There are multiple ways to earn money with blogs. You can sell stuff, you can use affiliate links, or simple monetize your blog using ads. All of these ways are fine of course, but since a couple of years, there is an additional way of receiving a little additional money - tips.
In this article, I will describe a way on how you can receive tips from your loyal readers, without explicitly asking for it, using the Brave browser.
What is Brave?
First of, let’s talk about what Brave even is!
In short, Brave is a browser that is based on Chromium. According to its own website, it can boast the following statistics.
Three times faster than Chrome. Better privacy by default than Firefox. Uses 35% less battery on mobile.
It’s definitely something to take serious. The creator of Brave and BAT is not just anyone, but the creator of JavaScript.
Moreover, it has some pretty interesting features by default.
Automatic ad-block and tracking disabled
I understand that many bloggers are making a huge chunk of their revenue with ads, and would rather not have their readers using them. I may even write an article in the future on how to add some ads to Gatsby sites. However, as a user, I agree that ads really are a nuisance, and especially younger generations all use ad-blockers. Honestly, it’s the first extension I install to any browser…
Brave has understood this problem, and has just disabled ads. There is an ad feature that can be enabled, but more on that later.
Similarly, they have disabled tracking by default. While this may sometimes result in features such as SSO (single sign-on) not working, it gives them a huge performance boost.
Privacy taken to a new level
Aside from trackers being disabled, Brave protects your privacy even further, if you so wish. It doesn’t just come with a private mode (every browser has this by now), but it even features a private browser with tor. Tor is very complex, but in short, it provides additional anonymity by directing traffic through an overlay network, hence hiding your activity even from your ISP.
Also, per default, the search engine used is not Google, but DuckDuckGo, which will never track your activity.
Now, Tor might make your connections a bit slower, and DuckDuckGo will not give you as personalized results, so it may not be for everyone or every activity, but it’s pretty sweet that Brave offers all of these features out of the box.
Earn money with ads
Right. I see how this may be confusing. Just two paragraphs ago, I raved about how awesome it is to not have ads, and now I say that their ads are great…
It’s different with Brave however!
Brave is a browser that understands that your time is precious. As such, if you choose to see ads, it will reward you for it. The reward you receive with be in the form of BAT (Basic Attention Token), which is a cryptocurrency that resides on a blockchain. You can track its price here.
What users do with their BAT is entirely up to them. They can hodl 😉, they can sell on exchanges, or they can also tip content creators they enjoy, be that on Youtube, Twitter, or just an application or a blog. Of course, this is what you, as a content creator, would like the most.
How to enable tips
In order to enable your blog to receive tips, you need to register yourself to become a content creator. You yourself do not need to use Brave, you only need some readers to do so, and sign up your site. You can become a creator here.
After entering your email address, you will receive an email from the Brave team, which you need to confirm. This will lead you to a page where you need to enter some basic information about yourself, as depicted below. Notice the cool collage of features from the Brave browser, such as the DuckDuckGo duck or the Tor onion.
Next, you can choose to set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). You can of course skip this, but I highly recommend it. Also, if this is your first experience with something cryptocurrency related, but are thinking about doing more in that space, you better get used to seeing the Google Authenticator App - it’s used everywhere.
There you are, you are now a content creator! Congratulations!
As the image suggests though, there are two more steps required for you to earn money with your creations.
Add websites (or channels)
In order to add your blog, you just click on the Add Channel button. This will give you the selection of items that you can receive tips for. I was very surprised to notice the variety! I made this article to show how you can become a creator with a website, but I will definitely add my GitHub account to it also. I am not expecting a big payout (or even anything for that matter, but it cannot hurt to try).
After clicking on the website option and providing the URL for it, you need to provide proof that you are in fact the creator of that website.
Now you can either choose the trusted file setup, or the DNS record way. Since I do have access to my DNS records, and this setup is even easier (I think) if you’re hosted on Netlify (which you are, if you’ve been following the blog), I will do the DNS way.
Here’s what you need to do on Netlify:
- Go to domains > ${yourDomain}
- Add new record under DNS records
- Choose
TXTas type, and enter the value that Brave provides - Save
-
(Optional) On the Brave setup page, press the Verify button, to confirm that everything was done correctly. Bear in mind that this may take some time to complete, but for me, it was done in mere seconds.
Let's hope the earning number goes up in the future!
If we now go back to the site, we can verify that we could give tips to our page.
Just for good measure, I have also added my GitHub account. This was even easier - just choose GitHub, log in, and you’re all set!
Connect wallet
Next, you need to make sure that the tips you receive actually get to you. Since I have already been using Brave, and have already received some rewards for the ads that I’ve given my attention to, I already have an Uphold account. In order to connect to it, I simply need to click the Connect to Uphold button, authorize the application, and I’m all done! If you happen to not yet have an Uphold account, it is very easy to set up, and can be done here.
You can also connect to a Gemini account. I do not have one, so I cannot speak for it. I would however assume it’s not too complicated either. Seeing as Gemini is a full exchange however, and not just a wallet, some more stringent KYC rules may apply.
After connecting your wallet, you can choose which currency you’d like to be paid in. I like that you can get your rewards in different currencies without needing to convert BAT yourself. The selection of currencies is huge, also (using Uphold here)! You can choose to get your rewards in the big cryptos, such as BTC(Bitcoin), ETH(Ether) or LTC(Litecoin), or some lesser known, such as XEM(NEM). You can also choose stablecoins such as USDT or even fiat currencies like EUR.
Interestingly though, you can even choose to be paid in stocks, such as AAPL(Apple), BABA(Alibaba), etc! Imagine receiving some small amounts of Facebook stock for your content. You must appreciate the irony of receiving stock of a company that makes almost its entire revenue of ads from people who chose not to watch ads.
Me, personally, I chose to just use BAT, since I love cryptos and I want to support the Brave ecosystem. I do love the options though! Also, by receiving payouts in BAT, I avoid the conversion fee…
Final words
Well, there you have it - an easy way of generating a bit of potential income. I wish you the best of luck, and that your content may inspire your readers enough, so you deserve plenty of tips!