In the Viewsub system, you watch sponsored content/ads to get access to paywalled experiences.
People subscribe to content using their Viewsub credentials, consume that content natively, building up a credit balance that reflects their engagement, then pay that balance down by watching sponsored content/ads.
These are the three core components of the system:
Viewsub is a subscription by design.
A single Viewsub subscription means you can use the same credentials to access many different content sites.
The hurdle of subscribing and giving over some information about yourself means the Viewsub audience is an engaged one. We want engaged readers/listeners/viewers of content who want to support publishers and creators.
By having people subscribe to one or more content sites through Viewsub, we know more about what they like/are interested in. This helps us deliver a better ad experience.
The Content Credit Balance is a credit balance that is unique to each site you subscribe to using Viewsub. As you use the site, the credit balance rises. It reflects how much content you are consuming.
If you use a site a lot, you will build up a larger credit and have to watch more sponsored content/ads to pay off the balance. If you don’t use a site a lot, you might not have to watch any sponsored content/ads, or very little.
Generally, in any given period of time we think consuming 2-3 hours of content will result in a credit balance that will be paid off by watching 2-3 minutes of sponsored content/ads.
The sponsored content/ad experience in Viewsub is unlike any other ad experience.
Users get to choose the ads they watch, when, and where. Ad content it delivered in a vertical scrolling interface (Viewsub app or website) where you can select the ad you want to watch. Each ad is worth so many credits to pay down your balance. An ad pays down your balance when you watch it in full, or click through to the advertiser’s webpage.
You can like/upvotes ads that are interesting/entertaining, and you can dislike/downvote ones that aren’t useful or poorly targeted. The system uses this signal to improve your ad experience.
The Viewsub ad experience is a lot like a TikTok or Reels experience, except it’s all sponsored content/ads, and each time you view something you are paying money to publishers/creators you like.