1. During sign up, I'm super confused why you have to set up anything related to payout before setting up your coffee page -- this is inverted to the way it should be. Get them the page as soon as possible and let them share and accept donations, then IF (big if, I bet the median amount raised is $0) they have a literal financial incentive to set up their friction-filled payout form process. If you're too worried about things going viral, then set a limit (e.g., if after $600 raised they don't have payout set up, e-mail them saying the page will stop being public until they set up payout).
2. You should curate your "creators we love" page. I hit explore and found a softcore instagram BDSM model as the first hit, and a page with a lot of comments about foot fetishes. Probably not the content you want to call out as one of the companies favorites. I would actually look at all the ones you rotate on that page and make sure they are on brand.
There are some tactical things (eg, the dropdown for country should have USA at the top, assuming thats where most of your users are) but those micro optimizations won't matter if you just re-arrange the info gathering to after the delivery of value.
#1 is will going to totally change your funnel in an important way -- I'd try it out!
> Dropdown for country should have USA at the top.
Better, have it in regular order but pre-select with geolocation. If you use something like freegeoip.net you can progressively-enhance this with a couple of lines of JS.
First off, thanks for such a comprehensive feedback!
1. You can skip that page in one-click; but I get your point. We decided to do this to avoid any confusion for new creators; especially when the whole point of the platform is to receive payments. Creators usually spend no more than a minute to sign up, so we never thought it'd be an issue. Thanks for pointing this out :)
2. Good point. Featured section is currently rotated on a daily basis based on activity and other factors (such as page views). Hope manual curation will solve this.
No problem, happy to help. Feel free to email me directly (email in HN profile) if you want more thoughts at a later date, I enjoy giving feedback on new projects.
I missed the "skip" button, but I think you get the underlying point. You'll want to accelerate the "magic moment" as much as possible, which is the moment your users grok the value your service provides (and you'll see this in your data as you look at user retention rates for the cohort that hit this moment in your funnel vs. those that did not). You should try to figure out what this is, then obsessively try to remove as much friction as possible to getting to that point.
My guess is that for you it's either a) seeing your coffee page; or b) getting your first coffee donation (probably the second). Either way, remove as much setup as possible to create the coffee page, sharing it to their network, and get money coming in the door.
1. The summertext text area doesn't like brackets. I tried to leave a "<3 Open-Source" at the bottom of my summary and it gets changed to "<3>" everytime.
2. Center-justified profile text feels kinda wierd. At 1080p I feel there is too much negative space around the summary text. Perhaps a little wider on the text, left-justify, and then center the div containing the text.
3. Maybe you could add a user photo gallery section where users can upload images and/or files related to whatever they're looking for donations on?
I feel this is unintentionally going to the lowest end of this space with the whole "buy me a coffee" message and brand.
I run a site which is 100% monetized through voluntary donations and I would never use language like buy me a beer/buy me a coffee for it. It feels like you are marginalizing your work to the hobby/side-project realm with low expectations. We strive for $40 a year as a target donation from those who use our site, which is a lot more than a coffee.
there's a difference between getting people to say _right now i need you all to "buy me a coffee"_ and getting the same people to buy you a coffee on a repeated basis.
I need help now != support my ongoing work on x
my point being, that it's irrelevant that William got $2500 fast. the question is how many people on the platform have been able to earn anything more than just a random occasional tip on it? Is anyone getting even "poverty level" worth of donations (~12k in the US because our gov't has no concept of how much things cost).
Meet Jo Qatana. A small-time embroidery artist who's making ends meet with BuyMeACoffee. She's one such creator who's receiving donations from her audience on a regular basis.
"Thanks to the Generosity of Strangers, and Friends, I've made a car insurance payment and can finally buy the supplies I need for my @PPact fundraising item. I am So Very Grateful." - https://twitter.com/joqatana/status/951943659301187584
'Buy Me A Coffee' is just a friendly way to ask for support, and do not suggest the size or consistency of support one could receive. Contributions very well depend on one's audience and creativity.
I'm a bit late to the party, I just wanted to say how much more appealing this type of donation request is vs wikipedia's extreme guilt trip of "if 1% of people who viewed this page in the next 5 minutes donated a dollar, [..]"
Um, okay... But a lot of people do things without the expectation of ever being paid for it. Dropping something like this at the bottom of a page, or a newsletter, or a blog is really just a bonus.
Just because you look for a relatively noticeable financial contribution from your users doesn't mean everyone does. Not everyone has to fit into the target audience for every product...
100% agreed.
I'd never use this type of donation service because it doesn't seem serious enough. The artist that side has to ask people to "buy me a coffee" is not the kind of artist that takes it seriously, and, say, uses art station and has a complete portfolio. "Buy me a coffee" just sounds unproffesional.
When I first saw this in tumblr, I thought: "I wouldn't want to be the artist that needs charity to survive". It's like Patreon without responsabilities or commitment...It just feels childish.
I get your point, but BuyMeACoffee is more than just a tipping platform. Creators can reward their supporters, showcase supporter comments (which is often more rewarding than the money itself) and much more.
MrDots is a game developer who gives away game codes to supporters. He raised $1300 within a day after sharing it with his audience: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Zc2ryTOpw.
This is just one of many use-cases where BMC can be used effectively :)
> I get your point, but BuyMeACoffee is more than just a tipping platform. Creators can reward their supporters, showcase supporter comments (which is often more rewarding than the money itself) and much more.
maybe you're right, but the home page certainly doesn't convey that. It's "A free, fast and friendly way to accept donations" ... doesn't mention anything about rewarding supporters, showcasing comments, or anything like that.
I don't really understand the point - in most interpretations of artist I've come to find, the creation of the art is detached from the financial reward, thus it neither contributes to or detracts from the artist's worth how/how much they take as contributions?
There's a huge difference between using something for free, and paying for it, however small an amount it was.
To myself, I often justify paying for something I can otherwise have for free (or not have at all, especially if it's supporting a campaign) by thinking "I would not think twice if I were to get a cup of coffee for this amount. So instead of buying a coffee for myself, I'll send $5 towards ____".
Another aspect of this branding it that it reminds people that there are are actual, real people behind the things they enjoy, be it art, software, or political activism. That their money, no matter how small, will go towards an actual person and can have an actual, tangible benefit to that person.
"Give me money so I can support myself" is a scary message - I certainly don't to take on that burden, and I'd automatically think: how much difference $4 would make on the scale of paying rent?
"Buy me a coffee", on the other hand, makes the contributor feel that that their contribution is both personal and tangible. Sending $4 will, in fact, allow the recipient to buy a cup of coffee.
Additionally, this makes the contribution focus on the positive impact, rather than the negative impact due to lack of contributions.
It's the same reason why some homeless people in SF have signs saying "I won't lie, it's for beer" -- because for a lot of people, it's much more pleasant to throw a buck for a beer and know that it's their guilt-free choice to do so than to be guilted into doing it.
In short, why so serious - literally? And kudos to the people who make parting with money a happier, easier experience.
Going after the low end can be a good strategy, since the established competition usually ignores that market segment. Speaking as someone who might be in that low end demographic (a musician looking for tips), I like the branding, since it makes donation seem more intimate, more casual than "patron."
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that Patreon has tons of existing users. I'd imagine there's a lot less friction to adding a pledge to a new person if you're already on the platform and they have your payment info, than if you need to ask them to sign up for a new platform which they might not have heard of before.
Just because somebody is paying the amount of a coffee, that doesn't mean they're marginalizing your efforts. It just means we've reached a point in our technology where now paying barely anything is possible across a large number of people.
Also "buy me a coffee" is much more palatable than "help pay for my house". If you say "help pay my rent" people might feel cheap for giving you $4/mo and choose to give zero
"Remember the milk" managed to overcome this, but cockroachdb might not. Either way, it's a good point.
That said, (a) one $4 latte once per month is $48/year, and (b) maybe the intent is to emphasize a casual, small-dollar vibe, making it less intimidating than something that conjures "accounting" and "finance"?
Interested on implementing it myself for a project. I would really appreciate if you could share some numbers. How many donating (% from visitors), avg amount etc. Any stats would help. Thank you.
What approach do you take? I'd be interested in knowing b/c I often have ideas that might benefit from that funding model and I usually wind up thinking "nah, that could never work".
Not everything is made to receive $40 annually. With $40 annually you must be rolling in the cash and I should start taking serious financial advice from you. What's your secret? "for the price of one starbucks a month?"
Some people use buy me a coffee, literally to show that they are s-o-c-i-a-l and want to meet for a c-o-f-f-e-e, whether over the wire or over the table.
I'm sorry but this is so clearly a much better step in the right direction. As slick as the 'buy me a coffee' site is and as nice as Patreon is, I can't help shake the feeling that it's only a matter of time before the company goes under, or they sell my data, or they engage in other shady shenanigans.
I would trust a 'buy me a coffee' site so much more if it were managed by somone like Sir_Cmpwn with a FOSS backed system. I wish we would start moving more towards FOSS infrastructure.
Why FOSS isn't the norm, especially for systems dealing with money, is beyond me.
I've been using paypal.me, and the ability to change the donation at the URL has been incredibly helpful towards getting patrons to choose an amount that suits them. I suggest $X but they are free to change, and it's super easy. Often patrons up the number and I get more donations. I'm not convinced the multiplier buttons do the same thing.
Further that URL bit allows me to suggest different donation amounts to different patrons. If I offer someone tech support I might sent a link with /10 or /20 at the end, others who I just answer a quick question might get a /2 at the end. It allows me to suggest amounts on the fly based on our relationship.
But on BMC, I see that I have to pre-guess a donation amount and run the risk of alienating donor with an amount that's too high (they don't donate), or leaving money on the table by choosing too low. I've definitely had donors give more than 5X my suggestion.
Giving the donor agency in selecting an amount may help in gaining more overall donation.
Are you the Mike DelGaudio who contributes to the NoSleep Podcast?! If so, I've listened to your voice acting for hundreds of hours... HN never ceases to amaze me for bringing dialogue from people you would never expect to run in to.
But on topic, I agree with your feedback. I run a volunteer video game project with about 8000 users who are pretty active and also come from a huge variety of economic situations. Right now I don't ask for donations but I've been considering the best way to do it without it in any way appearing to be a fee or charge for the project. I've considered using paypal.me and really like the URL based system for donation amounts. I love the idea of BMC because it targets exactly what I want to express--give something back but you aren't buying a product or special treatment.
First off, welcome to BuyMeACoffee! Had a quick look at your Youtube and it looks great. Youtubers make up a good part of BuyMeACoffee, and it's good to have you on board - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qPlHUpuWIQ
Thanks for the feedback. It is a neat idea. I'll bring this up in our next brainstorming session. BTW the multiplier buttons are working quite well for BMC; a vast majority of the donations are three coffees or more.
Also, there's an option to choose the 'per coffee amount' between $3, $4 or $5. Although I don't think that's what you're looking for here.
Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. Cheers!
– Domain name. They say the domain speaks for itself ;)
– In the pipeline: Cryptocurrency Wix and Weebly plugin, more payment options (Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay), referral program and much more.
We are waiving the 5% platform fee for HN users for LIFETIME! We'd also love to be your first supporter.
Tweet (https://twitter.com/TheBuyMeACoffee) or reply here with your beautiful ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link (takes less than a minute to set up) to claim it.
1. My avatar wasn't picked up from Facebook, nor Gravatar. My email wasn't either. I think it's OK for you to request these from Facebook.
2. Recommended payout method was "Stripe" for me even though it was disabled due to not being available in my country.
3. Add an optional "Tell us why" textbox when I click "Delete my account". Seriously, do this early. :)
4. I see you are using Stripe Checkout.js for payment methods. Switch to Stripe Elements (https://stripe.com/elements) and the Source API to get the option to support a range of other payment methods as well as 3d secure and such.
Maybe I'm missing it on the pages but it this seems somewhat important for a company that handles money - there's no mention of who or where you are, who the principals are, etc. The terms seem a little slapdash, there's a bit about being 'partnered with Stripe' (are you? or does that just mean you use Stripe for processing?).
I wonder how these sites work with EU "value added tax" regulations, a couple of years ago new rules came in that need fastidious record keeping - whilst this is "donations" it seems it might be considered "voluntary payments for goods/services" which presumably attract tax confusions?
Yes, we are using Stripe to process payments. We also used Stripe Atlas to incorporate. We are not partnered with them in any other way. Sorry if the copy is misleading, we'll correct it.
The broader thing is probably more important. You are handling money on behalf of other people, right? That should involve a general air of clarity transparency throughout otherwise you end up looking (perhaps totally unintentionally and unwittingly) like a scam. Namelessness, locationlessness, terms-with-no-applicable-law, etc all increase the aura of scamminess.
This looks perfect for some of my upcoming projects!
I just have a comment that the price of an individual "coffee" should be more obvious because it might not be clear before you look at the Buy button total (which is a bit low-contrast anyway).
At first glance, the 1-3-5 looks like the dollar amount you're donating, not a multiplier of a coffee cup since the coffee doesn't have the actual price anywhere.
Especially considering that a coffee price can differ from $3-$5 depending on each person's settings, I would go for clarity and either put the price in front of the coffee cup or use a coffee cup icon that has the price on it.
I like it. I've been thinking about setting up a donation system to help cover hosting costs for a few sites, but never got around to it. This was painless to get set up and hooked up with an existing PayPal account, and easy enough to use that my users might actually chip in (doubt they would bother with platforms like Patreon or making new accounts). Definitely enjoying how simple and clean the UX is.
Spot on. That is exactly the problem that we're trying to solve. Making donations as friendly, frictionless and straightforward as possible. Glad you like it, @pikdum.
Great way to promote your site. Onboarding was as easy as it gets.
I'm a software developer with a job, but I also have open source projects that stretch out beyond the horizon. Some are much more successful than others, and I've been considering accepting donations for a while.
I don't have the hardcore following that would support something like Patreon, but I have enough of an audience where something like BMAC might work. Cryptocurrency support would be interesting as well. I've considered setting up wallets for just this purpose.
Quick feedback:
1) The creator pages feel undifferentiated (colors/icons/themes/imagery). Upsides: consistency for your platform, simplicity for creators, fewer knobs, less myspace-esque junkery. Downsides: impersonal, bland, might feel cheap/unimportant. I'm not sure where I fall on the spectrum, just a fleeting thought.
2) Under "What do you do?" on my profile, I wanted to put "Open Source Software Developer" to stress the open and contributing nature of my work, but the input's maxlength was 20. I edited it to 35 and it worked, so clearly the backend supports longer descriptions ;) Maybe raise the maxlength on the field?
Glad you like the product, Chris; and thanks a ton for all these suggestions. Let me tackle them one by one.
1. Customizable creator page was a topic of debate for us from day one :) You have beautifully shared the ups and downs of it. I've noted it and will bring this up in our next brainstorming session.
2. Haha, nice find. Just shared this on our slack. Let us see what we can do without affecting the design :) Thanks for noticing!
This site looks awesome, really cool to see what you're doing and I really hope it takes off! A little bit of feedback:
1. You really show offer a button in markdown format. The HTML one doesn't work on a github markdown document without losing all the styles because of github markdown security.
2. Because I had to use the image for markdown, I noticed that the image is pretty fuzzy on a retina screen. The whole thing is quite low res, might be worth doing a 3x one if you can?
3. It'd be great for a user to see the price they're donating and then just change it with a slide or input field. At the moment jus x1, x2, x3 is not only limiting but also quite hidden. A coffee in the UK is quite different to a coffee in Norway for instance. It also means someone can give much more if they'd like which is great for creators! Perhaps allow the creator to set a suggested and minimum donation, you can then cap at say $5 minimum, but have a suggested of $10 and the user can choose a value from there. If you wanted to keep the coffee analogy, you could have a nice little SVG which changes to a more extravagant coffee the bigger it gets, maybe eventually turning into a coffee machine at X amount.
4. I feel like I probably shouldn't be forced to setup a payment provider to get going, it makes it a lot more work to get up and running as a user of the platform.
5. It'd be fantastic if I could see where people came from when they donated. Perhaps they came from npm, github, or my blog, each is very different and lets me experiment with what's working and what's pointless.
Great platform, just what I've been looking for recently!
Glad you like the platform, and thanks for sharing those thoughtful suggestions. We've already started working on it.
1. Noted. We're doing a complete revamp of buttons and widgets with step-by-step instructions on how to use on popular platforms like Medium, GitHub etc.
2. Very true. Work in progress.
3. We want to keep the coffee analogy, but I get your point and we'll work out a solution. Thanks for the suggestion.
I like the art style and the overall appearance a lot. My only suggestion is to make the actual dollar amount on the donation page more apparent. Personally I would expect the price to be in the same box as the multiplier but instead it's all the way down in the button, in a faint color. Makes me hesitant like I don't know what I'm getting into. Good luck with the site!
I've been on the lookout for something like this recently, and this thing appeared at a pretty opportune time.
I'm spending a lot of my spare time making open-source stuff over at GitHub, and even though it's all too niche to ever see widespread use, i'd like to at least have an option to receive support through donations from anyone who likes my work.
I'm not sure that i'd be using the social features that you offer; i.e. posting updates and such- i'm mostly interested in the ability to put a link/button on my READMEs, but that seems to be very easy.
The onboarding experience was great. As you grow, the page settings will need to evolve to support branding that concent creators have already decided on.
Also, the 'save' button on the pages did not give me any indication that my changes were saved (like a green checkmark or some sort of a banner)
+1 to the idea of having more than one category (and a goal for each category). I like to write about healthcare, automotive repair and business. There's little overlap in the audience.
Just what I have been looking for, at the exact moment I was looking for it :-) Unfortunately I already bought my first coffee on credit this morning, but I'm sure more will come in a short while! (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/laurent)
The signup and profile customisation processes are highly user-friendly, and just worked the way they should!
(so no bad user experience feedback for you from my side, unfortunately :) )
Sign up was smooth on Android chrome, but I managed to misunderstand the save button once in the edit page. I pressed save and went to hamburger menu-your page, and all changes were lost. Turns out url I chose first was taken, but the error message upon saving was off screen for me so I did not see it..
No biggie, very friendly interface. I like that I got my initials on the logo cup :) buy whoever made that a coffee..
I agree with previous comments that the trustworthiness (likeliness to donate) could be increased by giving actual information about the people and company behind the website, especially as money is involved.
Also, it's impossible to get to the footer on some pages because of the endless infinite scroll. All I wanted to do was click FAQ but I can't :(
1. I saw someone in the comments mentioning that it'd be nice to be
able to connect payout methods later, and a reply said there was
a "skip for now" button. So, I was looking to use it (not expecting
to get a lot of coffee at this time...).
However, the page asking to pick Stripe or PayPal came up, and there
was no "skip for now" button anywhere in sight. I was taken aback a
bit. I was thinking maybe I just need to click on the dashboard link
on top, but was worried that might rip me out of the onboarding flow...
In the end, I decided to just add a Stripe account now. So I picked
Stripe (over PayPal), and THEN it gave me the offer to skip adding it.
What!? Why show the "skip adding payment info for now" option only
after making the user go through the decision of picking a payment
provider? I'd rather have seen the button on the first page.
Of course, then it said my page wouldn't be visible publicly until
I do add one, so there wasn't a point in skipping anyway.
That whole "make a decision about payment/actually you can do that
later/actually you have to do it now" experience felt unfriendly and
probably could be improved.
2. On the Dashboard, there's "What do you do?" input with an input field.
It shows some pre-populated (I presume) options when you begin typing.
I wanted to pick something that best describes me (open source software
engineer working mostly with Go), so I wanted to see all the options
available. But I could only see them if I type at least one letter.
So I tried typing A, B, C, etc. In the end, I was able to get a gist of
what categories were there and which ones weren't (there's "Developer",
but nothing else quite fitting), but I had to go in a roundabout way of
accomplishing it. Perhaps this could be made friendlier too. (Just a
normal dropdown that shows all options when clicked, maybe?)
About point 2, let me clarify. I know that I could either pick a pre-existing category or type my own freeform text. I was trying to make the decision of which to go with based on what pre-existing categories existed. To make that decision, I wanted to be able to see the full list of categories. I was able to see that full list and make my decision, but in an awkward way. Hopefully that makes sense.
The signup process is great. On the donations page I think the $ amount should be displayed in the same box as the number of coffees or allow people to enter a usd amount as well or number of coffees. Now it's only visible on the button which I didn't see immediately.
I've suffered with eczema all my life and am working on a webapp to help people monitor their eczema, since constant monitoring of what you eat / drink / do / everything is one of the best ways to control eczema. Couldn't really think of a way to fund it before and will try this. Thanks!
So A) I just love coffee, and B) the design and illustrations of the site are just so thoughtful, I just had to sign up <3 https://www.buymeacoffee.com/
I have never considered to accept donations for my open source work, but letting people "buy me a coffee" is quite literally what I've been telling people if they're ever thankful, and likewise what I'd offer them.
It's a popular request, and we avoided this to do justice to the design and the overall minimalist nature of the website. I'll be sure to bring this up in our next brainstorming session. Thanks!
Thanks! Even just a limit of two or three categories max would be helpful for me. My projects are roughly 40% coding, 40% writing, and 20% charity, and I'm not really sure which category to put myself into. As a result I "made my own" which I think means it's hard to find me.
Just tried to sign up, but it appears the Stripe form doesn't work on iOS Safari. Can reproduce by filling out the whole form, not entering a phone number, hit submit. Then, I get a brief error that my phone number needs entered, which then skips directly down to bank account numbers not matching (which they do) and then, suddenly, the account number changes to my autofill password. Very odd behavior!
Wow this is great! First I'd heard of your platform. Onboarding was quick and painless. Late to the party, but here I am: https://buymeacoff.ee/tygerbytes
Two questions:
1. I'm not clear how exactly do I send (or give access to) bonus content to my supporters?
2. Do you plan to add "podcasts" as a category? And how do I select the category in the first place?
2. You are free to type in the category in the 'What do you do?' section.
Many podcasters are already using BMC, and we will soon feature the category on our explore page.
Finally, thanks for trying us out. Please choose a payout method to make your page public.
Great offer on waiving off the fee. I'm a privacy nut, and though I realize you're doing this for publicity (at least on Twitter), I would prefer a method that's directly done on your platform. Perhaps something like a code or something that one could enter in the bio or elsewhere would be nice.
I actually came across your service a little while ago and figured that it had already been around for a long time, surprised that it is actually quite new. Best of luck and thanks!
https://buymeacoff.ee/ayng
This looks nice! How does your product compare with Patreon? (edit:) The difference I notice about it is that this looks a lot less demanding than Patreon. A lot more laissez faire if you will.
Patreon works best for creators with a huge loyal following, those who are most likely to pledge a monthly donation. Small creators find it difficult to raise any money at all from Patreon.
I think it's a decent idea to provide fans with an option of quick one-time payment since many do not like the idea of going through the long process of signing up and paying monthly.
Will keep it in reserve, I have some personal projects in the pipeline who could go over the free tiers of some cloud service providers. Perhaps the users want help me with that.
This post literally came at the right time for me as I was just looking into options for this exact functionality for my side project. Excited to give it a whirl.
Exclusive content = texts, links, and video embed for now. We're not hosting anything ATM. File upload is on our roadmap, but creators seem to be pretty satisfied with the current set up :)
BTW welcome to BuyMeACoffee! Happy to buy your first coffee.
You're welcome, @huuyngo. Welcome to BuyMeACoffee!
I just bought your first coffee and waived the platform fee associated with your account. Thanks for trying us out.
That's a neat idea, Greyson. Currently, supporters can quickly click one of those preset counts (1, 3, 5) to buy more coffees and it seems to be working really well. More than half of the donations are more than one coffee.
However, I have a few pointers. During the onboarding flow, I had to fill out the title, description, image / videos. It would be nice to see a layout of how the page would look like so I can determine how these information would be presented to the public and then fill it out according (how much to write, what to write, etc.)
In the description, adding url links felt a little clunky. It seems that only single words could be linked, whereas the expected experience is to be able to link multiple words at once.
Looking at my created page, I could publish updates. This was a pleasant surprise because I came in expecting a static page. Do you see non-profits as a target audience?
Welcome to BuyMeACoffee, @songsze. Good to see that you already started receiving coffees :)
- Thanks for the suggestion. Our intention is to make the onboarding process as straightforward as possible and we will look into this. That hyperlink issue could be a glitch. I've added to our Trello. Thanks for noticing.
- Glad you liked the updates features. Tip: You can publish exclusive content for your supporters, that's only visible to them after buying you a coffee.
- Yes, very much. Several non-profits are already using BuyMeACoffee to raise money. One such is called LittleHandsBigHearts, a small group of people passionate about helping those less fortunate than ourselves on the Island of Bali: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/v4J21UB
Just want to say that giving many examples of users of your site with links as replies is a genius way to show off your existing customers. It doesn't feel like spam, more like examples with proof. Good luck!
passed a coffee your way. Was thinking about setting up a similar thing up here in the Portland area but just haven't had time. Glad someone is out there doing it though!
I like the site, I appreciate that it's straight-forward and simple, as it should be. A lot of Show HN's come out of the gate getting that wrong.
I found this section in the FAQ confusing, about what BMC charges:
"BuyMeACoffee is 100% free and do not charge a monthly fee or a percentage of the donation. We plan to charge a 5% platform fee in the future to support future development and expansion. So when a creator receives $100 from supporters, BMC will earn a $5 platform fee. However, rest assured that all our existing users (like you) won’t be charged, ever."
100% free. We plan to charge a 5% platform fee (what the hell is a platform fee). All our existing users won't be charged, ever.
What? That's an extremely poorly structured explanation on something that absolutely must be crystal clear (given it's core to what you're doing).
That FAQ section was recently updated to make more clarity on the subject (the irony!). I'll definitely bring this up in the next brainstorming session and improve it.
To clarify, platform fee is the small cut platforms take for providing the service (such as Patreon's 5% cut). BuyMeACoffee is 100% free for all its early users, and forever will be.
Is the donor charged a different amount based on whether they pay through Stripe or Paypal?
If I go to donate $5 at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/xn, it looks like I'll be $5 if I pay through Stripe with a credit card, and $5.45 if I pay using PayPal:
Yes, we are similar in branding :) Ko-fi is a good old product! Here's what we do differently: Multiple payout option (Paypal and Stripe), Exclusive content (gift your supporters with exclusive rewards to encourage more donations), official Wordpress plugin, customizable coffee amount ($3, $4 or $5) and much more.
1. "Create your button" seems to have a problem. When I click "Copy HTML Code" or "Copy Image Code" text changes to Copied! but actually doesn't copy anything to clipboard. Windows 10, Firefox 55, uBlock Origin. I also tried without uBlock and it's the same. I think it would be better that the code is actually shown on the form (because I can copy paste it manually then).
2. Edit page, picture choosing - I've chosen a picture which looked OK but after clicking "Save changes" the picture's width/height ratio is changed (it was streched horizontally). So I had to manually resize it in Paint.NET and then upload again. It'd be helpful if some info is added that the picture should have equal height and width.
3. During signup, after presenting the choice of Stripe and PayPal I was confused. My thought process: why I need to choose between Stripe and PayPal? Would you just generate Buy Now button? Will I have to open Stripe account? If somebody wants to donate will he have to have PayPal/Stripe also? At the end I've chosen PayPal. It seems to me this step can be skipped completely and be done after the first donation is received.
Thanks for taking time to write such comprehensive feedback!
1. We were unable to replicate this, but there's the possibility for a compatibility issue. Thanks for noticing.
2. You're right; it can be improved. Noted.
3. I think improving the copy on that page will go a long way in solving the confusion. Currently, it is required for creators to choose a payout method to make the page public. We are using Stripe Connect to facilitate instant payments for creators who select Stripe.
So let's say a user did not choose a payout method and started receiving coffees. After receiving a coffee or two, he wanted to use Stripe connect. In this case, we will have to manually pay out his donations thus far before connecting his account to Stripe (and what if it's less than the Paypal minimum threshold of $10?).
For a platform that's trying to keep things simple and straightforward, that'd be a whole lot of complications and manual work :) However, I understand that this is not reason enough to ignore a critical UX concern. We'll try our best to come up with something that's efficient and straightforward.
The way I understand your profit model is that you are, essentially, trying to undercut the competition by operating at a loss until the amount of clients you have surpasses some undisclosed number (or your initial capital runs low?), at which point new customers will have to pay the market rate for your service, and your initial customers still don't pay anything?
If you make it far enough to start charging for your services, what incentive do you have to give the initial customers the same level of service as the paying ones?
I hope you understand I'm just expressing a healthy level of skepticism, not trying to degrade what looks like an awesome service.
Very good question, @kqr. Unlike our competitors, BuyMeACoffee is catering to small and big creators alike. Even if we waive the platform fee for the first 100k creators, there is still room for us to make money as there are millions of creators online. By making the entry barrier low, we are hoping to attract the maximum number of creators and initiate a network effect. 90% of our existing users are referred by other creators, directly or from their promotions :)
I probably don't understand quite what you are getting at. If you bear with me, I have an easier time with concrete examples: if I sign up now, and in two years' time, Steve signed up as part of the post-critical mass. So I bring in $0 to you while using your infrastructure, and Steve is also a smallish creator using the infrastructure just as much as me, but bringing in, say, $8 per month, on average.
If Steve and I both have trouble, it would make business to prioritise helping Steve, in order to be able to afford helping me, but I'd still be a second-tier user.
Thanks for taking time to explain your point. I understand what you mean.
As a consumer product marketed towards masses, it is highly improbable that there will ever occur an event when we have to prioritize one type of users over another.
Also, it is wrong to think that creators who we don't charge a platform fee are not valuable to us. Like I mentioned in my previous comment, BuyMeACoffee has an innate virality where each creator who shares his BMC link attract more creators to join the platform, making all our users more or less equally valuable. Does that make sense? I hope this answers your question.
Thank you for the response. The reason I'm insistent is that I've been looking for something just like BuyMeACoff.ee, and when things show up and appear perfect at no or nearly no cost I get suspicious! But looks like you have a good thing going. :)
If anyone is interested, I just made a simple, free donation platform for Stellar Lumens (XLM) cryptocurrency. No registration required and anonymous since it reads directly from the blockchain for the data.
Is there any reason why you choose XLM over other cryptocurrencies or why is it restricted to only XLM? As far as I can see the site just makes it easier for a person to share their public key.
Oh nice, thanks for that! html5up.net is great indeed, I've used them in the past, though I didn't realize this theme was by them. Good job integrating it well!
I'm a musician who gives their work away for free. I'm intrigued by this. I don't make a living off my music, but I have a small following that supports me in small ways (5 bucks here, 10 bucks there).
Can you tell me what the difference is between using this and say, using a paypal donation button? If I use your product, aren't I being charged twice, since you take a cut, and so does paypal / stripe?
1. Some reasons to switch from PayPal a) Supporter rewards (gift them exclusive content), b) Much friendly way to ask for support than sharing a Paypal.me link or donate button (which also means higher conversion). c) Multiple payment options (Stripe, Paypal and very soon - cryptocurrencies) d) Showcase your goals and the comments left by other supporters.
2. BuyMeACoffee is 100% free for all early users. Of course, the standard credit-card processing fee will be charged, but no other cut is involved.
Please drop your BMC link and I'd love to buy your first coffee :)
This looks really cool. Really enjoying the branding.
If anyone is looking for an even simpler way to accept donations I've created a donation platform where you only need a Stripe account to get started. Check it out if you're interested: https://stripity.com
Starbucks used to have something call "Tweet a Coffee" where you could tweet a coffee to someone, and Starbucks would tweet them a link to a gift card where they could redeem it.
I used it a lot to replace cold emailing and it did lead to a lot of serendipitous online conversations with decision makers. Starbucks have since removed this feature, so I now just email random people Amazon gift cards instead, hoping they'll respond (which they do, with a very good response rate!)
However, for my use case, I would never use this because A) this isn't that serendipitous/random B) There's really no way for me to send a custom message with my email address so I can start a conversation with them, is there?
Having had Buy Me A Coffee promeniently featured on two websites and a newsletter I never had anyone actually contribute a penny. YMMV of course but with a quarter of a million page views you'd think people would have contributed at least once.
I tried to buy you a coffee, went through Stripe checkout process, got a green check, saw a $1.00 Buymeacoffee charge show up on my iPhone via push notification, and then hit an error message;
“We were unable to process your payment right now !
If you encounter this message more than once, please contact support for further assistance
Or you can try again“
Went through the whole process again with the same card, didn’t work. Same error.
Went through the whole process again with a different card. Still didn’t work. Same non-descript error.
So your account in particular may be blacklisted or broken for some reason :-(
I have a Patreon account where I get paid via Stripe, but I don't believe I ever properly set up a separate Stripe account. I filled out the Stripe connect form and now I am worried that Stripe will have a problem with paying me if there are any inconsistencies between Patreon info and what I just gave Stripe to fill this out, such as different email addresses with the same bank account.
I don't know that there is anything you can do about it. It is just an FYI.
It should be fine as long as the Stripe connection is successful. Please try logging in to your Stripe account and see if everything is fine - we just bought you a coffee :)
Jokes aside, I think this is kinda neat. Platforms like this are becoming more and more necessary for a segment of the population. I have been considering taking up a blog or other writing endeavor, but beyond building an audience, paying to keep a domain or hosting can also be an issue.
Anyway, I am sure you've heard that before. I will likely be a user, and will provide more feedback once I have used it for its intended purpose (it might be awhile).
I do have a question about your policy on "any creator" though. I know a few people that had a bad experience with Patreon/other similar sites because they produced adult content. I do not work in this space, but my understanding has been that this is a pain point for many self-employed content creators.
Anecdotally, I have heard from more than one person that systems like this help protect people (disproportionately women) from exploitation in this industry, by giving one autonomy over their finances without having to contract with a studio or whatnot.
So, is this an issue that has been adressed in designing this platform?
(I know this looks like the ultimate "JUST ASKING FOR A FRIEND!!" post, but I am not in that business, not that anyone should feel ashamed to be.)
UX edge case for you: I use f.lux which turns makes my laptop screen appear red at night. It makes the $ amount barely visible on the buy buttons. It took me a lot of clicking around to realize that it was even there. I was trying to figure out what the $ amount was for a cup of coffee and surprised that it (seemingly) wasn't listed anywhere! Checkout what it looks like on iOS night shift which has a larger user base.
I would strongly recommend investing effort in the Search function though. It’s extremely unresponsive: I literally can’t type a full word without it “losing” characters due to background processing. Probably it should wait at least a second before attempting to retrieve any results (assuming I even want instant results, which frankly I do not; a “Start Searching” button would be just fine).
Also, it isn’t really clear how search categories work, since there are no drop-down menus in a profile to select a category. In the text field beneath your name that describes what you “do”, are you expected to type the name of a category verbatim to match that category? And if your description doesn’t match any of the categories, does that mean you can’t be “found”?
Finally, I find the site very “large” on the desktop; I can see almost nothing without scrolling around. I know a lot of sites have this issue these days but it’d be really nice if you could just fit the minimal content on one screen.
Love how slick everything is. Although couple things:
- Register page just hung with the spinning icon. Got the activation email but not sure what happened on registration. Guessing it errored. I have adblock so maybe theres something there?
- Would be nice to change the amount down to just a buck (hey I'm a cheap date).
- Would also be nice to change coffee to something else, as in my case I love tacos ;)
- When donating, how are you tracking if I've already donated to someone to show updates? If I don't have an account Im just guessing its cookie based and I'd have to give again if it goes away?
Really love just how fast and low friction everything is though.
- Weird. Shared with the team. We'll look into this right away.
- It's the second time we're hearing this today, and we'll definitely consider this. Thanks for the tip!
- You're right. You can do it with the buttons though (custom text, font, color, etc.). It's pretty cool :)
- Yes, it's cookie-based if the supporter is not logged in. However, we do our best to message properly and redirect them to the exclusive content to avoid any confusion.
Got that one too. Endless-spinners are one the most annoying stuff in the web. Please check for responses. I got a 403 (checked the network debug tag), probably session/csrf-token timeout...
Thank you for the kind words, Sen! You cannot follow artists at the moment, but this something on our roadmap (along with many other community features) and we'll be sure to give it a high priority.
BTW please choose a payout method so that I can buy your first coffee :)
Love this idea and the execution is great. Two things you've probably been told already:
- No emoji support?? I mean, HN doesn't like them either but still...
- The link dialog is all messed up, trying to apply URL rules to the actual text being linked.
Looks great! One more piece of feedback, I got an obscure error trying to update page settings (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/page-settings) after having left it open while I went to lunch - presumably something timed out. Reloading and saving worked fine. Error in the console was home/update_page_settings Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 403 ()
> We plan to charge a 5% platform fee in the future to support future development and expansion. So when a creator receives $100 from supporters, BMC will earn a $5 platform fee.
I read a great argument on a HN comment about how a percentage fee looks inappropriate and very expensive when implemented without a cap or ceiling. [1] I'd recommend that this factor be considered and there be a cap or ceiling set on the platform fee.
My only concern is when I linked my Stripe account it says "buy me a coffee will have access to your data" - no, I assume it doesn't have full access to ALL the stripe data, so that could be clarified.
Or at least make it clear that you cant empty my Stripe account :)
Haha, rest assured we don't have enough access to empty your Stripe account :) It is the permission required to make Stripe Connect work, and we don't store any more data than what's needed.
Welcome to BuyMeACoffee, and enjoy your first coffee on the house!
Thanks for clearing that up, and cheers for the coffee!
One more suggestion - in 'Create your button' you have HTML or Image options, but it would nice to have a simple github integration for Markdown or RTF (like the other badges). Any plans for this?
I had been looking for such a product since a long time and had thought of building it once as well. A week or two back I came across BMAC on PH and it looked really promising so I signed up and got an anon donation of $3 (possibly from the founder or team). Will definitely use it in my side project.
Nice! very easy on-boarding/signup flow. The only hiccup I had was on the first screen for signup, the Facebook panel is so prominent (while the email signup is far less so) that I thought the only sign-up option was to use a Facebook account... almost closed the tab and moved on.
A question that immediately popped up in my mind was "how is this different from Patreon?". Searching here, I'm clearly not the only person to ask this, and the answer you gave seems to be "this is for one-time payments rather than recurring payments".
It might be worth writing this or conveying this in some way explicitly, since this seems to be your big selling point.
The differentiator b/w Patreon is more than the one-time donation factor. For one, BuyMeACoffee is geared towards creators of all sizes while Patreon works best for large creators. For one, creators require a Stripe account to use Patreon, which already limits it to the only 25 stripe-supported countries.
Secondly, small creators with a passive audience find it hard to get monthly pledges from their supporters. BuyMeACoffee converts best in this case as it's quick, straightforward and requires no sign-up to support a creator.
We like to think of BMC as complementary to Patreon than an alternative. We often see creators using BuyMeACoffee alongside Patreon to fulfill the quick one-time donation needs.
Congratulations on your launch, this familiar tipping model warms my heart as a musician who occasionally busks in NYC subways.
I'd love to see a "Music" category as well as support for recurring donations.
You advertise that it's free, but do Stripe and Paypal's fees get added on on the buyer's side or the receiver's side? Seems unclear. (During checkout is a $5 donation billed as $5 + whatever percent to the donor?)
@josephsunny I'm curious how the money works out after Paypal/stripe get their cut. From what I've seen transactions run around 3% + $0.30. Operating in small amounts seems like the fees would sink any such effort. Have you found something that works to handle small payments without getting killed on fees for each transaction?
You're right, credit card processing fee can add up to a considerable amount while processing micropayments, and this was one of our biggest concerns when we started working on this. However, contrary to what we thought, more than half the payments processed are for more than one coffee.
BTW we're currently passing on the card processing fee to supporters.
I love this, I'm actually working on something very similar (accepting donations via Stripe/PayPal, but for a completely different niche), and someone (@czue) pointed me to buymeacoffee for inspiration. There are a few weird little niggles with the UI, but otherwise it's very slick.
What is the backend? Sadly WhatRuns can't identify it.
Slight nitpick but feels relevant: for sites like this, having an about page that doesn't tell you anything about who is behind the site is a miss. Instead of who brought you this, it says, "Join the BuyMeACoffee community". Anonymity is wrong here. Doesn't feel very ... community-esque.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/adambaxter - looks good, although I'd appreciate a dark stylesheet (although it may just be the monitor I'm using at the moment
If you want a free, fast, and not so beautiful way to accept a fixed amount with a Stripe account, here's a simple application with a Deploy to Heroku button:
https://github.com/cwarden/pay
Like the design and approach, but what differentiates this from other methods? A Patreon account, PayPal donate button, and public Bitcoin address accomplishes all of the same thing.
Is it the community? The ease of setup? Don't get me wrong, the site is polished and the idea cute, but... for what purpose?
BuyMeACoffee is a place to ask for quick one-time donations - supporters can donate and leave a comment in less than a few clicks. Patreon is for monthly pledging and does not usually work for small creators.
We have seen creators use BuyMeACoffee alongside Patreon links, and we think it is a great idea to attract both loyal and casual supporters.
Compared to Paypal, BuyMeACoffee is a much friendly and efficient way to accept donations. Multiple payment options, exclusive rewards for supporters, ability to leave a comment with donations.. the list goes on. I hope this clarifies :)
What happens when Patreon implements this on their platform though? If its as simple a premise as you make out, what's stopping your competition from encroaching on your share of the market?
Patreon has placed itself as a 'membership business' as we can see from their copy. The reason why Patreon did not implement this already, is that it'll affect their recurring model. If supporters find out that there's an easy and straightforward way to support, they are less likely to sign up and opt for monthly recurring donations (except for exclusive content).
Also, nothing is stopping us from enabling recurring payments :) We believe it's best to focus on solving an important problem than be the jack of all trades. Hope that makes sense!
We did have an issue with our email service provider (SendInBlue) during the HN launch day. Please try again; and let us know if the issue persists: hello@buymeacoffee.com, @TheBuyMeACoffee.
Hahaha. Just last week I was telling my wife I should make a "buy me a coffee" site to learn how to integrate with Stripe and other payment platforms, pad my resume, have a few lulz, and maybe even get a coffee.
And... There's already a SaaS for that. Well done.
How does this differ or compete with platforms such as patreon? Also I signed up and it defaulted to Artist, I feel like major category type should be chosen during onboarding. Also, sign in with Google should be a thing I think.
Thanks for the suggestions, @viperscape. Here's how we differ from Patreon:
1. For one-time payment needs. Only your most loyal followers are likely to go through a sign-up process to pledge a monthly payment. Buy Me A Coffee accepts payments in less a minute, without no commitments or friction.
2. Showcase your goals, and comments left by other supporters.
3. Shareable link, and a much friendly solicitation for support.
4. Multiple payment options. We currently support Paypal, Stripe (Patreon use this) and very soon - Cryptocurrencies too.
Looks nice and simple, I like the graphical style. Unfortunately I cannot try it out as putting the link on my site would be illegal in my country (Finland). Here's hoping we get more sensible laws in the future. :/
It's against the money collection laws. Basically you have to have a permit to collect donations. That permit costs money itself and has some bureaucracy to it. It's also limited in time so you have to get a new permit after it expires.
The only way to get a donation without the permit is if someone proactively asks you how they can give money to you and then you can tell them your bank account number or PayPal or whatever.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, the permits are only given to associations and such, not private persons. And even then the processing time for the permit request is 5 to 6 months.
Not just on the terms page. Text contrast is way too low all over the place. I understand wanting to use lower contrast to control where the eye goes first, but please don't make your text so hard to read.
I doubt it, as they will be enforced by Stripe / PayPal on the payout end.
The laws regulate once you hit certain thresholds, like $100-$500 but it's aggregate not individual contributions (and this service is geared toward more mass market crowd funding).
We'd like to support multiple cryptocurrencies in a simple, secure and straightforward way. We're looking at CoinBase Commerce and alternatives for this.
We have a lot of users from India, and they use Paypal to receive payments :) Please shoot us an email if you need help with anything - hello [at] buymeacoffee.com
1. For one-time payment needs. Only your most loyal followers are likely to go through a sign-up process to pledge a monthly payment. Buy Me A Coffee accepts payments in less a minute, without no commitments or friction.
2. Showcase your goals, and comments left by other supporters.
3. Shareable link, and a much friendly solicitation for support.
4. Multiple payment options. We currently support Paypal, Stripe (Patreon use this) and very soon - Cryptocurrencies too.
This is a popular request. It was deliberate not to offer multiple currency support. We believe having a unified payment flow will go a long way in improving conversions. Higher conversions = happy creators :)
However, we're currently looking into paying creators in their currencies, which will solve half the problem (+ a lot more payment options like Apple Pay, Android Pay, Bitcoin, etc.)
So why not offer £ as the default currency for all users?
Because you realise that currency conversion is a hassle for your (primarily USA-based) users.
Well, guess what! It's a hassle for the majority of the world who don't use the greenback. I don't intuitively know what today's exchange rate is. I suspect you don't either.
Ideally, you'd geo-detect the user and offer them a currency suitable to their location. If that's not possible, let creators choose their own currency.
If you think I'm making a fuss over nothing, listen to some UK based podcasts. They all end with the hosts asking for a Patreon contribution - and then apologising that it's only available in dollars.
1. During sign up, I'm super confused why you have to set up anything related to payout before setting up your coffee page -- this is inverted to the way it should be. Get them the page as soon as possible and let them share and accept donations, then IF (big if, I bet the median amount raised is $0) they have a literal financial incentive to set up their friction-filled payout form process. If you're too worried about things going viral, then set a limit (e.g., if after $600 raised they don't have payout set up, e-mail them saying the page will stop being public until they set up payout).
2. You should curate your "creators we love" page. I hit explore and found a softcore instagram BDSM model as the first hit, and a page with a lot of comments about foot fetishes. Probably not the content you want to call out as one of the companies favorites. I would actually look at all the ones you rotate on that page and make sure they are on brand.
There are some tactical things (eg, the dropdown for country should have USA at the top, assuming thats where most of your users are) but those micro optimizations won't matter if you just re-arrange the info gathering to after the delivery of value.
#1 is will going to totally change your funnel in an important way -- I'd try it out!
Good luck!