This year’s VidCon saw YouTube reveal a whole range of new ways that creators can connect with their fans, earn more for their work, and even build up hype for the launch of new videos.

Yesterday was the 8th VidCon, a celebration of online video making centred around YouTube and launched by YouTube creators Hank and John Green in 2010. YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan got on stage to talk about YouTube’s developments over it’s 13 years of existence and what it’s doing to make it a better place for creators.

Following his talk at YouTube where he revealed their next steps in monetisation, fan perks and more, Mohan wrote: “YouTube is a vibrant community where everyone has a voice. Every day, creators use their voice to entertain, spur action and bring about positive change. That’s why over the last year we’ve doubled down on building the products and tools that the creator community needs.”

The priority of their talk focused on how YouTube are going to be helping creators make more money from their videos and creations. Some juicy stats showed that the number of creators earning five figures a year from uploading videos is up by 35% and magnificently the number of creators earning six figures is up by a giant 40%.

They told the crowd that they want to look at ways to make money beyond ads more. YouTube have explored revenue sources beyond ads with their subscription service, providing an ad-free, paid service which paid creators from subscription costs, as well as Super Chat which allows fans to pay for priority messages on their favourite creators live streams.

Channel Memberships were announced at VidCon, a new monthly subscription that gives viewers access to unique badges, new emojis, and Members-only posts in the Community tab. In addition, paying viewers will gain access to unique custom perks offered by creators, such as exclusive live streams, extra videos, or shout-outs. YouTube have been testing this as sponsorships with a select few channels but will be expanding the feature to eligible channels with over 100,000 subscribers soon.

Merchandise is getting a home on YouTube at long last. Many of YouTube’s creators sell their own merch, whether it’s t-shirts, crafty creations, phone cases, or anything else most of the top channels tout their own products. YouTube channels will now have a shelf where creators can choose from over 20 merchandise items to customise and sell via Teespring. The feature is available now for “eligible U.S.-based channels with over 10,000 subscribers”.

Premieres will allow creators to make an event out of their new video and let their fans rejoice and celebrate like the launch of a new movie. Premieres will allow creators to upload their video and then debut it as live event with fans joining in the lead up to it in a live chat building hype together. It allows people to come together and celebrate the moment rather than waiting until they see that it’s live.

This will bring fans and creators together in a new way but it will also provide new options for monetisation. For the first time ever fans will be able to use Super Chat on a regular YouTube Video rather than a live video. YouTube have begun rolling out Premieres already and will be made available to everyone soon.