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You’ve worked hard to build your blog, newsletter, podcast, or social media audience. And now, you want to get paid for that work.
The easiest way to make it happen? By setting up a virtual tip jar. It’s the quickest road to making an income from building an audience—no product needed. And the best part is that you can have a digital tip jar ready to go in about 10 minutes (we’ll show you how).
If you want to create your own virtual tip jar, but aren’t sure where to start or how to position it, this guide is for you.
What is a virtual tip jar, and how does it work?
A virtual tip jar is a solution that allows creators and businesses to receive tips from their online audience, community, or fans.
Sometimes known as a digital tip jar—the concept takes the idea of a physical tip jar and embeds it into the digital world.
When you visit your favorite coffee shop or listen to your favorite musician, there’s a high chance you can leave them a tip in a jar, a guitar case, or some other container—a way to show them you appreciate their service, effort, and talent.
Virtual tip jars play that same role for those who interact with their supporters online rather than in person.
Here’s how a virtual tip jar works:
- Select your virtual tip jar service and set up your account.
- Set up payments, usually by connecting your virtual tip jar account to a payment platform like Stripe or PayPal.
- Customize your virtual tip jar page with title, copy, images, suggested tips, and a call-to-action (CTA).
- Promote your virtual tip jar by adding it to your key channels, like website menu, newsletter footer, and social media link-in-bio.
Why creators should consider using an digital tip jar
A digital tip jar is an excellent tool for every creator’s toolkit. Here’s why:
- Your audience can support your free content without buying a product: You’ll never sell a product or a service to everyone in your audience, no matter how well you’ve nurtured them. People may love your content but not be in the market for a specific solution, like a course or working with a coach. A digital tip jar gives them a way to thank you for your free content by choosing an amount that works for them.
- It provides income independent of launches or algorithms: As a creator, it’s easy to fall under the pressure of constantly launching new products or feeding the social media algorithm beasts. Your virtual tip jar will give you a chance to take it easy without losing an income stream.
- You can track your virtual tips and learn what drives them: If you notice you receive more (or higher) tips on certain days or during specific seasons, you can unpack the background of it. For example, spikes might come from contributing to podcasts or industry publications or when you go live on YouTube. Online tipping leaves a trace you can analyze and learn from—and drive more tips in the future.
9 ideas and examples on how creators can use virtual tipping jars
No matter what type of creator you are, you can use a virtual tip jar—and see fantastic results. That includes coaches, educators, podcasters, authors, bloggers and beyond.
If you create value for your audience in any format—live or pre-recorded, downloadable PDFs or in-depth blog posts, email courses or twice-a-week newsletters—they want to support you and reward your hard work.
Virtual tip jars can be particularly interesting for these types of creators:
- Musicians, photographers, and artists: Your work reaches your audience, and you get to grow your business because you share so much of it online for free. Virtual tips are a perfect way for your fans to support you—and for you to reward tippers with early access, discounts, or other perks in the future.
- YouTubers, Twitch users, and streamers: Streaming is your bread and butter, and platforms like YouTube and Twitch give you an option to monetize your live streams through Super Chat and Cheering respectively, i.e. these platforms’ native features that let viewers pay streamers. The limitation is that you don’t get the full amount viewers pay to support you, but only between 70% and 80% of that amount. A dedicated virtual tip jar solution removes hefty fees and gives you ownership over contributions you receive.
Here are nine ideas and virtual tip jar examples to help you launch your own:
1. Ask your audience to support your free content
One of the easiest ways to get started with your digital tip jar is adding it to your cornerstone pieces of content.
For example, if you create YouTube videos, include the digital tip jar in your video descriptions. For blog posts, add it to the blog sidebar or at the bottom of each blog post.
As your audience soaks in and enjoys your content, it’s the perfect chance to nudge them to consider tipping you so you can continue creating free, hyper-quality content.
Artist and YouTuber Kelly Casanova (Weaving Lessons)
Kelly Casanova is the creator behind Weaving Lessons—a YouTube channel with over 46,000 subscribers and a website with free and paid weaving resources.
In her video descriptions, she asks viewers to leave her a tip if they’re enjoying her content.
Virtual tip jar in Kelly Casanova’s YouTube video description. Image via Kelly Casanova.
On her blog, she either links to her digital tip jar with a simple “Buy me a coffee” note or embeds a “Leave a yarn donation” button at the bottom of the article.
Virtual tip jar button in Kelly Casanova’s blog post. Image via Kelly Casanova.
And her digital tip jar page completes the message by emphasizing the value of her content, even though it’s free.
2. Place your virtual tip jar on every important page
Do you already offer paid products, like books, courses, or coaching?
If so, adding a virtual tip to support you is a great idea. Your products might range from $100 to four-figure price tags—online tipping means non-customers can thank you for your hard work without necessarily buying a product they don’t need or can’t afford at that moment.
Website headers and footers are the perfect placement for a link to your virtual tip jar.
Educator and YouTuber Dylane Moreau (The Perfect French with Dylane)
Dylane Moreau teaches French through The Perfect French with Dylane. She does so through free blog posts and videos, free downloads and courses, and paid courses and books. Her YouTube channel has over 120,000 subscribers, and her Instagram following is 146K strong.
Her website has a “Support my work” button in the footer, visible on every page. She also features a “Donate” banner on key pages like the one with freebies.
The Support my work page on The Perfect French. Image via The Perfect French with Dylane.
On her Support my work page, Dylane encourages visitors to either buy her books or send a tip through her embedded digital tip jar page.
The Perfect French virtual tip jar pop-up. Image via The Perfect French with Dylane.
3. Invite your audience to support your emails
Do you email your list frequently, as often as three or four times per week? If so, it means you’ve done an exceptional job building a library of content, topics, and tips to share—and your audience knows and loves that.
That gives you a chance to ask for an easy way to say thanks for those emails, right as you sign off each of them. It’s small and unintrusive, but the more your list grows, the bigger the impact this small addition to your emails will have.
Food blogger Stacie Vaughan (Simply Stacie)
Stacie Vaughan runs a massively successful food blog, Simply Stacie—a seemingly endless library of recipes sorted by method of cooking, types of dishes, and even holidays.
Stacie promotes her virtual tip jar with a simple line at the end of each of her several weekly emails: “P.S. Loving these emails? Buy me a coffee to say thanks!” This starts right from the welcome email that delivers the lead magnet and continues with each next email.
A virtual tip jar link at the end of every email by Simply Stacie.
4. Replace YouTube ads with a virtual tip jar
You can use your virtual tip jar to improve your audience’s experience when consuming content. You don’t really have control over what happens on third-party platforms that host your content, including algorithms, ads, and rules.
For example, “YouTube ads are out of control” is searched for frequently enough to show up among top recommended searches for YouTube ads.
Your virtual tip jar means viewers can still support you—not having to view ads being a nice add-on.
Designer and YouTuber Charlie Marie
Charli Marie is a design YouTuber and podcaster (and Kit’s creative director). She’s set up her virtual tip jar to deal with this exact issue. She disabled ads on her YouTube channel years ago and instead links to her tip jar page in her YouTube video descriptions.
Charli Marie’s YouTube video description linking to her virtual tip jar page. Image via Charli Marie.
She shows viewers she appreciates their support, even if it’s just sharing her videos with a design friend, with the tipping option right above it.
Charli Marie’s virtual tip jar page. Image via Charli Marie.
5. Raise funds for a dedicated project
Digital tip jars can be a great fundraising tool for limited-time projects. Instead of figuring out another platform and integrating it with the tools you already use, you can keep using a tool like Kit and embed your fundraising into it with a virtual tip jar.
A virtual tip jar is simple enough to implement and powerful enough to help you raise the funds you need.
Maker Hanna Lisa (Making Stories)
Making Stories is a one-stop shop for sustainability in knitting, run by Hanna Lisa and her team. It sells books, magazines, and sustainably produced yarns. Making Stories reaches a large audience through blog posts, podcast episodes, and weekly newsletters.
With each issue of the bi-annual magazine, the team creates Easy Read versions for non and partially-sighted community members. When producing Issue 7, they’ve stated in an Instagram post they need to raise €3600 (~$4,080) to produce the entire issue, or €300 (~$340) for each pattern.
Making Stories’ call for donations. Image via Making Stories.
Fundraising took place on with Kit’s Tips feature. Making Stories invited their Instagram followers to check out the link in bio, which led to a link page. One of the links on the page was the fundraising virtual tip jar page.
Past version of Making Stories’ link page.
The digital tip jar page again emphasized that any donation helps towards the goal of making the magazine accessible to every maker.
Past version of Making Stories’ virtual tip jar page.
Making Stories also posted updates about the number of patterns the donations made possible so far, encouraging people to donate if they haven’t yet.
6. Collect virtual tips on your landing page
Landing pages can act as mini websites, even when you already have a full-fledged website. For example, when you offer a free lead magnet in exchange for a subscriber’s email address, you can link to additional resources—one of which can be your digital tip jar.
This is a particularly great idea with longer landing pages with more depth—they show the quality of your work and easily nudge visitors towards tipping. Your landing page generates leads and virtual tips.
Course creator and YouTuber Science Mom
Science Mom taught weekly science lessons at elementary schools before starting a YouTube channel and running online courses. The channel now hosts hundreds of videos about science, math, and nature made for families and has more than 61,000 subscribers.
Science Mom also runs paid courses. More than 140 pages of notes and activities that accompany the course were available as a free download, along with links to buy the course, sign up on Patreon, or leave a donation in the virtual tip jar:
Past version of Science Mom’s landing page.
This showed visitors that the content they’re signing up for is so valuable it could be a paid product—and gave them an option to support it.
Science Mom’s virtual tip jar page. Image via Science Mom.
7. Get support from your podcast listeners
If you’ve considered running a paid, members-only podcast, you might consider an alternative option: keeping your podcast free but encouraging tips through a dedicated virtual tip jar.
Anyone who listens to podcasts knows there’s hard work and complexity behind creating and producing each episode. Let them reward you for that hard work.
Educator and podcaster Bella Paige (The Post Concussion Podcast)
The Post Concussion Podcast is a podcast about life after suffering a concussion. The main call to action on the podcast page is the “Support the show” button that takes listeners to the virtual tip jar page.
The Post Concussion Podcast page. Image via Post Concussion.
The link also appears in the sliding bar at the top of the page, as well as in one other crucial place: in the shownotes of each episode, right below links related to the guest and topic of the episode.
The Post Concussion Podcast’s shownotes linking to the virtual tip jar page. Image via Post Concussion.
The digital tip jar page is short, straightforward, and effective, emphasizing that all donations go toward covering the cost of producing the show.
The Post Concussion Podcast’s virtual tip jar page. Image via Post Concussion.
8. Offer your digital tip jar as a subscription alternative
Recurring subscriptions are a great way to monetize your creativity. They’re easy to run and scale and give you the stability and peace of mind you crave as a creator.
If you give your subscribers an option to support you through a recurring monthly or yearly payment, adding a digital tip jar is a great one-time payment alternative. Some subscribers might prefer this option and will appreciate the opportunity.
Consultant Martijn Van Zwieten
Martijn Van Zwieten, a consultant in the videogame industry, takes this approach with his free newsletter, Bi-Weekly Bits. He has a recurring subscription page for monthly and yearly payment options.
The recurring subscription page for the Bi-Weekly Bits newsletter. Image via Martijn Van Zwieten.
He used to link to this page from his newsletter page, where he made it clear that the newsletter would always remain free of charge but that payments help ensure its sustainability.
From the recurring payment page, he links out to his digital tip jar—he calls it a coffee fund—for subscribers who prefer the one-time donation option.
Martijn Van Zwieten’s tip jar page. Image via Martijn Van Zwieten.
9. Make your virtual tip jar an integral part of your website
No matter what products or services you offer (now or in the future), you always have the option to get your audience used to the consistent presence of your tip jar.
When you do this, you normalize the notion of paying the creators for what they create, teach, and give out for free. It reminds your readers or viewers that this is your job—one that you want to keep doing sustainably instead of burning out.
Course creator and YouTuber Jon Draper (Start A Studio)
Jon Draper is the creator behind Start A Studio, a website packed with articles, videos, courses, and a job board for those who want to run a successful animation business.
Jon embedded his virtual tip jar link at the top right corner of his website, as well as at the links section of his YouTube channel.
The Start A Studio homepage with a tip jar button at the top right corner. Image via Start A Studio.
On the digital tip jar page, Jon reminds his audience of the breadth of resources available under the Start A Studio umbrella. With free video courses, checklists, quizzes, and dozens of articles and YouTube videos, sending a virtual tip seems like a no-brainer.
Why Kit is the best online tipping platform for creators
The best online tipping platform for creators: Kit. It’s included in free accounts, low commission fee, plus you can tag tippers and add them to your email list.
There are plenty of services offering a virtual tip jar feature, but we’re (naturally) biased toward the one Kit offers.
In case you’re deciding between a few online tipping platforms, here’s why we’re rooting for ours:
- It’s available to all Kit users, including free accounts. You can get paid through Kit without paying for an account every month. No matter how small your audience is right now, setting up a virtual tip jar in Kit is risk-free.
- People who tip you will be added to your email list. Receiving a tip will only be the start of your relationship with a new supporter—you can stay in touch and create even more value for them in the long run.
- You can tag people who give tips. Use Kit’s visual automations to automatically tag fans who tip you. Later on, you can re-engage with these subscribers and show extra gratitude.
- Commission is only 3.5% + $0.30 per tip. Some platforms take between 30% and 50% for each tip you receive. With Kit, you only pay a standard payment processing fee—the rest goes directly to you.
How to set up an virtual tipping jar with Kit (+ where to display it)
Follow these steps to set up your virtual tip jar in Kit—you’ll have it ready to go in minutes.
Step 1: Log into your Kit account. In the main menu at the top, select Earn > Tips, then click the + New button at the top right. Enter a name and customize the URL—you can tweak both later if needed.
Step 2: Next, you can customize your digital tip jar. The intuitive interface lets you tweak the landing page, checkout page, confirmation page, and receipt email to your liking.
This includes images, copy, and colors. The virtual tip jar offers pre-set amounts—$5, $10, $20, $50—and gives your fans the option of entering their own amount.
Visual editor for the virtual tip jar in Kit.
Step 3: Click the Publish button at the top right corner, which will make your virtual tip jar page go live. Then, grab the link you see and start promoting it—check out some ideas below.
There are many ways to promote your digital tip jar as a creator, including:
- Embed it on your website or blog: These are your core pieces of content, so make sure visitors can easily spot your virtual tip jar as they browse. The main menu at the top or your website footer are a great place to link to your page.
- Add it to your newsletter’s footer: You spend so much time on your newsletter—give your subscribers a chance to reward you for it. Tap into your newsletter design to customize your newsletter footer, aka the signoff, and include the link to your virtual tipping jar.
- Include it on your link page: If you’re active on social media, your link page is a superb one to link to in your social media profile description—and a great spot for your followers to find your digital tip jar.
- Insert it in your email automations: Do you run email sequences or email drip campaigns? Think: welcome sequence, product promotion, a free email course, a lead magnet download. If so, linking to your digital tip jar inside is a smart move as you’ll be promoting it on autopilot.
- Add it to your social media channels: Make the most of social media features like pinned tweets and Instagram story highlights to keep your virtual tip jar constantly visible, especially to new followers who may have missed it before.
- Embed it in your podcast platform: Add your virtual tip jar page link to episode shownotes, your podcast description, and your podcast website if you have one. Make it an easy find for every listener, no matter which platform they use to tune in.
Get paid through your digital tip jar today
No matter where you are in your creator journey—brainstorming your first offer or launching your fifth—you can start monetizing your content and influence today by setting up a virtual tip jar in Kit.
With these nine virtual tip jar examples and use cases, you now know you can use it in many different ways. Get paid for free content or a free service you run, fundraise, offer alternatives to paid subscriptions, encourage listeners to support your podcast, and so much more. Your options are endless
Grab your free Kit account to set up a digital tip jar you can start sharing right away.
