Earning from a community page without spending its trust

Short answer. A community page can earn from labelled sponsored posts, platform monetisation, paid priority for submissions, merchandise, events, donations and affiliate links. What protects its trust is five rules settled before any money arrives: money never changes a moderation decision, paid content is labelled, advertisers are vetted, the money has an owner, and the audience is told how it all works.

A page with ten thousand local followers is worth something. Businesses near a campus will pay to reach students, and admins who spend hours every week on unpaid moderation are right to ask whether the page could at least cover its costs.

It can. But a confession page has one asset, which is that people trust it enough to send it their secrets and to believe what it publishes. Each way of making money either leaves that trust intact or spends some of it. This guide goes through the options with that in mind.

Settle the principles first

Before you accept any money, agree on a few rules as a team and write them down. It is much harder to do this once an offer is on the table.

1. Money never changes a moderation decision. No one can pay to have a submission published that you would otherwise decline, and no one can pay to have a post removed or kept out. Removals are free, always. A page that takes money to suppress or delete content about a person is in the business of something very like extortion, whatever name it gives it.

2. Paid content is labelled. If someone paid for a post, the audience is told, clearly and on the post itself.

3. Advertisers are vetted. You are lending your credibility to whatever you promote.

4. The money has an owner. Decide whose it is, where it is kept, and what it is for.

5. The audience knows the arrangement. Publish a short statement of how the page earns money and what payment does and does not buy.

Every option below should be tested against these five.

Sponsored posts

A business pays for a post promoting it on your page. This is the commonest source of income for community pages, and the simplest.

What works. Local businesses that are relevant to your audience: food outlets, printing shops, tuition, events, student accommodation, student societies selling tickets. A small number of sponsored posts among many ordinary ones.

What goes wrong.

• Disguising the advertisement as a confession. "OMG just tried the new bubble tea place near gate 2 and I'm obsessed 😍" — written by the shop and published as though a student had sent it in. This is the fastest way to destroy credibility. Once readers catch one fabricated confession, they doubt all the others. It may also breach platform rules on branded content and consumer protection rules on misleading advertising.
• Too many. If a third of the feed is advertising, people unfollow.
• The wrong advertisers. See the section on vetting below.

How to do it properly.

• Label every sponsored post unambiguously — "Sponsored" or "Paid partnership" at the top, not an obscure hashtag at the bottom. Both Facebook and Instagram provide a paid-partnership label for this purpose, and their policies expect it to be used.
• Keep sponsored posts visually distinct from confessions. Do not give them a confession number.
• Set a limit — for example, no more than one sponsored post a day — and keep to it.
• Publish a simple rate card and terms, so that every advertiser is treated alike.

Vetting advertisers

Your audience is young, and some of the businesses that most want to reach them are ones you should refuse. Say no to:

• Gambling and betting, including "prediction" and "lucky draw" schemes with entry fees;
• Unlicensed moneylending and "instant loan" offers;
• Investment schemes promising returns, forex and cryptocurrency "signals", and anything involving recruitment;
• Vapes, tobacco and alcohol, particularly where part of your audience is under age;
• Essay-writing and assignment services, which put your followers at risk of academic misconduct;
• Unregistered health, slimming and beauty products making medical claims;
• Anything that asks followers to pay a deposit to an individual's bank account for goods you cannot verify.

For financial offers, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission both publish lists of unauthorised and suspect entities. Checking takes a minute and is worth doing. If a follower loses money to a scam that you promoted, the label "sponsored" will not protect your reputation.

A reasonable test is whether you would be content to recommend the business to a friend with your own name attached. If you would not, the page should not recommend it either.

Platform monetisation

Facebook and Instagram run programmes that pay creators according to the performance of their content, with eligibility requirements concerning follower numbers, content type, originality and compliance with their policies. The programmes, their names and their rules change often, and availability varies by country.

Two cautions apply to confession pages in particular.

• These programmes generally reward original content and penalise policy violations. A page that consists of text submitted by other people, some of which is borderline, may have difficulty qualifying or remaining eligible.
• Payment by performance creates an incentive towards whatever spreads furthest. On a confession page, that means drama and posts about identifiable people. If platform payouts become significant, look carefully at whether your moderation is drifting.

Check the current eligibility requirements in your page's professional dashboard and do not rely on second-hand summaries.

Paid priority for submissions

Some pages and platforms allow a submitter to pay for their own submission to be reviewed or published sooner. Handled carefully, this can be legitimate: the submitter is paying for speed and not for approval.

It must satisfy all of the following.

• Payment does not buy publication. A paid submission is moderated against exactly the same rules, and is declined if it breaks them. Say what happens to the payment in that event.
• Payment does not purchase attention against another person. A paid submission about an identifiable individual is declined like any other. Otherwise you have built a service for paying to harass.
• The audience can tell. If paid posts are marked or ranked differently, say so openly.
• The terms are published — what is being bought, the fees, the refund policy, who receives the money.
• Unpaid submissions are still published within a reasonable time. If the free queue becomes a queue that never moves, the page has become pay-to-post.

Think, too, about what it does to anonymity. Payment involves a payment method, and a payment method is linked to a person. Be clear with submitters about what the payment provider records and what you are able to see.

Merchandise, events and donations

Merchandise — shirts, stickers, tote bags carrying the page's name or its in-jokes. The margins are small, the risk to trust is low, and it gives the community something to rally round. Use print-on-demand or pre-orders so that you are not holding unsold stock. Do not use the institution's name or crest without permission.

Events — a ticketed gathering, a collaboration with a society. More work, and more cash to handle. Keep clear accounts.

Donations or tips — a simple way for supporters to contribute. Be honest about what the money is used for.

Affiliate links

You earn a commission when followers buy through a link you post. The same disclosure rule applies: say that it is an affiliate link. Promote only things you would recommend in any case, and never slip links into the comments of confession posts.

Whose money is it?

This is the question that ends friendships. Decide it at the start.

• If the page belongs to a society or club, the income is the society's. It goes through the society's account, is recorded by its treasurer, and is spent according to its rules.
• If the page is independent, agree in writing how the income is divided between running costs, the team and any reserve. Agree what happens to the balance when someone leaves, and when the page is handed over.
• Keep records. A shared spreadsheet listing every payment received, from whom, for what, and how it was used. If the income becomes substantial, it may have tax consequences for whoever receives it, and that person should seek proper advice.
• Use an account that more than one person can see. Money passing through one admin's personal account, visible to nobody else, will be suspected sooner or later, whether or not anything is wrong.
• Give receipts to advertisers, and keep copies.

Earning money also alters your legal position somewhat. A page that carries on commercial transactions is more clearly within the scope of the Personal Data Protection Act, among other things. See Personal data and community pages.

Tell the audience

Publish a short statement, linked from your About section:

How this page is funded

We occasionally publish sponsored posts from local businesses. They are always labelled "Sponsored" and never appear as confessions.

[If applicable: Submitters can pay for faster review of their own submission. Paid submissions are moderated under the same rules and can still be declined.]

Nobody can pay to have a submission published that breaks our rules, and nobody can pay to have a post removed — removal is always free.

Income covers [tools / design / the society's activities] and is recorded by [who].

It takes a few minutes to write, and it answers the question before anybody asks it in a hostile way.

Signs that money is changing the page

Look at this list every few months.

• Are you approving submissions you would formerly have declined because they "do well"?
• Has an advertiser ever asked you to remove or avoid content about them — and did you comply?
• Is the proportion of sponsored posts rising?
• Have you taken an advertiser you had doubts about?
• Would you be comfortable if the whole team's messages about money were made public?

If any of the answers troubles you, return to the five principles at the beginning of this guide.

A realistic expectation

For most campus pages, income amounts to pocket money: enough to pay for tools and the occasional team meal, not a wage. That is perfectly good. The pages that last are run by people who would run them without payment and who treat income as a way of making the work sustainable. Once a page exists mainly to make money, the incentives point away from careful moderation and towards whatever attracts attention.

Common questions

How can a confession page make money?

Through sponsored posts from local businesses, the platforms' own monetisation programmes, paid priority for a submitter's own post, merchandise, ticketed events, donations and affiliate links. For most campus pages the income amounts to pocket money: enough for tools and the occasional team meal, not a wage.

Do sponsored posts have to be labelled?

Yes, unambiguously and on the post itself — "Sponsored" or "Paid partnership" at the top, not an obscure hashtag at the bottom. Facebook and Instagram both provide a paid-partnership label and expect it to be used. Never disguise an advertisement as a confession or give it a confession number.

Which advertisers should a student page refuse?

Gambling and betting; unlicensed moneylending; investment schemes, forex and cryptocurrency "signals" and anything involving recruitment; vapes, tobacco and alcohol; essay-writing services; unregistered health, slimming and beauty products making medical claims; and anything asking followers to pay a deposit into an individual's bank account.

Can a page charge to remove a post?

No. Removals are free, always. A page that takes money to suppress or delete content about a person is in the business of something very like extortion, whatever name it gives it.

Is paid priority for submissions legitimate?

It can be, where the submitter pays for speed and not for approval. A paid submission is moderated under exactly the same rules and declined if it breaks them, one about an identifiable individual is declined like any other, the terms and refund policy are published, and unpaid submissions are still published within a reasonable time.

Who does the page's income belong to?

If the page belongs to a society or club, the income is the society's and goes through its account and treasurer. If the page is independent, agree in writing how income is divided and what happens when someone leaves. Either way, keep a record of every payment and use an account that more than one person can see.