“Donate to my Patreon.”
“Give me money via my Ko-Fi.”
“Support my writing by…”
The worst one: “Buy me a coffee.”
This is begging.

It’s just dumb. It sounds dumb.

readers don’t give a crap about you.

You know what a reader is thinking?
“What the heck is in it for me?”

Instead of asking for money you have to show them value. Then you have to stack that value, put it into a list, and whack a price tag on it.

If you spend 4 minutes reading an article from me, you’ll notice I don’t instantly ask you for money. That’s one-night stand behavior.

If you’re desperate to pay bills it makes more sense to get a job or upgrade to a higher-paying job, than it does to destroy all the goodwill you’ve built by trying to grab fast cash from someone’s back pocket while accidentally touching their private parts.

if relying on kindness doesn’t work for professional beggars, why would it work for writers? It doesn’t. Sorry to tell you.

Show value.

People don’t love to pay for donations or useless coffees. They do pay for books, and premium newsletters though (ones with research, curation of content, personality, personal experience, and stuff you can’t google).

Only use one link in your CTA, otherwise your conversion rate decreases.

Think to yourself: what’s the most crucial ask I can make? Then make it.

Don’t beg readers for money directly in your articles. It sounds desperate and like you’re trying to prostitute yourself.