- What's up guys. Andru Edwards here,
editor-in-chief at gearlive.com,
and today I want to tell you all about
the new YouTube membership feature that we just got enabled
right here on the channel.
Often times viewers will contact me
either through YouTube, in the comments,
in Twitter DMs, et cetera,
asking how they can support the channel.
We did use Patreon in the past,
but I didn't really like the disconnect
between the YouTube channel and Patreon.
Thankfully, YouTube has been working
on a feature called YouTube Memberships,
and they just gave us access here on the channel.
So now, if you want to be an official member
of the Tech Squad, you can do so.
If you head over to the channel page,
or I think even here on the video watch page as well,
you should see a Join button right below the video
or a Join button right on the main channel page.
When you click that Join button,
it'll give you a look at all the perks that you'll get
for becoming a member.
Channels that have the ability to create memberships
can create their own perks,
and so I created a few of my own
that I thought you guys might like,
just based on some of the feedback
that I've heard in the past.
So I figured I'd go through those right now
and let you know what you'd get
if you decide to support the channel.
First up, one of the biggest ones, early access to videos.
As I'm publishing videos, as I'm working on videos,
I usually upload the videos to YouTube a few days in advance
and then plan when they're gonna go live.
If you become a member, you will get access to those videos
as soon as I upload them.
You'll get it behind the scenes, you'll get it earlier
than anyone else who gets to see them.
So if you wanna be able to access videos early,
comment on them early,
members will be able to do that right away.
Next perk is priority access to Q&As and Ask Me videos.
Whenever I do an Ask Me video or a Q&A video,
I ask people to send questions in.
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
here on YouTube in the community tab.
I try to ask all over the place to get
a good amount of questions across different platforms.
For members only, there will be a special place
where you can submit your questions
and all of those questions will be given
guaranteed priority.
In other words, if you ask a question and you remember,
your question is guaranteed to be answered
in that Q&A video.
We will also be doing behind the scenes access.
That includes bloopers, that includes footage
that doesn't appear in the main videos.
That includes pictures and images of what's coming
and what I'm working on
before the general public sees it as well.
Next perk, I will also bee providing a feed
of the hottest tech deals as I find them.
So this is basically a perk that helps save you money
in exchange for your membership.
The idea behind that is maybe you want to support me
and you're spending your $5 per month,
but most people watching my content,
especially those who want to pay to support,
you guys are the hardest of the hardcore
when it comes to tech and being an early adopter.
So, if in exchange for your $5 per month,
I'm able to help you save a lot of money on your purchases,
then your membership would end up paying for itself.
And lastly, I've also got member shout-outs.
So if you're a member
and you want to be shouted-out in a video,
I'll be making sure to shout-out members regularly
going forward in the videos themselves.
Now those are all the perks that I have for now.
I am working on a couple of others.
One of them is badges, and the other one is custom emoji.
Badges are little graphics that show
how long you've been a member to others,
and they show up when you comment on a video.
Now I believe the way YouTube does it
is there's six different badges
and they change the longer you remain a member.
I believe they start as new member,
then one month, two month, six months, one year,
and then two years.
So six different badges which change automatically
as long as you keep your membership active,
those badges will show up when you comment on a video,
and also when you comment on live streams.
There's also custom emoji, I'm working on that as well.
Members will be able to access not just the badges,
but also access the custom emoji.
So the custom emoji and the badges,
I actually have someone working on it for me right now.
The artwork isn't done just yet,
but it will look great, and it will be just another perk
to show off the fact that you are an official member
of the Tech Squad, here on the channel.
Any questions about membership,
let me know down in the comments below.
Again, I will leave a link to becoming a member
in the comments below as well,
but it shouldn't be too hard to find
because as long as you're not on iOS,
you'll be able to see the Join button
on the main channel page,
as well as on the video watch page as well.
The Join button hasn't yet made it
to the iPhone YouTube app,
but if you click the link in the description,
it'll take you to the appropriate page as well.
Again, any questions, drop them down the comments below,
I'll meet you there for further discussion.
I've already started publishing videos early for members.
I've also already started putting out members only content
in the community tab. You have to be a member
in order to see that stuff.
And also, by the way, big shout-out to the very first person
to become a member.
That would be Ben Mitchell, long-time viewer.
Thank you so much for becoming the first supporter
of the Tech Squad.
Again, no need to pay if you can't pay
or if you don't want to pay.
You can always just subscribe to the channel,
click on my face here when it appears
at the bottom of the screen.
It costs nothing to subscribe
and you won't miss any future videos.
Thanks so much for watching. As always guys,
I appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards, and I will catch you in the next video.
(rock music)