TOGETHER WITH

It’s Tuesday and if your Spotify Wrapped was a little off-key, never fear: Instagram’s new end-of-year collage feature will let you decide how to recap 2024.

Today’s News

GET WITH THE PROGRAM

Snapchat is changing the way creators earn money—and making it harder for them to get started

The plan: From ecommerce affiliate programs to lower eligibility requirements, platforms like TikTok and YouTube have made it easier than ever for creators to earn money over the last year.

As of 2025, Snapchat is taking a different approach. The platform announced yesterday that it plans to retire the Spotlight Rewards Program on January 31 in favor of a new, unified monetization system that will pay creators for ads run on Stories and Spotlight videos “longer than 1 minute.” The catch: the bar to qualify for Snapchat monetization is getting a whole lot higher.

The context: Back when Snapchat introduced its Spotlight Rewards Program in 2020, the platform promised to divvy up $1 million per day among creators of top videos on its TikTok-style short-form video feed, Spotlight. Within a year, the program had paid out $250 million to more than 12,000 creators. (Snapchat later lowered the daily payout amount as it expanded its advertising and creator monetization offerings, which arrived on Stories in 2022 and on Spotlight videos in 2023.)

Back then qualifying for the Spotlight Rewards Program was simple: creators just needed to have a minimum of 1,000 followers, 10,000 unique video views, and a public profile.

The requirements: That won’t be the case for Snapchat’s new program. When the revamped monetization system kicks off on February 1, it will be invite-only and limited to creators who…

• Post at least 25 times per month to Saved Stories or Spotlight
  

• Post to either Spotlight or Public Stories on at least 10 of the last 28 days
  

• Have at least 50,000 followers
  

• And have reached one of the following in the last 28 days: (A) 10 million Snap views, (B) 1 million Spotlight views, or (C) 12,000 hours of view time

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Get up to $500 in rewards by referring friends to the creator suite leveraged by Dude Perfect and Colin & Samir

What if you could brainstorm new videos, plan thumbnail designs, and collaborate with your team in one centralized place—and earn money doing it? 

That’s the idea behind Spotter Studio, a full suite of ideation tools designed alongside YouTube’s top creators. Spotter Studio combines real-time data insights, thumbnail and title brainstorming tools, and personalized video concepts to increase engagement. 

Videos made with Spotter Studio receive 49% more views in their first 7 days than videos made without it—but increased ad revenue isn’t the only way Spotter Studio helps creators make money. 

Refer a friend to Spotter Studio and you’ll each earn a $100 account credit. Here’s how it works:

• Send your personal referral link to a friend who doesn’t have Spotter Studio.
  

• Once your friend redeems their free trial, you’ll both receive a $100 account credit.
  

• Keep referring friends to earn up to $500 in credits per year.

Whether you’re signing up for the first time or sharing Spotter Studio with friends, now is the perfect time to take the leap.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• TikTok CEO Shou Chew reportedly met with Donald Trump on Monday—just a few hours after the president-elect told members of the press that he has “a warm spot in my heart” for the video app. (CNBC)
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• A new YouTube Studio setting will give creators the option to allow third-party companies to train AI models on their videos. (The Verge)
  
  

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on Monday that Threads now claims more than 300 million monthly active users. (Engadget)
  
  

• Kai Cenat led StreamElements’ 2024 ranking of top ten Twitch streamers, while Jynxzi, Caedrel, caseoh_, and Papaplatte appeared on the list for the first time. (VentureBeat)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos: Crafty crows, in-house soccer fields, and bougie advent calendars

Trendy video formats topped Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos, with science experiments, super-sized builds, and bougie unboxings beating out the competition. After all, is it really the holiday season without a new soccer field and a $770 advent calendar?

🥇 #1. Mark Rober x CrunchLabs: Can A Crow Solve 9 Impossible Puzzles? (12M views)
YouTube science guy Mark Rober moved up a spot from last week to hit #1 with a video sponsored by his kid-friendly STEM company, Crunchlabs. The creator’s not-so-secret weapon: animals with a knack for solving puzzles. This time around, Rober’s co-star was an eerily intelligent crow—but we’re not forgetting the squirrel that absolutely crushed a ninja warrior course in 2020.

🥈 #2. Matthew Beem x Genshin Impact: I Built iShowSpeed a Soccer Field in His House (11.2M views)
Videos sponsored by mobile game Genshin Impact aren’t exactly a rare sight on YouTube—but a soccer field built inside a streamer’s house is a little more unusual. Of course, unorthodox builds are par for the course for Matthew Beem: before constructing a field (or at least a field-themed room) in iShowSpeed’s home, the creator hand-crafted “the world’s largest toilet” and an IRL Fortnite Battle Bus.

🔎 #521. Chloe Rose Art x Squarespace: I Bought Moriah Elizabeth’s SOLD OUT Advent Calendar (175.5K views)
Lower down on the list, we have an example of a rising holiday genre: advent calendar unboxings. Those videos can get pretty extravagant, and Chloe Rose Art’s Squarespace-sponsored endeavor is no exception. The sold-out calendar she opens was created by YouTuber Moriah Elizabeth and is going for a whopping $770 on eBay resale.

Check out the full branded ranking here or head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

TOOTH TALK

This creator is helping dentists survive the tooth biz (and earning thousands through Kajabi in the process)

The creator: Simone Ellis was seven years old when she decided she wanted to be a dentist. Two decades later, she graduated dental school as Dr. Simone Ellis—and a year after that, she opened her own practice.

By the end of 2019, Ellis had opened a second location and was beginning to experiment with social media. It wasn’t long before she started hosting live “Tooth Talks” on Instagram, where she shared her experiences with patients.

Then, in early 2020, two things happened: COVID struck, and George Floyd was murdered. Those events brought attention to both Ellis’ practice—a small, Black-owned local business—and her videos. Soon, it became clear that her content wasn’t just reaching potential patients; fellow medical professionals and aspirational business coaches were tuning in, too.

The business: Inspired by creators like Brendan Bouchard, Ellis decided to use her 15 years of experience to help others navigate the dental industry, which she noted has “the number one suicide rate” among professional fields. Bouchard had mentioned partnering with creator commerce platform Kajabi, so Ellis decided to give it a try, too. She asked to work with its team and joined the platform as an official course creator this past April.

Since then, Ellis has sold over $150,000 worth of mental health, wellness, and entrepreneurialism handbooks and masterclasses for fellow hygienists, plus one-on-one coaching sessions. She’s also secured partnerships with brands like Colgate, Listerine, and Invisalign, and is now making content and courses full-time.

Ellis’ success aligns with Kajabi’s recent rebrand, which includes an ad campaign that urges creators to build their audiences outside major platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Since being founded by Kenny Reuter in 2010, Kajabi has paid out over $8 billion to creators from 85 million customers.

Kajabi is a Tubefilter partner.

WATCH THIS 📺

Another YouTuber just claimed a Guinness World Record

The record-breaking bar: From most fast food restaurants visited in 24 hours (Airrack) to most YouTube subscribers (MrBeast), creators have a knack for collecting Guinness World Records. The latest YouTuber to join that club is Nick DiGiovanni, who recently set out on a mission to create the world’s largest chocolate bar.

The culinary wiz teamed up with chocolate company Blue Stripes to pull off the sweet feat. Get a sneak peek at the process here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.