Reddit to Reward Users With Real Money for Viral Posts
Reddit is taking a page from Twitter and is going to pay users with real money for posting viral content on the social media platform.
The payouts will occur through a new “Contributor Program” Reddit announced today. “Once enrolled in the program, redditors will receive payments on a monthly basis. The earnings a redditor receives are calculated based on the amount of karma earned and gold received on their eligible contribution,” the company said.
Reddit is already rolling out the program to US users. 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 coin 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
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