How to Use the Tips Block in UniLink (Accept Tips and Micro-Payments on Your Page)

A step-by-step guide to adding the Tips block to your UniLink page so fans and followers can leave you a small payment in seconds — no campaign, no goal bar, no friction.

Most creators who want fan support instinctively reach for a Patreon page, a Ko-fi link, or a donation campaign. Those tools make sense when you have a specific goal to explain or tiers of benefits to offer. But a lot of the time the situation is simpler: someone just watched your video, listened to your podcast, or read your newsletter and they want to say thanks in a way that involves money. Setting up a full donation campaign for that moment is overkill — it asks the visitor to read a campaign description, understand your goal, and decide on a tier, when what they actually want to do is tap a number and be done. The Tips block in UniLink is built for exactly that moment. It is a lightweight, one-tap support mechanism with no campaign overhead, no goal tracking, and no tiers. The visitor sees a small set of preset amounts, picks one, and pays. The whole interaction takes under thirty seconds.

What the Tips block does

The Tips block displays a configurable set of quick-pick payment amounts — usually three or four buttons arranged in a row — alongside an optional custom amount input that lets visitors type any number they choose. The block title, which you control, frames the act: "Buy me a coffee," "Leave a tip," "Support my work," and variations of these all work depending on your audience and tone. When a visitor clicks an amount, they are routed to the payment processor you have connected — Stripe or PayPal — to complete the transaction. If they already have a saved card with that processor, the experience is fast enough that it barely registers as a step at all. A thank-you message appears after a successful payment, which you also control and customize.

The block does not carry any campaign logic. There is no progress bar toward a goal, no tier structure with different reward levels, and no way to set a funding deadline. That is a deliberate design choice, not a limitation. The absence of campaign overhead is what makes the Tips block work for everyday use: a visitor does not need to be convinced by a story, understand a goal, or choose a tier. They need to see three numbers and pick one. Removing all other decision points from the interaction is the reason tips convert better than donation campaigns for the typical "leave some support after consuming content" use case.

The Tips block is available on any UniLink page where you have also connected a payment processor. It works independently — you do not need to have a Shop, a Digital block, or any other e-commerce element on the same page. A single-page bio with a Tips block at the bottom is a complete and functional monetization setup for creators who want support without complexity. The payment goes directly to your Stripe or PayPal account, minus the standard processing fees those services charge. UniLink does not take a cut of tips.

Before you start

1. Connect your payment processor: Go to Dashboard → Settings → Payments and connect either Stripe or PayPal. If you are using Stripe, confirm it is in live mode — not test mode. Test mode looks identical to live mode in the Dashboard but declines all real payment attempts silently. If your Stripe account was recently created or is pending business verification, complete the Stripe onboarding before publishing the block.
2. Decide on your preset amounts: Choose three or four amounts that match your audience's expectation for casual support. For most creator niches — writers, podcasters, musicians, streamers — a range like $1 / $3 / $5 or $2 / $5 / $10 works well. Amounts at $15 and above raise the psychological cost of tipping and convert significantly worse for everyday support. If your audience or content type positions you in a consulting or professional services context, higher amounts may be appropriate, but test before committing.
3. Write your thank-you message: Draft a short thank-you message that visitors will see after a successful tip. A generic "Thanks for your support" works, but something specific — "You just made my day. Seriously, thank you." — performs better at creating the warm feeling that makes people tip again and tell others about you. Keep it short: two to three sentences is plenty.
4. Decide whether to enable custom amounts: The custom amount field lets visitors type any number. Enable it if you want to give fans the flexibility to tip more than your highest preset. Disable it if you want to keep the interaction fast and frictionless — a text field adds a step that some visitors skip entirely, and if your preset amounts are well calibrated, most visitors will choose one of them anyway.

How to add the Tips block to your page

1. Open your page in the Dashboard: Log in to UniLink, navigate to My Pages, and click Edit on the page where you want tips to appear.
2. Add a new block: Click + Add Block. In the block picker, look under the Monetization or Payments section and select Tips.
3. Set the block title: In the title field, enter the label that visitors will see above the tip buttons. Common options are "Buy me a coffee," "Leave a tip," "Support my work," or "Back me for a dollar." Your title sets the emotional framing — "buy me a coffee" is casual and friendly, "support my work" is slightly more earnest, "leave a tip" is neutral and direct. Choose based on your voice.
4. Configure preset amounts: Click into each preset amount field and enter your chosen values. You can typically configure three or four amounts. Leave a blank preset field empty and it will not appear as a button. Set amounts as whole numbers in your selected currency — $1, $3, $5, not $1.50.
5. Set the currency: Select the currency your payment processor is configured to accept. This should match your Stripe or PayPal account's primary currency. Mismatched currencies do not cause an error at setup time but may cause conversion issues at checkout.
6. Enable or disable custom amount: Toggle the custom amount option based on your decision from the "Before you start" section. If enabled, a small text input appears next to the preset buttons labeled something like "Other amount."
7. Write your thank-you message: Enter the message visitors will see after a successful payment. This is different from a receipt — it is a human moment between you and the person who just supported you. Do not leave it as the default placeholder text.
8. Select your payment processor: If you have both Stripe and PayPal connected, choose which processor tips should route through. If you only have one connected, this field is pre-filled.
9. Save and test: Save the block. Open your live page at unil.ink/yourusername in a new browser tab or incognito window and verify the tip buttons render and the payment flow initiates correctly. Use a real card — not a Stripe test card — on the live page to confirm a real payment processes end to end. Check that the thank-you message appears after payment completes.

Key settings explained

Why the Tips block converts better than a standalone payment link

The conversion advantage of the Tips block over a standalone "tip link" — a Ko-fi URL or a Venmo profile link in your bio — comes from context and friction reduction working together. When you send someone to an external tip page, they leave the context of your page, arrive at a generic platform, navigate an interface that is not yours, and complete a transaction that feels like it belongs to that platform rather than to you. Depending on whether they have an account on that platform, the process can involve creating a login, verifying an email, and filling in payment details before they can give you anything. By the time they get to the point of actual payment, a meaningful percentage of them have quietly decided it is not worth the effort and navigated away.

The Tips block keeps the entire interaction on your page. The visitor does not go anywhere. They see your face, your content, your voice, and your tip buttons in the same view. The payment processor that handles the actual transaction — Stripe or PayPal — is one they likely already have credentials with, which means the checkout flow is one or two taps on a mobile device. The tip decision and the tip action happen in the same emotional moment, while the motivation to support is still present. That is the core mechanic that makes in-page payment blocks outperform external links for impulse support transactions.

There is also a framing effect that matters. A standalone link to your Ko-fi page sends the message "go here to support me" — a request that competes for attention against everything else in your bio. A Tips block on your page says "support is available right here if you want it" — it is an option in the environment the visitor is already in, not a destination requiring navigation. For visitors who are already engaged enough to scroll to the bottom of your page, finding a tip option there feels natural rather than pushy. The placement signals that support is welcome without demanding it.

For creators who want to go further, pairing the Tips block with a brief line of context just above it — "If this content helped you, a small tip keeps it going" — gives visitors the explicit permission to act. Most people need to feel that tipping is appropriate before they do it. One sentence is usually enough to bridge that gap.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions