How to Sell Digital Products in Ko-fi Using Shop Feature

I started writing online 4 years ago, and I never thought I would say this: 

This was my best decision back then.

Writing was not my passion — yes, I always say this.

But now, it is helping me pay my bills and earn extra money.

It is helping me, as a student, buy essential things I need while studying, as well as some leisure and material items.

If you are just starting and don’t know how to monetize your writing, you can start by joining Ko-fi.

It’s a platform that helps content creators receive payments or donations from their audience.

I have a Ko-fi profile, and I always include it in the footer of my posts. It helps when your audience wants to support you, even with small contributions.

There are a lot of things you can do on this platform:

1. Use it as a third-party service to receive tips.
2. Start your shop.
3. Accept commissions.

Although this is not a passive income stream, it still adds up over time, especially if you build a fan base and want to increase your income.

One thing that helped me was starting my own digital shop.

I create digital products, such as e-books, which I can sell to my readers.

For example, I started writing an e-book titled How to Write and Earn on Hive years ago. 

I initially gave it away for FREE. 

After editing it, I decided to monetize it by asking my readers to “pay what you want,” with a minimum of $1.

This is one thing I love about Ko-fi: It is user-friendly and customizable.

You can always personalize your profile based on your preferences.

Take a look at my profile: https://ko-fi.com/laurenceuuu

When you start selling digital products, you can set a minimum price instead of a fixed one. This allows readers to value your work as they see fit.

For example, I set $1 as the minimum price for my e-book about Hive. One of my Medium readers actually paid for it.

Yesterday, I received an email from Ko-fi notifying me of a sale.

I thought it wouldn’t work, but it is working! I sold an item.

I made my shop years ago and I realized that it is not updated yet — I will update this as soon as possible to give the buyers the 100% advantage of it.

I promised my readers that I would keep my e-book updated and send them the updated versions for FREE.

So, if you are not on Hive, you can always buy my e-book for as low as $1.00 and start earning from Hive (my account now has a value of more than $1,000).

Is It Time To Ditch Medium? — Here’s the Alternative
After writing for years, my account now has more than $1,000 in value from this platform.medium.com

Going back, what I love about Ko-fi is that it is fee-less.

This means they don’t take any fees from your donations or the money you receive. You get the full amount from your fans.

Take note that you have to pay a 5% fee for its features like shop and commissions. Read more about it here.

However, PayPal does take a fee, which is significant in my opinion, and it sucks. From my $1.00 sale, I only got $0.61 because of the PayPal fee.

I’m staying with Ko-fi and will look for ways to reduce the fees (if possible).

If you know a solution, feel free to comment 🙂