Are you making thousands posting on X, for example, the latest set of creators with acceptance into the platform's ad revenue share program?

Last month, some of the top creators on the app shared screenshots of their first payouts from the program. Some creators say they are generating tens of thousands in ad share over the first months of the year.
That brought much attention to the program which saw X team inundated with requests to join the sharing in ad revenue scheme. After some processing delay, X has forwarded the next round of payments, and which has again made some users get bountiful payouts from the app.
And that's amazing, right? Some of us spent years tweeting for no gain, and now, with the X team of Elon, they're changing everything, talking about ad revenue share based on ads shown to verified users within tweet reply threads.

That does, however make the actual metrics here difficult to calculate.

Because the impressions are based on ads displayed only to certain users, you can't put together any accurate measure of revenue per impression, so there's no way of knowing how exactly each user is getting paid.

X has also provided virtually no detail on this element, with X engineer Eric Farraro explaining that:

"Our absolute primary focus at the moment is to get creators on the platform paid. We know creators will ask for more metrics and better notifications about updates, but we think the most important thing is that they get paid, and so that's what we're focused on first. We'll continue to iterate and add features that our creators request."

Which means, improved insights are in sight but for now, still no way of knowing whether X's payment terms are good, consistent, equitable, etc., etc.

They sure do look good though in some of the payment screenshots being shared.
Which is likely the main focus right now.

X is very interested in getting as many sign-ups for X Premium (previously known as X Blue, which was earlier called Twitter Blue), and for popular creators posting even more inside the app. In this light, dangling the carrot of ad revenue share is a good lure, which has undoubtedly boosted the interest of content creators.

Though it is also worth noting the specifics.

First off, the requirements for the program are pretty steep.

Currently, you will need:

Subscription to X Premium or Verified Organizations
At least 500 followers in the app
Generated 15 million organic impressions on your cumulative posts within the last 3 months
15 million impressions, which was updated from the 5 million impressions per month that was outlined in the first iteration of the program, is still a lot, and very few users would be seeing that level of engagement.

In addition, you also currently need a Stripe account for payment, though X is looking to expand its payment options.
So while that's a great bait to bring in more people and the most active and engaging users to post more often in the app, it's also important to note that the amount that only a small fraction of X will make thousands from their posts is actually restricted further by audience requirements for the ad rev share program.

As mentioned, those payouts are only counted from ads that are shown to verified users. X claims this is done to avoid manipulating its metrics, though I feel this relates to how X is looking to offset the cost of the such, by making sure that it's only monetizing paying users for this purpose.

The current number of less than 0.5% of all X users that are signed up to X Premium, and most of them are Elon Musk fans that want to support at app Elon's reformation.

That means that only a fraction of the ads shown on the platform are eligible for the scheme, and if you want to maximize your ad intake, you really need to be appealing to those users specifically, which will likely see more people posting about Tesla, vaccine controversies, right wing talking points, etc.

I also anticipate much more engagement-bait trash because of hackers trying to break the program.
This account is not even a X Premium subscriber, so they aren't qualified for the program. But this is the kind of thing I anticipate that will rise as a result of the program, and more discussion related to Elon's topics of emphasis, in line with the audience.

And once more, for context, an extremely small fraction of users are actually receiving payment.

In the first round of payments, for instance, just 40 users made up for almost 10% of the full payment amount. That gives you an idea of how limited it is, so while the payment posts look impressive, and will generate interest, it is worth noting the limitations.

But people are getting paid to tweet, that's a big swing, and some of them are bringing in real income from what they'd been putting out there for free all these years. That is a huge shift, though, without a full view of how the payouts are being worked up, impossible to say if this can be sustained long term.

There's an added risk that X will see the payout amounts decline over time. This will actually annoy creators that have come to rely on the extra income.

That's what happened at Snapchat, with Spotlight creators turning on the app when their payments decreased over time.

If X doesn't have a fully accountable, systematic ad share progress in place, or if more people sign-up (and more advertisers don't come back), there is a chance this could end up going bad for the platform as well. Again we are left to speculate because we don't know yet how the payouts are being calculated or actioned as of yet.

It is either an amazing opportunity and a step in the right direction to the app in winning over top creators, or it is a short-term stunt to get more people posting that will ultimately fall flat because of payouts reducing over time.
 
I don't know which because I lack insight, but right now, it is doing its job in sparking more interest in X's revenue share push.