Open an Orbit

An Orbit is your page for one upcoming piece of content. You say what it is, what the winning sponsors get, how many of them there are, the lowest bid you'll take, and when bidding closes and you publish. Every date is fixed when you open it, and sponsors bid against exactly what you wrote.

How it works

1. Choose what you're offering. Shout-outs (name the top bids), a main sponsorship (one sponsor's product for a set time), wearing or using one sponsor's product, or something else. The choice writes a first draft of your promise and the number of winners. You can change both.
2. Say what it's for. A short title, like "Friday's Q&A".
3. Write your promise. What the winners get, in your own words: "I'll name the top three in my next video." This is what sponsors are paying for, so say only what you'll do.
4. Choose how many sponsors. Between 1 and 10 slots. 3 is the usual answer.
5. Set when bidding closes. Bidding can run for at most 5 days.
6. Set when you'll publish. At least 4 days after bidding closes. The form suggests the earliest date allowed.
7. More options, if you want them. Bidding opens lets you announce the Orbit now and open bidding later; leave it blank to open now. Minimum bid is the lowest bid you'll take, in whole dollars, from $1.00 up to $2,000.
8. Press Open the Orbit. Check everything first: the details can't be changed once it's open.

Before your first Orbit you'll need a declared channel. Sponsors can only bid once your payouts are set up. If they aren't yet, the Orbit is created and waits for you.

One Orbit per piece of content

Each Orbit is one promise about one piece of content. If you want to sell shout-outs and a main sponsorship in the same video, open two Orbits. Sponsors then know exactly what they're bidding for, and each list is ranked on its own.

Announcing ahead

You can open an Orbit as far ahead as you like and set bidding to open later. Until then the page is up and nobody can bid. Your followers are emailed when bidding opens, so an early announcement gives your audience time to plan a bid.

Why it works this way

Why slot count should be honest. Sponsors compete for the slots. With three slots and ten bids, a sponsor has to outbid the third-highest bid to get in. With ten slots and ten bids, everyone gets in, the cutoff falls to your own minimum, and you've promised ten names. Promise only what you'll really say. Promising fewer mostly costs nothing, because you can still pick extra bids into the shout-out after bidding ends, up to 5 per Orbit.

Why bidding is capped at 5 days. A bid is a promise to pay if it wins. The shorter the wait, the less likely a sponsor's card or plans have changed by the end, so fewer winners drop out.

Why the publish date is at least 4 days out. After bidding closes you have 2 days to check your winners, and a winner whose payment fails gets 1 day to fix it. Your final list arrives about 74 hours after the deadline, so you record knowing exactly whose names to say.

Why the details are fixed. Sponsors bid on what the page says. If the promise, the slots or the dates could change after someone bid, their bid would no longer mean what they agreed to.

What can go wrong

• "Publish at least 4 days after bidding ends." Move the publish date later, or bidding earlier.
• "Bidding can stay open for at most 5 days." Close bidding sooner, or open it later.
• A very short bidding window. If bidding runs less than 12 hours, every bid is final the moment it's placed, and sponsors get no reminder before the close. The form warns you.
• A minimum above $300. Every bid on that Orbit has to be paid from a US bank account, so sponsors outside the US can't bid. The form warns you.
• You can't publish by your date. If there's no link by your publish date plus 7 days, every sponsor is refunded in full and you're paid nothing. Choose a date you can keep.

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