– 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.
We have seen the platform used in ways we never imagined. William LeGate, an activist (boycottNRA) used BuyMeACoffee just yesterday to raise $2500 in less than an hour: https://twitter.com/williamlegate/status/968630079285686273
Check out some 'Buy Me A Coffee' pages:
https://buymeacoff.ee/kriswolf
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joqatana
FEATURES:
- Exclusive content: Publish supporter-only content on your BuyMeACoffee page to encourage more donations.
– Multiple payment/payout options: Paypal and Stripe (direct bank transfer).
– One-click payment for supporters.
– Showcase your goals and comments left by other supporters.
– Beautiful (and customizable) 'Buy me a coffee' button to embed on websites + Wordpress plugin with widgets and stats (https://wordpress.org/plugins/buymeacoffee/).
– 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.
Let us know what you think :) Cheers!