What options do you typically have?

Free content with a donation box

Before March 2020, a popular model for promoting your real world show, experience or class was to offer free content to build interest in you and develop a following. With a following, you could then go on to promote your real-world experience for a paid amount to your following. With the ability to offer real world experiences, this model needs to be adapted until real world shows, content and experiences can be resumed.

This is where the concept of receiving donations for your free content comes from. Wherever your free content is being made available, you can (and should) be asking your audience who is enjoying your free content to donate to you to support you and allow you to continue making free content for your audience to enjoy. This "freemium" model for content can work exceptionally well, but you need to do it right.

The first step to getting this right is to have a payment collection link clearly visible alongside your content. For example, if you're live streaming a show on Youtube Live, you'd want to prominently display your payment link in the video description and even as a first comment so that those wanting to support you can find the link easily. You can get your own unique payment collection link on Quicket, in a matter of minutes.

Great, I have a payment link! Now what?

After putting your payment link somewhere visible, (in your Youtube video description, on your Instagram page, in your mailers, on your website, or wherever else you publish and promote yourself and your content) it's time to add a payment QR code to the mix. A QR code can be scanned by any smartphone (iPhone users just point their camera at it to read it, and Android users open Google Lens in their camera to read it). When it's scanned, the user can then open the link that is encoded in the QR code on their phone, which will take them straight to your payment page that we've been talking about above.

To summarize, user scans your QR code, and it takes them to the same payment page that the link you put in your video description goes to. Scan -> Pay.

If you got yourself a payment link on Quicket, you can download the payment QR code immediately within your dashboard. It's quick and very easy to get your own payment link and QR code - read more here.

Great, I have a QR code! Now what?

Put it everywhere where you publish your content. For example, put it in your Facebook page's photo album or on your cover image. Put it on your Instagram. Or, if you're streaming your content, overlay it on your video stream so that it displays on the video. This is key. When your audience are enjoying watching your stream, they can scan and pay without even leaving the show. Most encoding software for live streaming have a very simple way to overlay an image on your stream. A very popular (and free) encoding and broadcasting application is OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) and you can see how to do an overlay very easily by following this short video. 

Pay-gated content

Another option that you have is to provide your digital experience or content only to those who pay upfront.

Some creators, instructors, performers and organisers may prefer to restrict access to their content to only those who have provided certain information and / or paid for access. This is basically having a ticketing "gateway" to access your content. Only a valid ticket holder could go on to view this content.

Quicket has an all-in-one solution for creators who prefer this route, which allows for seamlessly creating an online "event", connecting your encoding software (such as OBS) with your unique Quicket stream details, and setting your ticketing prices and info requirements. More can be found on this solution here and our support team is able to help with any questions if you get stuck.

Building your database

The payments are now coming in, and with each payment you receive you have Quicket's full suite of reporting tools to track your income, and to get your database of supporters. With it, you can export it to your mailing program (or use Quicket's built in Mailchimp integration to have your audience automatically import into your Mailchimp lists) to communicate about your future content and events, and even often discount or special access promo codes to your biggest supporters. For more information on all the tools at your disposal, get in touch with us or take a look through our rich and detailed help center.