Ko-fi: Beyond The Tipping Feature

How I Am Embracing Ko-fi

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts written by people frustrated by Medium. Some are looking for other ways to write and reach their audience.

One of the most common ways was Substack. I was one of the people who gave Substack a try in the past. Until I came across Sieran Lane and the post they wrote about why they left Substack.

Needless to say that was more than enough for me to be done with Substack.

Truth be told, I am getting to the point I am done trying to push my Patreon too. The interface is more difficult than it has to be and getting people to connect there has been impossible.

The interface can be so frustrating that sometimes I am not even mad.

I’ve had a lot of morning brain fog where things just aren’t clicking like they should be.

Apparently my brain was just conserving energy. It had something big to share and it wanted me to really feel stupid once the epiphany hit.

The plan worked because I felt like a freaking moron.

I didn’t need Substack, or Patreon, or really any new up and promising website that claims to be the next great place to post my words.

Most of us already use it.

The bonus for those that don’t is it’s incredibly easy to set up.

Ko-fi To The Rescue

I’ve had Ko-fi in my articles because it uses Paypal (though I have seen now Stripe is an option) which to me is a plus. It allows people to support me without paying Medium.

You can see how to use Ko-fi with Medium here.

But truthfully, I never looked too deeply at it.

I had no customizations or even a profile picture.

Until today.

I have the free account. Which means the only customizing I can do is the banner and the profile picture.

Canva (also free!) made it simple enough to make myself a banner.

I don’t mind it. It’s got something to make it pop without being distracting.

Customizing Ko-fi is painless.

Thank you useful interfaces.

Clicking the Create button you see on the right side of the screen gets you the handy update button. Where you can add images, videos, blog posts and audio.

There is so much more to Ko-Fi then I ever realized. You can even open a shop.

Gold offers even more. You can read about that here.

If you have ever thought about using Ko-fi but can’t get far before you get overwhelmed you can download a creator success guide here.

Medium Or Ko-fi?

Honestly there are pro and cons to both. You need to decide what’s more important for you.

Medium has an algorithm that puts your words in people’s faces. (Or that’s supposed to be the way of it, anyway)

Ko-fi isn’t going to do any of that. Everything is going to be on you. It’s all about trying to get your Ko-fi in everyone’s face with content that they’re going to want to support.

We all know how much work that is. When you have an algorithm that helps you it is still a lot of work. Removing that algorithm is going to add to it.

But for some it may be an option worth persuing.

If enough people you know all use it to share content you may find that helps.

If you’re looking for people to follow you can find suggestions in your feed.

You can also get followers by posting your ko-fi links on Medium. Most people add them to the bottom of their posts. There is even a place for your links on Mastodon. Medium’s instance as well as every other. You can find it in your preferences.

This sounds like a love fest article for Ko-fi I’m sure. But I decided to share it because I know I am probably not the only one to use ko-fi who never really looked at it.

I’m sticking it out on Medium so this is not a post saying I am jumping ship. You will still find my regular posts here but you may also begin to find bonus stuff over on Ko-fi.

I may also use it to share links to my zines that can be downloaded over on my Patreon. Unfortunately you can’t post PDF’s under a free account. Even if you aren’t charging for them.

I’ve decided to embrace Ko-fi. Hoping it will spark some inspiration. I’ve started diving into the guides out there. I’m hoping that moving away from stats and algorithms will help me just let the magic flow.

Have you looked past the initial set up of Ko-fi for the tipping feature?

I would love to hear from you in the comments. If you have Ko-fi, I’d love to see it.

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