Direct audience monetization

How many ads do you have to show to make $5? The answer is a lot!

The best way to make money is to have people just give you money directly. That is why we see so many people turning to subscriptions, Patreon, Ko-Fi etc.

The problem with donations is that you tend to only monetize the serious fans. People who read one post or watch one video or only show up once every few months aren't likely to donate $5 or even $3. It is out of the price range for the value that they get and it is a pain to spend time filling out forms, putting in CC numbers etc. What percentage of a site's users ever donate? Only 2% of people even earn the minimum wage on Patreon.

There needs to be a better way. One that makes it easier to donate and is appealing to casual users. So I created one (two).

1. The "Virtual Tip Jar": It is a widget you can drop on your pages which allows users to donate a few cents, by default $0.05, $0.10, $0.25 but is customizable. It is a way of saying "show appreciation for this specific piece of content". Users can tip/donate with just 1-2 clicks without leaving the page. No forms. No CCs. Just click and done. It only takes a few lines of code, more if you want to fully customize it.

2. Tip Me, the social media tipping platform: With this, you get a link that you can drop in your social media profiles and posts, which users can then use to give you a tip with 1 click. There a buttons for tipping anywhere from $0.01-$1 or they can tip a custom amount. This is particularly good for people who create bigger content, such as YouTube videos.

Just like having a real tip jar, both are very fast and convenient, which makes it easy for people to mentally cross that hurdle to give you money. Amounts can be anything from 1/100th of $0.01 and up, but designed for less than $1.

If you have Patreon, Ko-Fi or something else, you can keep using them. Give your users options to give you money. Options that can appeal to casual users as well as devoted fans.

You can sign up for them at https://www.centipenny.com and https://cptip.me. Both sites use the same backend and logins, so you only need to sign up on one or the other. Signing up is free and there are no recurring charges, so if nobody uses it, you won't lose anything.

If you have questions or need help, send me a message on Twitter (DMs open) or an email.

Here is my Tip Me link so you can see what that looks like in action.
https://cptip.me/b/9e9Oth4iGQ