Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino) At this year's VidCon festival, YouTube debuted new ways for creators to make money on its platform. Most YouTube creators make a profit through ad revenue, but they'll now have Channel Memberships and Merchandise features to bolster their income—if they pass specific subscriber thresholds. Channel Memberships is a rebrand of Subscriptions, a feature that had been tested out by select creators for a while.