Twitter is a popular social platform for expressing thoughts and opinions and is used by a wide range of people, from world leaders, politicians to celebrities and ordinary people. On this platform, you can follow influential people from all over the world and know their opinions on different issues. One can also remain updated about the latest trends, developing stories as well as entertainment content.
Lately, Twitter has also launched a new way through which Twitter users can earn money. Known as Tip Jar, the feature allows people to earn money directly from their followers. Keep reading to know how it really works.
What is a Tip Jar?
Twitter users often link their PayPal and Cash tag in their bio after their tweet goes viral, so they can get monetary support for their work. This means that followers of such Twitter accounts will have to go to different platforms, away from the Twitter app, and send the money.
To make things easier, Twitter has decided to add its own cash transferring functionality to Twitter accounts. The Tip Jar feature has been created to allow easy transfer of money from one Twitter account to another. This will allow Twitter users to receive tips for their tweets in a quick and easy manner.
According to Twitter, this is the first step they have taken for people to show support for Twitter accounts with money. This new feature will likely allow Twitter to compete with Facebook and YouTube to create mainstream content and encourage content creators to earn through Twitter.
How to use the Tip Jar feature?
Twitter users can now enable the tip jar feature. Here’s how:
- Go to your profile, and click on ‘Edit’. You’ll be able to see the tip jar feature at the bottom. Click on it to enable it.
- To set up your tip jar payment options; click on ‘allow tips’. This will open up different payment options for you to set up and integrate with Twitter.
- Once the setup is completed, save your changes, and you are done. Users should be able to see a tip jar icon next to the follow button on your Twitter profile.
This means the creator has enabled their tip jar and users can transfer money to it. If users want to transfer money to a tip jar, they can click on the icon which will open up a list of all the payment platforms that the account is linked to.
They can then select the platform through which they want to transfer the money through. This will take them to a different app and users can choose the amount they want to transfer.
Content Creators have the option of enabling different payment gateways with their Twitter profiles. These include; Band camp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo for transferring tips to a Twitter account. For android users, these tips can be transferred through Spaces. It is important to mention here that Twitter will not take any commission on the tips you receive.
Currently, Twitter allows only certain people to enable their tip jar feature. This includes journalists, creators, non-profit organization workers, and a few more. However, Twitter says that it will soon expand this feature to other users as well. The tip jar feature is also currently only in English, but it will be developed for other languages as well in the future.
What are the Advantages?
The tip jar feature on Twitter will allow easy tipping or cash transferring for content creators, journalists, and NGOs. It will allow users to send funds directly via the Twitter interface. It will also allow people to monetize their work and earn a little extra cash if their tweets goes viral. Moreover, it’s a good way for people to show support for their favorite influencers.
Is the Tip Jar a risky business?
A few twitter tip jar users identified a privacy issue in the new tip jar feature that discouraged people from using it. When a user sends tips to a tip jar via PayPal, the recipient is able to see the address of the sender when they open their cash receipt.
This was a concern for many users and they took it to Twitter to report the issue. Twitter responded to the complaints and said that it would add an update to warn users about this issue before they make any transaction.
Verdict
Although the new tip jar feature has shown some concerns from PayPal users there is no doubt that the tip jar feature is still a convenience for those who want to tip other Twitter users. The feature allows users to easily transfer cash without navigating too many sites and apps.
However, the feature is still in its testing phase and is currently applicable to only a certain group of people. The feature is also offered only in the English language at the moment. However, with time, Twitter will be expanding this feature to other groups of people and in other languages as well. In the future, hopefully, this feature will have fewer privacy risks, better security features, and more users from all around the world.
Thanks Michelle, but do you think people would tweet differently if they were tipped? That has me concerned for journalists! Thank you for sharing about this new upcoming feature.
That’s a good point! Let’s see how this feature affects the Twitterati. However, at the moment this feature is open only for the verified journalists.