mytop.fan dashboard and putting the mytop.fan link in the store. Withdrawals go through Stripe Connect from $50 per page.
How does Sam promote the course with ads.fan?
The fifth layer is a cost, not income. To promote the course, Sam uploads a photo of the course cover, its name and a few accurate lines to ads.fan, which writes the script, records the voice-over and renders video ads and ad images. One credit is one second of video or one image; a 20-second ad uses 20 credits, and the weekly plan is $14 for 100 credits at the time of writing. The presenters are AI-generated people, not real students, so Sam keeps the script to what the course covers.
Sam posts the ads on the channels Sam already uses and links them to the store.fan course page. The network also suggests a second route: make the ad on ads.fan, then have real creators post it through market.fan.
What does each layer bring in per sale in the example?
Here is the whole stack side by side, one sale at a time. These are labelled examples built from real prices, not a forecast: how many of each Sam sells, if any, depends on demand and on Sam's time.
| Layer | Example sale | Price | What Sam keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| hello.fan | 30-minute video lesson at 150 credits a minute | $45 | $27 (60%) or $31.50 (70%) |
| store.fan, Free Plus | Chord-chart pack | $12 | $8.40 after the 30% platform fee |
| store.fan, Starter | Chord-chart pack | $12 | $12 with a 0% platform fee; the plan is $24 a month |
| market.fan | One sponsored short video | $200 | $120 (60%) or $140 (70%) |
| mytop.fan | One fan support | $10 | $6 (60%) or $7 (70%) |
| ads.fan | One 20-second ad | 20 credits | A cost: $2.80 of credits on the weekly plan |
How do you build your own stack without burning out?
- Start with one layer. Pick the one your audience already asks for: questions point to paid calls, requests for files point to a store.
- Add a layer when demand shows up, not just because a tool exists.
- Protect your hours. Live calls are the layer that uses your time directly, so set working hours and keep them. Our guide to creator working hours helps.
- Know the payout rules. hello.fan pays out from $100, market.fan and mytop.fan from $50, and store.fan sales go straight to your own Stripe account.
- Use one link. A store.fan page can point to everything else, which is the idea behind one link, two incomes.
Every platform here has a free way to start, though ads.fan becomes a paid tool after its free hook. Nothing in a stack guarantees income; it simply gives each kind of fan a way to pay for what they actually want.
Frequently asked questions
What is a creator monetization stack?
It is the set of tools a creator uses to earn, with each tool selling something different: live time, products, sponsored posts or fan support. Combining a few lets each kind of fan pay for what they want, instead of forcing everything through one tool.
Do I need all five platforms?
No. Most creators start with one layer, usually the one their audience already asks for, and add another only when demand shows up. Each platform has its own sign-up, so you can join one and ignore the rest.
How does a store.fan plan change the other platforms?
A store.fan shop on a paid plan linked to your hello.fan page raises your hello.fan share from 60% to 70%. market.fan pays 70% while your linked store is an active paid seller, and mytop.fan pays 70% once your store and mytop.fan page link to each other.
Are the numbers in this example real earnings?
No. Sam is fictional, and the figures are arithmetic from each platform's real prices at the time of writing. They show how the shares work, not what anyone earns. Real income depends on your prices, your audience and your time.
Published by Premiums Only LLC, the company behind hello.fan and store.fan. We recommend our own platforms — and say when another kind of tool fits you better. How we write.
