Getting Started: Where do I even start?

Signing up:

When you come onto Somble for the first time there are several ways to become a creator. In fact, you pretty much can't do anything until you've signed-up. This process was designed to be so easy my grandma wouldn't bat an eye at anything in the process - we're going to keep it high-level here.

In the top right corner of the Somble home screen there should be a giant button that says "Sign Up". Click That.
Next you should see a screen that asks for your Name, Email, Phone Number, and New Password.
Click the checkbox next to our "Terms and Services" to confirm that you've read them through.
If you're signing up with a "Referral Code" that you got from a friend now's the time to enter it. If you don't enter it here you won't be able to apply it to your account.
You'll be sent a verification code to the number you provided, go ahead and enter that code to confirm that it's your phone.

That's it. You're now signed up for Somble as a User. Now that we're done with that, let's get you started on Becoming a Creator :)

Becoming a Creator:

Every Creator is a User. Much like every square is a rectangle (shoutout to Mrs. Matthews, 4th grade teacher). A Creator can do everything that a User can, but is allowed to post and monetize their content. If you're signed into your Somble account you can Become a Creator 2 different ways.

1) The right way: Hover over your icon in the top-right until you see the Account Management tab from the dropdown. Next to all of your Account Information on the left will be a massive button called "Become a Creator" click that thing and you're off to the races.2) The other right way: This is easier. Click the Camera Icon in the header.

It will take you to the next page to enter your Birthday and continue to Stripe. This is to make sure that you're also 18 or above and can legally use Somble as a Creator.

How I get Paid:

Somble uses industry leader Stripe to handle all transactions and payments across the platform. Without getting too deep into the weeds, you price your content at what you see fit and Users will wrack up charges as they purchase content over the course of a month. At the end of the month, they pay their tab. When they reach their monthly billing cycle date, their card on file is charged and the balances are sent to all the Creators that they purchased from, with Somble taking a 9% service fee and the Stripe processing charges shared fairly amongst the Creators.

When you create your Stripe account through Somble, it will be automatically linked to your Somble profile and you're good to go. If by chance you already have a pre-existing Stripe account you can link it through the same process and use it for Somble payments as well, per the Stripe Connect Docs.

If you would like get into the weeds of what the Pricing Model looks like you can head over to our doc on the subject here.

This is the most labor intensive process in our Creator Onboarding flow because it has some requirements that aren't common knowledge for everyone. You'll need to know:

Your email address
Home Address
Social Security Number (SSN)
Banking Account Number
Banking Routing Number

We pre-populate as much as possible for you, but obviously we cannot for information that is specific to you. This is information that we don't see and is required by Stripe, so it is really out of our hands. If you have any questions or concerns about why you're being asked for certain information you can refer to the Official Stripe Docs or email us at team@Somble.com.

Filling out the Creator Profile:

Your page is your home within Somble. As such, you should be able to decorate the page as you see fit. A fully filled out page is important because at a glance it gives you a chance to display your own personal brand.

A fully filled out Creator Profile says a lot about you and subtly indicates that you've put some considerable time and effort into what you're building (even though it won't have taken you more than 15 minutes). Below is what a fully filled out profile looks like and there's a few important things to point out.

Profile Picture

If eyes are the windows into the soul then you can consider your profile picture your online eyes. This gives your profile so much validity immediately. It's no surprise that every single platform ever would like you to put your face to your online presence - it instantly adds a human connection that is almost impossible to recreate otherwise. Consider it your digital seal of approval. It shows that "this profile belongs to this face and this face is mine".
A nice example to marinate on as you decide whether it's worth your time to do this is to imagine yourself on a dating site like Bumble, Hinge or Tinder. Now imagine hitting it off with someone. Would you feel more or less comfortable if you could attach a face to those sweet (and hopefully not too creepy) messages?
Exhibit A:

Cover Photo:

We highly recommend putting up a cover photo. It goes a long way to display personal brand. It's a sweeping statement that truly utilizes the old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words". It really spices up the page with who you are and what you choose to display about yourself prominently.

"Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick" - Kevin Malone, The Office

Also, if you don't add your own, the default is a very tasteful, artsy banner - but we'd prefer to see what you can whip up for yourself.

Description:

Here you should let your audience know a little bit about yourself. Likability goes a long way and people want to know a little bit about the person behind the content. Our biggest tip is to just be yourself. Many of the people strolling across your profile may already be familiar with you, so just be unapologetically yourself and the rest will take care of itself.

License and Certifications

If you got it, flaunt it.

While you absolutely don't need any specific licenses or certifications to create on Somble, if you do have them then all the better. You worked hard to achieve those milestones and you did it for a good reason. Providing credibility builds trust. It builds trust in you personally and trust in the advice you provide or the guidance you give.

For many people, having that proven expertise could be the difference in whether they decide to consume your content. So the rule of thumb is to accurately display any and all, current, up-to-date certifications you have.

Social Media Links

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but by providing your audience with a full understanding of who you are and what you do, you begin to further define your own personal brand. Showing people who you are through Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify allows people to get a more extensive understanding of you.

Plus - different strokes for different folks. This platform doesn't scratch every itch and we know that. So, let your Somble audience have an easy path to your Instagram audience and vice versa. We're all about collaboration.

Subscription Tiers:

We touch on this one in a lot more detail in our articles about "Subscriptions" and "Pricing: What the F%&K do price my content at?" but long story short this is meant to give the User better pricing options for consistent use and Creators more secure, recurring forms of revenue.

- You have weekly subscriptions which give the User more flexibility in terms of being locked in to a plan.

- You have monthly subscriptions, which are meant to be your most cost effective option. For example, it makes sense to price your weekly subscription at something like 5$ and your monthly at 15$. This way, User save money over the span of a month and you can safely rely on 15$ in recurring revenue. Win-win.

How come when people click my shared URL, it says Creator Not Found?

This means your profile is not yet active! To have an active profile, you must complete Stripe onboarding, input a Bio, have a Profile and Cover photo, and Schedule or Upload Content. Once those steps are done, your profile is automatically made public. To see a To-Do list of items you need to complete before launching your page, just click the "X/10" in the Header to drop down a checklist of both required and optional Profile items.

Uploading/Scheduling Content:

This is the Crescendo of the entire process flow we've developed here at Somble. Uploading content for your audience ought to be something that you should never have to worry about. We want to take any and all confusion out of the process for you so you never have to worry about anything other than what you love to do.

Upload Content:

Every input that has an asterisk next to it ( * ) is required to upload your video. Everything else helps people know what they can expect to see and do when deciding whether to purchase your video or subscription.

PSA *****It is best practice to fill everything out as much as possible****

We dive into uploading content in much more detail in "Getting Started: Labeling my Content"

Scheduling Live Sessions:

Scheduling Live Sessions is just as easy and straightforward as a regular, on-demand upload. You can create live sessions that are open to the Public, to only your Subscribers, or Private sessions. You can also set them to be Virtual, In-Person, or Hybrid. Session Title - Is the name of the session that will appear on your Calendar

Description - Is what will be going on in the session or class
Drop-In Price - If your class is public, this is what people will pay to join the session
Date and Time - This is the date and time that your session will be at
Duration - How long the session will be. Class will close 15 automatically 15 minutes after the end of scheduled class.
Limit Attendees - You can set a cap on how many people can join the session
Record Live Session: If you decide to record you live session, the class will automatically be added to your library of on-demand content for later consumption. When you click "Yes", a new set of input fields will open so that you can label, tag and price the session for on-demand, so your following can join you whenever!

Promotion:

We could go on forever about this. If you're struggling with the concept of self-promotion (which is normal) we suggest you check out our article on it at " Self-Promotion: "Build it and they will come" - a bad entrepreneur". The whole point of promotion is to display the value that you intend to provide to your audience. You want them to agree that what you're providing them is worth what you're charging them.

We recommend a few things when it comes to promotion:

1) Be proud of the work that you put into your craft - If it comes across like you're not excited about what you've done, how can you expect anyone else to? It's a scary thing to put yourself out there and to finally ask people to pay you for your worth. One thing is for certain, if you don't care, they won't care.

2) Take the friction out of it - The best thing to do when promoting yourself on social media, to friends or family, by email lists, or whatever the medium may be, is to take the effort out of it for people.

Give them the link directly to your class or profile.
Provide them the best times to flow with you.
Having a hard time getting people in the door? Worried about the price? Cool. Create a promo code or referral so that they can try it out risk free.

3) Ask and you shall receive - Rarely is it enough to upload your content, kick back and have millions of dollars and droves of adoring fans come flooding. Even Justin Bieber had to throw a hat down and busk for a while before hitting it big. If you want a review, people to watch your stuff, or to share your content, start by ASKING. You might be surprised by the results.

4) Trust us, your audience is going to be inspired - This is a weird one, but it's basically a law of nature in today's day and age. You might be afraid to put yourself out there and ask people to support your business venture, but everyone who sees you do this is going to look out their window and day dream of the passions they wish they could pursue, or the side hustle they want to turn into a main hustle. More likely than not, putting yourself out there is going to inspire everyone who sees it.