How to Add a Tip Button to Your Link in Bio

If people already like what you make, a tip button is the smallest ask there is. The trick is putting it where they already are, which for most makers is the one link in their bio. This guide works for any link in bio tool, and shows where makerhandle saves a step.

1. Pick where the money goes

You need a page that can take a payment. The usual choices:

• Buy Me a Coffee: tips and memberships, 5% per transaction per its FAQ.
• Ko-fi: tips, a shop and commissions, 0% on one-off tips on its free option.
• Patreon: memberships with posts for members.
• GitHub Sponsors: if your supporters are developers.
• PayPal.me: the bare minimum, a payment link.

If you have none yet and only want tips, Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee take five minutes to set up. The fees are compared in Buy Me a Coffee vs Ko-fi vs Patreon.

2. Add the button to your page

Most link in bio tools let you add the support page as one more link. That works, but it looks like every other link and people scroll past it.

On makerhandle the support button is its own block, not a link in a list:

1. Open the editor's Support tab.
2. Paste your Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay, PayPal.me or Open Collective address. Any other https page works too, with a warning.
3. Pick what people buy you: a coffee, a book, a pizza, a server hour, any emoji and name.
4. Choose top or bottom of the page, and a color, or leave it on your accent.

The button opens your page in a new tab. This link mode works on every plan today, Free included. It shows in every template and on your custom domain.

3. Word it so people tap it

• Say what it buys. "Buy me a server hour" for a hosted tool, "Buy me a pizza" for a game jam team. A specific unit reads as a joke you are in on, not a plea.
• Keep it near the work. At the top if support is the point of the page; at the bottom, after your projects, if it is a thank-you.
• One ask. A tip button next to five other "support me" links is noise. Pick one.
• Say what it pays for, once, in your bio: "Tips keep the free tier free."

4. Tell people it is there

A button nobody knows about earns nothing. Mention it once at the end of a launch post, in your newsletter footer and in the README of a free tool. Then check after a week or two: in link mode, your tip platform's own dashboard shows what came in; with built-in support, the payments and stats are in the editor's Support tab.

5. Put the same button on your own site

Your blog, docs or portfolio can carry the button too. In the Support tab, Add the button to your site gives you a small snippet: one link styled as an outlined pill, a filled button or a plain text link, plus an optional script from makerhandle.com for the same confetti. If your site blocks outside scripts, the button is still a plain link that works. There are versions for React, Vue, Svelte and Astro, an image badge for a GitHub README, and a Copy instructions for AI button if an assistant edits your site for you. Clicks through it show in your stats as "Support button on your site"; the script itself sets no cookies.

5. Later: take payments on your own page

Link mode sends people to another site to pay. When that hop starts to bother you, makerhandle's built-in mode takes one-time support and monthly memberships on your own page, through Stripe Checkout, paid into your own Stripe account. 0% platform fee on Pro, 5% on Free, plus Stripe's processing fees. It is opening to makers in stages.

Switching is one toggle. The button stays exactly where it is, and your old page can stay as a small "Also on Buy Me a Coffee" link. If you go that way, read how to move from Buy Me a Coffee to your own page first.

Instagram, TikTok and the rest

There is nothing special to do per platform: the tip button lives on your link in bio, and your link in bio goes in your profile. Instagram now allows up to five links in a bio; if you use them, the five links post explains why your link in bio should still be first.