The America.co guide
How to make money from your page.
One link in every bio. A few buttons that pay. Here is exactly what to turn on, in what order, and what each one costs you.
America.co takes 0%. The buttons on your page link straight to your own Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Stripe or Patreon. Money never passes through us, so nothing here is a fee we charge — every number below is what the payment company keeps. Prices verified September 2026; they change, so check the linked pages before you rely on one.
1 · The plumbing (do this today, ten minutes)
Open the editor, tab Get paid. Fill in what you already have. A good default for almost everyone in the US:
AVenmo + Cash App. Zero fee when sent as personal, and most Americans already have one of them. Two taps from a phone to your bank.
BOne Stripe Payment Link. It's the button for people who have neither app, it takes Apple Pay and Google Pay in one tap, and it's the only one here that lets you set a price. Create it at dashboard.stripe.com/payment-links — pick "customer chooses what to pay" for a tip jar, or a fixed price for a product. Paste the buy.stripe.com/… link in the editor. Stripe needs an account with your bank details and tax ID; that's a one-time thing you have to do yourself.
CSkip Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-fi unless you want the "coffee" framing. Ko-fi is 0% on one-time tips, so if you want that vibe, use Ko-fi and link it as a normal button.
Fee table — what each platform keeps
| Platform | They keep | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Venmo (personal) | 0% on friends & family · 1.9% + $0.10 on goods & services | Fastest for US tips. Zero fee when people send it as personal. |
| Cash App (personal) | 0% to receive · Cash App for Business 2.6% + $0.15 | Same idea. Younger audiences reach for this first. |
| PayPal.me | 0% friends & family · goods & services fee applies | Works outside the US. Older audiences trust it. |
| Stripe Payment Link | 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment · no monthly fee | The one that takes Apple Pay, Google Pay and any card. Best for set prices. |
| Ko-fi | 0% on one-time tips · 5% on memberships and shop (free plan) | Cheapest 'coffee' tip jar. |
| Buy Me a Coffee | 5% on everything + processing | Nicest tip-jar UX; costs 5 points more than Ko-fi. |
| Patreon | 10% on the standard plan (since Aug 4 2025) + processing | Memberships with the biggest built-in audience. |
| Substack | 10% + processing | Paid newsletter. Free tier is free. |
| Gumroad | 10% + $0.50 + processing | Digital products with zero setup. |
| Stan Store | $29/mo · 0% of sales + processing | Digital products once you clear a few hundred a month. |
"Processing" means the card fee underneath, typically 2.9% + $0.30 in the US. On a $3 tip that fixed 30¢ is the biggest cost on the table — set suggested amounts at $5 and up.
Sources: Patreon creator fees · Ko-fi fees · Stripe pricing · Venmo fees · Cash App fees · Gumroad · Stan · Substack.
2 · The ladder — six ways, easiest to biggest
Tips are the floor. The plan is a product, a membership, or a sponsor — and the page is the router that sends people to it.
01Tips
Turn on the support buttons (section 1). Then ask, once, in the place people are already grateful: the end of a video, the bottom of a post, the last line of a newsletter. "If this helped, there's a tip button on my page: america.co/you." People tip when the ask is specific and the moment is right; a button alone earns almost nothing.
Name the heading on your page for what the money does — "Fuel the next episode" beats "Support me".
02One digital product
The thing people always ask you for, written down: a checklist, a template, a preset pack, a reading list, a 20-page guide, a recording of the talk. Price it at $9–$29. Sell it through Gumroad (nothing to set up, 10% + 50¢) or Ko-fi shop (5%), and move to Stan or your own Stripe link once you're clearing a few hundred dollars a month and the flat fee wins.
Put the product link in the top three buttons on your page with the price in the button text: "The Creator Checklist · $12".
03Membership
Recurring money from the people who already show up. Patreon (10%) has the audience and the app; Substack (10%) if your thing is writing; Ko-fi (5%) if you want the cheapest option and don't need discovery. One tier, one clear promise ("every episode a week early + the monthly call"), $5–$10. Add tiers later, only if members ask.
Link it as a brand button — the editor recognises patreon.com and substack.com and styles it automatically.
04Affiliate links
Gear you actually use, books you actually recommend. Amazon Associates, or the brand's own program (most companies you'd want have one — search "brand affiliate program"). Rates vary by category and change often; read the program's current rate card before you count on it.
Label them plainly: "My camera (affiliate)". The FTC requires the disclosure, and honest labels convert better anyway.
05Sponsorships and brand deals
Your page is your media kit. Put a Work with me button (a mailto: link — the editor styles it) in the top half, and write your one-line headline as an offer: who you reach, what you make, how often. The Stats tab gives you real page views and clicks by link to quote from.
Pricing: set a rate per thousand average views on the format you're selling, and ask the sponsor what result they need. Start higher than feels comfortable; the first "no" tells you more than five "yes"es. Get it in writing before you post.
06Services
Consulting, coaching, editing, speaking. A Cal.com or Calendly booking link (both free tiers) as a button, paired with a fixed-price Stripe link for paid calls. This is the highest dollar-per-hour line on the ladder and the one most creators never list because nobody told them to.
3 · The email list
Every platform on your page can change its rules tomorrow. The email list is the one thing you own. Start a free Substack or Beehiiv, put "Weekly newsletter" as the second button on your page, and mention it once in every piece of content. A thousand people who open your emails are worth more than fifty thousand who scroll past.
4 · Button order
People tap in the top three slots. Everything below is for the curious. A working order:
| Slot | What goes there |
|---|---|
| 1 | The thing you're pushing this month — new video, product, event. |
| 2 | Newsletter or membership (the thing that compounds). |
| 3 | Product with the price in the text, or "Work with me". |
| 4+ | Your platforms. Keep the ones that matter, hide the rest — the editor has a "Show on page" toggle so you don't have to delete anything. |
Support buttons sit under the links automatically. Change slot 1 every time you ship something; a page that changes gets checked.
5 · Taxes and the rules (US)
Tips and sales are income whether or not anyone sends you a form. Payment apps issue a 1099-K only above $20,000 and 200 goods-and-services transactions in a year (the threshold the One Big Beautiful Bill Act set in July 2025); your obligation to report doesn't depend on that form. Keep the money in an account you can see clearly, and set aside a share for tax as it comes in.
Personal vs goods & services. Sending money "as friends" on Venmo or Cash App has no fee and no buyer protection; "goods & services" has a fee and protection. Tips are usually sent as personal. Products should be goods & services, or on Stripe — don't ask a buyer to send a purchase as a personal payment.
If you are running for office, or raising money for someone who is: none of these buttons are for that. Contributions to a federal candidate go through the campaign committee, on a compliant processor that collects the donor information the law requires, and are capped per person ($3,500 per election for 2025–2026). A Venmo tip button on a candidate's page is a compliance problem, so keep your creator page and any campaign money completely separate.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Talk to an accountant once the money is real.
6 · The seven-day plan
| Day | Do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Claim your page. Photo, name, one-line headline written as an offer. Venmo + Cash App on. |
| 2 | Create one Stripe Payment Link ("customer chooses"). Paste it in. Put the page link in every bio you have. |
| 3 | Start the newsletter (free). Slot 2. |
| 4 | Write down the thing people always ask you. That's the product. Outline it. |
| 5 | Ship the product on Gumroad or Ko-fi. Slot 3 with the price in the button. |
| 6 | Add "Work with me" (mailto). Screenshot your Stats tab — that's the first line of your media kit. |
| 7 | Make one piece of content that ends with a specific ask pointing at the page. Repeat weekly. |