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Monetizing your actor

Learn how you can monetize your web scraping and automation projects by publishing and renting actors to users in Apify Store.

When publishing your actor on the Apify platform you have the choice to make it a Paid actor and get paid by the users benefiting from your tool.

Paid actor example

Paid actor users pay a monthly rental fee to use the tool, which is paid in full to the actor’s developer. This means that, in the example above, the developer would get the full $45 monthly rent paid by each actor’s user.

Request monetization​

First, go to your actor page, Actors → My Actors and click on the actor you want to monetize. While on your actor page, go to the Publication tab on the right side of the screen and click on the Request Monetization button, located under the Monetization section.

Request monetization

Our support team will be notified about your request and promptly contact you to discuss the desired price and trial length for your actor, and help you fill in your billing details.

Billing details​

Billing details and payment method should be added as soon as your actor is public since this information is mandatory for the creation of payout invoices. Please note that the billing details and payment method should be added as soon as your actor is public since this information is mandatory for the creation of payout invoices.

To add your billing details head over to Setting > Payouts on the left side of your Apify Console.

Note: The "Payouts" tab will only be visible after you submit the monetization request.

Billing details

Payout Invoices​

Invoices are created automatically at the beginning of the new month, just under your billing details in the same section of your Apify console. Once the invoice is ready, you will need to review and approve it in order the payment to be processed.

Price and trial length​

You choose the price and free trial length of your actor. Apify can give you advice about the best practices of the most successful actors, but at the end of the day, we give developers full control over the pricing strategy of their tools.

You are allowed to adjust the price of the Actor only once per month. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions for further details and guidelines.

Where can I keep track of my paid actor’s users and earnings on the Apify platform?​

Inside the Apify Console, go to Actors → Earnings.

Here you have access to a table detailing all the relevant information about your paid actor, including the estimated revenue and number of paying users.

Scraper earnings

Promote your actor​

Your paid actors’ earnings are directly related to the amount of paying users you have for your tool. So, after publishing and monetizing your software, comes a crucial step for your actor’s success: attracting users.

Getting new users can be an art in itself, but there are two simple steps you can take to ensure your actor is getting the attention it deserves.

  1. SEO-optimized description and README

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic from search engines to your actor’s page.

    In short, SEO-optimized texts improve the likelihood that potential customers will find your actor when searching for similar tools on the web.

    This can be a daunting task to take on your own, so we prepared an in-depth [SEO guide]./seo_and_promotion.md to help you fine-tune your actor’s title, description, and Readme.

  2. Promoting your actor

    Promoting your actor on the right channels can be the deciding factor in successfully attracting users.

    While there are various ways to effectively promote your tool, it is usually best to share it on multiple channels. So, here are a few suggestions of channels you can use to promote your actor:

    • Reddit and Quora

    Find subreddits and Quora topics where the audience might be interested in the tool you developed, for example, the subreddit r/webscraping. Here you can check an example of how you can structure your posts on these social media to promote your actor.

    • Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)

    Don’t underestimate your own network! Your social media connections can be a valuable ally in promoting your actor. Not only can they use your tool to enrich their own professional activities, but also support your work by helping you promote your actor to their network.

    For inspiration, you can check Apify’s Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages, and don’t forget to tag Apify on your posts we will retweet and share your posts to help you reach an even broader audience.

    • YouTube

    Videos are a powerful way to promote your actors. Short tutorials showcasing your tool’s features and teaching users how to use them can be an effective way to boost your marketing efforts and provide value to your potential customers.

    For reference, you can check Apify’s video tutorials.

    • Publish an article about your actor

    Writing an article about your actor is a great way to attract public attention and gain users.

    You can share your actor’s development journey with other developers, write a tutorial about how to effectively use the tool you created, or visit Apify Blog for more ideas about how to promote your actors. For inspiration, you can check this How to Scrape Google Shopping tutorial on our blog.

    Once your article is ready, you can check this list of relevant websites where you can publish your article: hackernoon.com, techcrunch.com, news.ycombinator.com, dev.to, producthunt.com, indiehackers.com

Don’t overlook promoting your actor. This is arguably the most important step after publishing your tool. Taking advantage of all the possible channels for promotion is what often differentiates very successful actors with dozens of paid users from actors with few to no users at all.

Finally, don’t forget to check our pro-tips to take your actor promotion efforts to the next level.