Elon Musk's X is paying premium subscribers, but there is a catch

Elon Musk's social media platform X (F.K.A. Twitter) has paid premium subscribers a considerable amount of money this week in advertising revenue. The move will benefit X Premium users with at least 15 million impressions in 3 months.

Also, the announcement came days after Musk said he will pay legal bills for people "unfailrly treated" for posting on the social media site. Back in June, Musk announced X will start paying verified content creators on the platform for ads in their replies.

To be eligible for the payout, you need to have at least 500 followers and 15 million organic impressions on your cumulative posts in the last 3 months. Moreover, you must be an X Premium subscriber. According to a Financial Express report, the minimum payout is $50 (about £36).

People are getting paid to post on X

Notably, the payout has been huge, and several X Premium users posted screenshots on the micro-blogging platform. Some creators reportedly received thousands of dollars. The highest payout so far is more than $100,000 (about £78,644).

One X user noted that the company is giving payouts in batches. So, creators will first receive 50 per cent and the remaining second half 1-2 days later. A post by X News Daily confirms that the "highest payout so far is 6 figures at over 100k!"

A popular Indian influencer who goes by the handle name @GabbbarSingh posted a screenshot of an SMS confirming that he was set to receive INR 209,282.27 (about £1,994.01) from Twitter. Likewise, influencer @Being_Humor confirmed he received INR 3,51,000 (about £33,342.80) in his bank account.

Currently, X offers two creator monetisation programs to users. As mentioned earlier, there's a revenue share that pays a portion of ad revenue from ads shown in the replies to users' tweets. Also, there are creator subscriptions that let users post subscriber-only tweets. These tweets are visible only to users paying a subscription fee to that account.

If you are eligible, you can set up your payout account by heading straight to Twitter Settings. It is worth mentioning here that Stripe is the only payment method offered by Twitter or X at the moment.

To recap, Twitter first announced the blue check mark system in 2009 to simplify the process of identifying brands, companies, news organisations, politicians, celebrities, and other accounts "of public interest" as genuine and not parody accounts.

The company decided to remove blue checkmarks from verified accounts in April following the announcement of the paid subscription service. Musk later introduced a feature that lets X Blue subscribers hide the coveted verification checkmarks on their profile.

Elon Musk puts up Twitter signs and other memorabilia for auction

Now, a BBC report suggests Musk is prepping to auction off memorabilia from the company's San Francisco-based headquarters. There are 584 lots on offer featuring outsized bird cages, coffee tables, and paintings of images that went viral.

Aside from this, several desks and chairs, a DJ booth, and musical instruments have also gone up for auction. The minimum auction price for each lot is $25 (about £19.70), according to auction house Heritage Global Partners. The bidding will begin on September 12 and end two days later.

One of the Twitter signs listed for auction is still fixed on the company's HQ on 10th Street in San Francisco. The blue bird is still mounted on the side of the building, the BBC report says. Furthermore, the report notes that the buyer will be responsible for removing the sign and hiring an "SF Licensed Company with appropriate Permits."

To those unaware, authorities in San Francisco temporarily halted the company's attempt to remove the Twitter sign in July.

One of the paintings on auction shows Ellen Degeneres' selfie taken at the 2014 Academy Awards. The other is of an image that former US President Barack Obama tweeted after being re-elected in November 2012.

A slew of items from Twitter's San Francisco HQ were previously put up for auction earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, a statue of Twitter's iconic bird logo attracted the highest bid, selling for $100,000 (about £78,839).