Newsletter Writers, Here’s A Cool Way to Add Another Income Stream
Collect tips & donations from your newsletter readers — for free!
If you have a newsletter, but aren’t sure how to make money from it, have you tried leveraging the collective support of your reader base?
A super cool way to do that is by asking your readers to tip you for your work.
But the issue with most tipping platforms is that external integrations take a lot of time, and most platforms charge a substantial fee.
If you resonate with the above, here’s some amazing news for you!
Swapstack, the newsletter monetization platform, just officially launched the Swapstack Tip Jar.
The Tip Jar enables newsletter creators from any place in the world to collect tips and small donations from their followers — for free.
Support their launch on Product Hunt here!
How It Works
When you create a Swapstack profile and connect your Stripe account, you will automatically have a sleek Tip Jar page created for you (like mine, check it out here!).
You can share your Tip Jar link in your newsletter, on social media, on your blog, or website, and allow your biggest supporters to pledge a small tip to support your work. Supporters will be able to choose an amount and send a tip directly to you — either as a one-time tip or on a monthly basis.
Stripe fees do apply, but Swapstack doesn’t take any cut!
Why is the Tip Jar a Good Idea?
Tip Jars have popped up all over the place and for good reason.
Creators of all kinds typically build large audiences before they can generate meaningful revenue from ads, sales, or other types of partnerships. Even when they do generate income in other ways, it’s a great idea for creators to continue to utilize a Tip Jar to not only augment their income streams but to solidify their relationships with their followers.
As a creator, here are some ways you can use your Tip Jar:
- Simply ask for support from your followers.
- Tips for Shoutouts: You can provide a “shout out” to another writer or a brand in your next newsletter issue, social media post, or article — in return for a tip.
- Pay what you want: If you write in a niche, you’d probably periodically release products (like an e-book or how-to guides) for your readers to learn from. When you release such a product, you can provide a Tip Jar for support so readers can “Pay what they want” instead of charging a flat fee. Many times, this strategy can generate more substantial revenue compared to an outright fee.
- Extra Content: This works similarly to a subscription model. A Tip could unlock extras from you for your most loyal readers to enjoy!
The Future of the Tip Jar
There are natural pathways that this type of engagement can transition into general commerce or Web3 engagements.
The Tip Jar page could become a place where creators begin to sell products, sponsorships, or guest appearances from.
Additionally, the potential of accepting crypto via a Tip Jar, or utilizing the Tip Jar to issue NFTs to the tipper to concretize the relationship between the reader and writers, are all avenues where Tip Jars can evolve to.
The future is exciting, and it’s just getting started. You are witness to the process. Are you ready to be a part of this change?
Leave a comment below if you’re excited, and make sure to share with other writers so they can benefit from this amazing scheme.