Earn Money by Creating!

Modified on Fri, 27 Sep at 10:10 AM

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The Earn Money Program is now part of our new VIP Tiers program! Learn more about this awesome new feature here!

After reading this article, you may also want to check out additional details about the Earn Money Program and about the updated Creator Payout System.

Starting July 1, 2023, all Earn Money Creators, including Grandfathered Creators, will require Platinum, Diamond, or Emerald VIP to be in the Earn Money Program and receive cash payouts.

Creators will be able to link three Grandfathered Creator accounts together under one VIP subscription. For more details, see this article.

This requirement does not affect Grandfathered Creators who are subscribed to legacy VIP (from before Tiered VIP launched).

What does this have in store for you?

For IMVU Creators

All IMVU Creators now have the option of earning real money from each product they sell. This allows you to earn money from a single, reliable entity, with the full support of a dedicated team of representatives to assist you in the process. Furthermore, you can choose to switch at any time between earning money and earning the usual Credits.

For Non-Creators

As IMVU customers, you can continue to purchase any Credits you need directly from us again knowing there is one source to buy Credits from - IMVU. IMVU’s Credit store is available 24/7, offers a variety of payment methods in all countries, and has our billing help team available to lend assistance if needed.

How does this help the Creator Community?

IMVU aims to have a more direct relationship with our content Creators in the context of them earning money for products they sell in our Shop. This helps us give the following benefits to Creators:

1. Creators make money with a reliable, consistent and easy process. No need to worry whether or not resellers are accepting Credits, as you earn every time a sale is made. Also, you will be able to request a payout to the PayPal account you designate once your available balance has reached $50, that is, once you have undergone a one-time verification (see next section).

You will earn money at a standard and consistent rate of **40 cents/1,000 Credits based on the profits you have set for your products (example: for a product where you profit is 100 Credits, you will earn 4 cents every time someone purchases that product with Credits). No need to worry about what rate you get for every sale. IMVU’s rate of $0.40 was determined in order to match with or improve upon typical reseller transaction rates. Just like your credit earnings, this can also be monitored for each product you sell.

**Though IMVU reserves the right to change this rate, we do not anticipate doing so frequently or in the near future.

2. Creators with bad intent will NOT benefit from their activities. Many of our hard-working Creators tell us often how they compete for sales with bad actors - Creators who try to sell stolen/copied or inappropriate content and profit from such activities. Every Creator who wants to earn money from IMVU will have to go through a proper account verification process which will include a review of their catalogs.

3. This also sets the stage for the future, as we enhance our Credit Economy for newer platforms. This also paves the way for further Creator Program improvements, including newer types of creation opportunities.

How do I sign up to earn money by Creating?

Check out our Creator Payments page -- your one-stop shop for electing your catalog to earn money or Credits, check your balance, complete account verification requirements, and request payouts.

Creators who maintain an active Platinum, Diamond, or Emerald VIP subscription may participate in the IMVU Earn Money Royalty Program.

Note: All Creators are set to earn Credits by default unless they choose to earn money. Make your selection today if you wish to start earning money for your sales directly from IMVU.

Reminders:

Starting July 1, 2023, all Earn Money Creators, including Grandfathered Creators, will be required to have Platinum, Diamond, or Emerald VIP in order to be in the Earn Money Program and receive cash payouts. This requirement does not affect Grandfathered Creators who are subscribed to legacy VIP.
Creators will be able to link three Grandfathered Creator accounts together under one VIP subscription.
All earnings (Credits and money) will continue to be subject to a 14-day pend period.
There is no change to the way purchases with Promotional Credits are processed - there is no pend and Creators receive Developer Tokens for such sales.
All derivation fees (the one-time fee paid to the Creator/mesher whose product you are deriving from) will continue to be paid in Credits only.
There is no change to the way you set profits for products or to the way payouts are distributed across the derivation chain.
You will NOT be able to transfer accumulated Credits or Credits acquired through a source other than product sales to IMVU to get cash payouts - all payouts will only be at the time of each sale for your products and earned accordingly (the way you currently earn Credits).
A derivation chain may contain Creators who have elected to earn Credits as well as Creators who have elected to earn money. Payouts will be distributed accordingly at the time of each sale of such products.

Process summary:

STEP 1: Sign the new Creator Agreement and Policy
STEP 2: Set your catalog to start earning money
STEP 3: Verify your account by providing your full name, physical address, PayPal ID and tax-related information
STEP 4: Your information and your catalog are reviewed and you are notified when account verification is complete
STEP 5: Watch your available balance to reach the minimum - $50
STEP 6: Request a payout to your PayPal account (as long as your account is verified)

Process details:

Sign New Creator Agreement:

Go here and sign the updated Creator Agreement and Policy.

You must be a VIP (Platinum, Diamond, or Emerald) to participate in the Earn Money Program.
You must agree before you can elect to earn money for your sales.
Note that the Creator Agreement uses the term “Royalty” to denote cash earnings for product sales.

Set the Earning Distribution:

After signing up, you may opt to divide your earnings so that a specific percentage of your sales goes to earning money while the remainder earns Credits for your avatar. If you have selected "Earn Money" using the old interface, then you are automatically set to earn 100% cash until the distribution is changed.

The Earning Distribution slider can be accessed by going to your Creator Payments page. The ratio can be set to increments of 10% (i.e., 70% cash and 30% Credits, 80% cash and 20% Credits, etc.).

Example:

If you set your distribution to earn you 80% cash and 20% Credits, every item that was set to give you a profit of 1,000 Credits will earn you $0.32 and 200 Credits (as long as the item is purchased with real Credits).

In case of partial amounts, the system will take a directional approach. Using the same 80-20 distribution as an example, let us take a look at a product that was set to earn you 5 Credits in profit. Normally, this distribution will give you 1.25 Credits -- however, partial credit amounts are not given out, so the system will use a different approach. Taking into account that you decided to earn more cash than Credits, the .25 Credits will be added instead to the cash, giving you a money payout equivalent to 4 Credits ($0.0016).

Note that the 14-day pend period still applied to both Credits and earned money. This new option does not apply to Promotional Credit purchases that pay developer tokens instead.

You may change the earning distribution at any time, and the changes will reflect on all sales moving forward. Changing the distribution will not affect your current account verification status. The credit earnings will show in your Credit Balance Events report, while the money earnings will be under the Cash Balance Events report. The sales reports emailed to you will contain both values.

Verify your Account:

You only need to do this once. All Creators will need to supply us with their full name, physical address (no P.O. boxes), phone number and PayPal ID. All Creators will also need to complete tax-related documents as per IRS requirements

*US Creators must supply us with a completed W9 form in order to get payouts.
*Non-US Creators may choose not to supply us with completed tax documents (W-8BEN form), however, in that case all their payouts will be subject to 30% withholding.

Get more tax-related information here.

STEP 1: Go to verify your account here. In the blue box at the top, click on Account Verification Page. Fill out the necessary details.

**US Creators must submit their full name, mailing address, PayPal ID and completed + signed W9 form. (If the tax-related document is not submitted, you will not be able to request payouts)

**Non-US Creators must submit their full name, mailing address, PayPal ID and completed + signed W-8BEN form. (If the tax-related document is not submitted, all payouts will be subject to 30% withholding).

STEP 2: After filling out the information and attaching the necessary files, click Submit.

STEP 3: You will be assigned a unique verification ID for your request and will receive a confirmation message (and email) to notify you that your request has been received.

STEP 4: You will receive a confirmation message once your account has been verified or if we need additional information from you. After receiving this message, you have to click the Acknowledge button from the same page. If this section is not completed, you will not be able to request a payout.

STEP 5: If you have any questions/concerns related to earning money for your sales, you may file a creator ticket. Please note that this is different from our normal ticket process, and non-creator payout questions cannot be resolved here. The Go Back button allows you to access your historical payout details. When filing a ticket about a current or past payout, please include the Payout ID Number.

STEP 6: If you need to update a previous application or submit a new verification request, simply click on Submit Request under Creator Information. Follow the same steps as above. You can also add notes to your application.

Account verification must be complete and you must be approved before you can request any payouts. However, you can start earning money for your sales while the process is ongoing.

Payouts

In order to request a payout, go to the Creator Payments page. Scroll down to Payout Request. A pop-up window will appear. Fill out the amount and PayPal email where the payment will be sent.

You can also view your message history with the agent who processed your payout request. Simply click on the "here" link under Payout Request.

Reports

Your Creator Reports will continue to have information related to any sales which earned your Credits or Developer Tokens (promotional credit purchases).

Your Creator Payments page has a new downloadable report which will give you details for sales that earned you money. Simply scroll down to Payment Information towards the bottom.

Linked Accounts for Grandfathered Creators

Creators will be able to link three Grandfathered Creator accounts together under one VIP subscription. For more details and instructions, see this article.

Funneling Earnings

Starting August 1, 2023, “Grandfathered” Creators may choose to direct their earnings from alt accounts (up to two accounts) to one main account. This means that any cash or Credit earnings will be combined into one account. Check out the steps here.

Note: Funneling earnings is not required and is totally optional.

What if I have more than one Creator account I want to sign up to earn money?

As of now, the account verification process will be separate for each Creator account that you enroll.

Do you offer other payment processors for the payout?

As of the moment, we only allow payouts through PayPal. PayPal is widely available in over 200 countries and is free to set up, and current resellers have been using PayPal to make their payments for Credits purchased.

Did other requirements of the Creator Program change?

Becoming a VIP (Platinum, Diamond, or Emerald) is a requirement in order to sign up and earn money through the program. The Virtual Goods Policy and the rest of the other requirements are still the same.