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We recently launched the Fewcents Tipjar and it has already started to see traction among publishers and content creators. First, let’s set the context on how we got thinking about Fewcents Tipjar. When we spoke to publishers aspiring to institute a paywall, de-facto synonym for subscriptions, we sensed a lot of anxiety. We heard things like, “We don’t know which content people would be willing to pay for!” or “We are worried about our site traffic dropping and cannibalising advertising revenue” or “We are not sure how our audience will react to a paywall” and a few other objections.
To address these concerns, we built the Fewcents Tipjar. Moreover, voluntary contributions to support quality journalism has started to gain public acceptance. Here are some proof points:
- Community platforms like OnlyFans, Twitter (Tipjar), Instagram (Badges), Facebook (Stars), YouTube (Super Thanks), etc. have significant momentum going for voluntary contributions.
- “Tipping the creators — their digital friends — is one way for fans to unleash their buying power,” said Hugo Amsellem, writer and researcher of Arm the Creators, a blog on the creator economy
- For the year 2020-2021, The Guardian, one of the first few news publishers to introduce donations, had 585,000 one-time contributions.
Introducing the Fewcents Tipjar
Fewcents Tipjar is a plug-and-play solution that enables global audiences to make voluntary contributions and show their appreciation for quality content produced by publishers or independent content creators.
It is an ideal solution for publishers who rely on indirect revenue such as ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, events, e-commerce, etc, as well as those that are starting to consider reader revenue.
For an ads-led publisher, Fewcents Tipjar helps generate incremental revenue without impacting page views or ads revenue. There is nothing to lose by implementing the Fewcents Tipjar. Any income will only be incremental.
For publishers thinking about starting reader revenue, Fewcents Tipjar helps de-risk your reader revenue journey by enabling you to identify content that your audience values, without any impact on your website traffic. Evaluating if your editorial team is equipped to produce a steady stream of such content is probably the first step for sustainable reader revenue.
For community platforms that crowdsourced content, the Fewcents Tipjar is a great way to drive social recognition for your creators. Resurfacing contributions activity to your global audience is a great way to build brand awareness for your creators and attract quality creators to your platform. Tempo.co Executive Editor, Anton Septian, says, “This new feature on Indonesiana was presented to appreciate the writers on the channel. Every article is the fruit of the author's thoughts. Of course, apart from spreading ideas, their writing should be able to provide material benefits for writers. That's why we facilitate it by collaborating with Fewcents to monetize content.”
Of course, it goes without saying that individual content creators can experience all of the above benefits as well - incremental revenue without sacrificing page views or ads revenue; building social recognition and a community of supporters; identifying content that your audience values.
Frictionless Implementation and User Experience
At Fewcents, we build for publishers and creators with constrained resources in technology. Plug-and-play is engrained in our gene pool. For example, Tech Pilipinas, a Philippines-based technology blogger implemented the Fewcents Tipjar in just under 45 minutes over a Zoom call.
As a product-focused company, we spend sleepless nights thinking about the audience experience. We built Fewcents as the users’ local currency wallet for global media contributions and payments. Local pricing, social login, simple checkout with local payment methods, and one account across multiple publishers - these are some of the features we feel are table stakes for casual and voluntary payments at a global scale.
If this has piqued your interest, feel free to get in touch with us to understand how Fewcents Tipjar can help you. If you’ve been seriously considering reader revenue or even just incremental revenue and social recognition for your creators, feel free to write in.
