If you haven’t heard, Medium is one of the largest online blogging platforms that hosts independent writers and publishers alike. It has been in existence for over five years, but even after the launch of the Medium Partner program in early 2017, the revenue stream for writers was virtually non-existent. As the company continues to develop its first attention-based payment system, you can adopt other monetization techniques to continue your writing journey on Medium.
One such solution available to Medium authors is called Buyte, which allows you to accept donations from your dedicated reader base. However, the highlight of this third-party mobile gateway is that it simplifies the process by using Apple Pay as its primary form of payment. This means you can now integrate an Apple Pay donation button into your post.
What is Buyte?
Developed by Australian developer Ryan Soury, Buyte is a mobile payment solution that aims to speed up the payment experience. The platform currently relies on Apple Pay to make it easier for more users to complete their purchases and add value to your business. It only requires you to connect your activated Stripe account to Buyte and use its widgets to collect payments on your website.
While the platform plans to serve as a full-featured mobile payment solution, it hopes the simple Apple Pay dockable widget will have many use cases. One of them is fundraising through Medium posts, where the company is still trying to monetize and pay its authors on the platform.
Soury also adds that you can copy the Apple Pay widget code from Buyte’s website and embed it on any website, so why not hand it over to Medium users to make it easier for them to support their posts. It will only serve as an incentive for them to continue to provide you with more intellectual and effective reading.
Create Buyte Account
To start the process, we will first have to visit Buyte’s official website to connect the payment gateway with Stripe (currently not available in India, coming soon). This will allow you to receive the donation in your Stripe account and then transfer it to your linked bank account.
- Set route to Buyte’s website and ‘Connect with StripeThe ‘ button is at the top right.
- You are now transferred to: Ribbon integration pagerequiring you to enter Payment details To start accepting donations using Buyte. If you are new to Stripe you must fill out the form otherwise Register Link at the top right to link your current account to the platform.
- I already have an existence Strype accountso I will be logged into the same session to allow Buyte to access my payment information.
- After your Stripe account is successfully linked to Buyte, you will be redirected to Buyte’s homepage. Here, a confirmation message It says it will take about a day to email API Keys.
- However, the platform is fairly new and unknown to many, so you will receive your API Keys within minutes. So, take a look at your email account for the following. API Keys (I blurred out a few numbers to keep my keys private), which would look like this:
- Now that you have the API Keys, Apple Pay widget To start fundraising you will place it on Medium
Creating the Apple Pay Donate Button
The donate button creation process may seem a bit daunting at first, but it’s actually quite simple. You just need to have your public key and these two lists (country code and currency code) useful for customizing the widget according to your needs.
- The first thing you need raw embed codePosted by Soury on their Medium page. There is currently no customizable widget generator that can help you access your Apple Pay widget in seconds. To complete it, you will need to make an effort:
https://buyte.co/embed? public-key=< Your public key > & country=< Two-letter country code > & currency=< Three letter currency code > & total-text=< Main payment text > & total-amount=< Payment amount to two decimal places >
- Now you need replace text between square brackets (< >) and parentheses as well with the values you want.
- You can do Copy the public key from the email you received from Buytecountry code= INSIDE (India), currency code= INR (India), Total text defines what the donation is for and you have to specify donation amount Here’s an example you want to get from your readers:
https://buyte.co/embed? public-key= pk_test_61487c7deb896d17bda54493aaed13549a14624f & country=IN & currency=INR & total-text=thanks for the support & total-amount=50.00
note: Spacing in preformatted embed code columns is to make it easy for you to see all the variables easily. You need to remove all spaces (except those between words where spaces will be replaced by 20% in the total text) and make it look like a single embeddable link. Here’s how it would appear as an embed link:
https://buyte.co/embed?public-key=pk_test_61487c7deb896d17bda54493aaed13549a14624f&country=IN¤cy=INR&total-text=thanks%20for%20the%20support&total-amount=50.00
Embedding a Donation Button in a Medium Post
Now, we’ve created the Apple Pay widget link, so all that’s left to do is write the Medium post and paste the code anywhere in the body. Don’t worry, we’ll guide you step-by-step through this process as well.
- Open medium.com and login to your account. Click on your profile picture in the top right and click ‘new story‘ choice.
- This will open the Markup editor where you can doodle (read as text) your ideas or thoughts to share with the world. I decided to just write a test article as seen below.
- Now we need to place Buyte’s Apple Pay widget at the end of this paragraph. To do this, click on plus icon and select ‘Add embed‘ choice.
- When you choose this option, the editor will paste the embed code into the article. Now you just need to copy and paste the code we created earlier on Medium.
- The code you paste into your Medium post will appear as a link confirming that you created it correctly. press now To enter to make the embed show up in the post.
- Voila, you’re almost there. In the top right, click Publish Press to publish your article on Medium with the Apple Pay donate button. Also be sure to check if the Buyte integration is working as expected and for any unforeseen errors such as an invalid country or currency code.
- You can share your Medium posts with the Apple Pay donate button to monetize the content you produce for your dedicated readership. If they are satisfied with the same quality, they will definitely support your effort. Good luck.
note: If you’re reading a Medium post on your non-Apple device and want to support the author, you can enter your iPhone number into Buyte’s widget to get a payment link. You can open the link in Safari to donate via Apple Pay on your iPhone.
SEE ALSO: Top 5 Blogging Platforms
Get Support on Medium with Apple Pay Donate Button
Medium has recently launched its partner program for all its publishers who can get paid based on the interest they can capture on the blogging platform. Their payouts are determined by the number of applause received from subscribed users, which can be highly inconsistent. Regular Medium writers can’t survive on this payout alone, so alternatives like Buyte will definitely work.
So go ahead and integrate the Apple Pay donation widget into your articles to get support from your real readers. If you have other monetization alternatives for Medium, let us know in the comments section below.
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