Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
When setting up your Buy Me a Coffee account, it’s ideal to come up with some good membership rewards to entice monthly subscribers. As a writer, there are various ways you can do this. Today, I’m showing you how to share a Discord server with supporters for direct communication.
This way, your audience feels like they are part of the community and are able to interact with you as well as other, like-minded individuals.
It’s all about building a community, and using Discord is a very popular method for this nowadays. According to Business of Apps, Discord had an average of 100 million active users in 2020.
What is Discord, Anyway?
Discord is an online chat platform that allows both text and voice communication. With Discord, you can invite people into your private server while letting everyone socialize.
Discord is kind of like hosting a private party where everyone can mingle. And it’s one of the most popular forms of online chat, especially among the gaming community.
We made the move from Teamspeak as Discord had far more stable servers and fewer drops while we were playing games. Since then, it’s turned into a nice chatting platform for just about any purpose.
How to Set Up Discord for BMC Supporters
In this tutorial, I’m showing how I would set up Discord for Buy Me a Coffee supporters from the perspective of a freelance writer. You’ll undoubtedly have other things you want to include.
But regardless of your professional niche or industry, setting up Discord for memberships can ultimately boost engagement and pique the interest of others.
That is as long as you’re active and engage your audience.
Setting Up Discord
Obviously, the first thing you need to do is set up a Discord account. This is a free account that lets you host a couple of dozen people at a time. You can also make specific voice channels for various interests.
I’ll show you how to include those in a moment.
You have two ways you can run Discord. You can either install it onto your computer system or run it through a browser window.
I usually have Discord running on my computer in the background. However, it works just as well in Google Chrome.
Add a Server
Once you create your Discord account, you’ll need to add a server. This is so your supporters are able to communicate with you as well as themselves.
Click the “+” button to add a server.
A new window will pop up with options to create the server. You can choose one from a template, or create your own.
Follow the instructions on the screen depending on what type of server you’re creating. The process is pretty quick and simple. I’d suggest selecting the option to create a community, but it depends on what you’re trying to build.
Once the server is set up and ready to go, you can change its logo, notifications, set up moderators, and invite people to join.
Just right-click the server’s icon on the left to open server features and settings.
Server Settings
Hover over “Server Settings” after right-clicking your icon. In this section, you’ll find things like user roles, special emojis you can add, moderation (which I’ll go over in a moment), integrations, widgets, and more.
Set up the functions as you see fit. There is a lot to go over and plenty of ways to customize the server. So, take your time and make it as unique as possible. Give people a reason to want to keep coming back.
Promoting the Discord Invite in Membership Emails
Now that you’ve set up a server in Discord for supporters, it’s time to let them know where to find it. In this instance, we’re going to add a non-expiring invite link to the automatic emails in Buy Me a Coffee.
These are messages people get once they become members.
Step 1: Get Your Discord Link
In Discord, click the “Invite People” button on the left.
A window with a URL will appear. Normally, you might want to use this URL for promotional purposes as it will expire in 24 hours. This prevents people from just accessing your Discord server without being invited.
In this instance, we’re setting it to “never expire” as this is the URL all of our supporters in Buy Me a Coffee are going to use. And, it’s only available in members-only blog posts or the members welcome message.
Click the check box to set the link to never expire.
Of course, this is optional. But, that also means you’ll have to share the new link every 24 hours for new members to access the Discord server.
There are also a few other settings that may be of interest to you. If you click the gear icon on the bottom right, you can set links for temporary visitors, number of uses, or expiration dates.
All of these have great potential when used with Buy Me a Coffee supporters. For instance, you can grant a temporary membership that expires after a single use to give people a taste of what they can expect.
For this tutorial, though, we’re just going to keep it simple. Click the “Copy” button on the right.
Step 2: Open Buy Me a Coffee Welcome Message
From your Buy Me a Coffee dashboard, click the “Membership” option on the left.
Scroll down to the “Welcome Message” section.
Step 3: Add the Discord URL
In the welcome message, you can add all kinds of tidbits you want your supporters to know. This includes anything that you have planned, a thank you message, links to your social profiles, and anything else you would like to share.
In this case, we’re adding the Discord server.
Input the text you want for linking Discord in the message.
Highlight the text you want as a link and click the link icon. In this case, I am going to use the text, “members-only Discord server.”
Add the Discord URL you copied earlier and click, “Insert Link.”
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click, “Save Changes.”
Now, anytime anyone becomes a member through Buy Me a Coffee, the welcome message contains the link to your Discord server.
Promoting the Discord Link in Member-Only Posts
So, what if you set up Discord for supporters after they became members? Or, perhaps you need to change the URL of your invites because it was shared without permission.
For whatever reason, you can share new Discord links within members-only blog posts. In fact, I had to do this recently myself.
Step 1: Write a New Post
From your Buy Me a Coffee dashboard, go to Posts and click, “Write a post.”
Create a blog post as you normally would. In this example, I am letting members know that there is a link to Discord for supporters available.
Step 2: Add the Discord Server URL
Add the URL to Discord as you would any other link. It works the same way as I showed above in the email messages.
Step 3: Set Who Can See the Post
Once the post is ready to be published, you need to make sure it gets to the right audience. Anyone with the URL can access your Discord server. So, you want to make sure Buy Me a Coffee members are the only ones who see the link.
Use the drop-down box to set “Members only” for those who can read the post.
What’s the Difference Between Supporters Only and Members Only?
The “Members only” option is for those who have subscribed to your BMC account for the monthly or yearly donation. Since you might be trying to build up some passive income, creating member perks like this can help with making money.
The “Supporters only” option is for those who have donated any dollar amount. This includes one-time donations as well as monthly members.
You can use either option if you’re using Discord for your supporters.
In fact, it may be a good idea to share the first link with all supporters just so the server has a better chance of being active in the beginning. Then, you can change it to a members-only platform.
It’s really up to how you want to run your Buy Me a Coffee account.
Step 4: Enable Email to Supporters
Click the checkbox to email supporters of the blog post. That way, they will get the invite directly in their mailbox without learning about it later on your BMC blog post section.
Once your post is finished, click the “Publish Now” button.
Setting Up a Moderator in Discord
If you start accumulating a large audience, you should really consider adding moderators. These people will help you keep the chats clean and questionable people out.
Adding a moderator in Discord is relatively easy.
Step 1: Create a New Moderators Role
If you don’t have a role for moderators, you’ll need to make one.
Right-click your server icon on the left in Discord, go to Server Settings, and click, “Roles.”
Create and adjust the role settings. This includes giving the role a name, the individual’s color in Discord, and the various permissions you want to allow.
Step 2: Adjust the Moderator Permissions and Save
I suggest starting with naming the role, “Moderators” or something similar. This makes it easier to find the role later on.
Now, there are a lot of permissions to go through. Make sure you read each one and understand what they do before enabling or disabling them.
You want the moderator to be able to manage the chat, but not necessarily have administrative privileges.
Once you start making changes, Discord will show a message at the bottom. When you’re done setting up the Moderator role, click the “Save Changes” button in this window.
Step 3: Add a Moderator
Right-click a person’s name and hover over, “Roles.”
Click the checkbox for “Moderators.”
You can also set people as moderators from the “Members” area of the server.
Should You Upgrade to Discord Nitro?
The free version of using Discord for supporters from Buy Me a Coffee works well in the beginning. But, what if you want to expand what you can do? Is the paid, Discord Nitro worth the money?
At the time of this article, Nitro costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. And from my perspective, I’m not 100% sure it’s worth the investment.
However, keep in mind that I am addressing this from the perspective of a writer. I’m sure that once I hit a certain number of members in BMC that I’ll seriously consider getting Nitro.
Anyway, the paid plan gives you better emoji control, animated avatars, boosting the server (which kind of defeats the purposes of a private server), bigger upload files, and HD live streaming.
In reality, I doubt I would use much of this at all considering the nature of WriterSanctuary. But, I can see the value in using it for other purposes.
The bottom line is that I’ll probably subscribe to Nitro if I get enough supporters from Buy Me a Coffee to pay for it. So, if I get a few more monthly subscribers, I can easily afford to upgrade.
How Do You Make the Discord Server Private?
Setting up Discord for your supporters relies on keeping it private. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of offering a members-only platform in Buy Me a Coffee. By default, only those with the invite URL can access the server.
However, you want to make sure that other members are unable to create invites. This can prevent someone from just sharing invite links with whomever they want.
In the server roles screen, click into “@everyone.”
Scroll down to the “Membership Permissions” section.
Uncheck the “Create Invite” option.
Once you save the settings, members will no longer be able to share the URL of your Discord server.
Adding Discord for Supporters Adds Value
Adding access to Discord as a membership reward for Buy Me a Coffee helps inspire support. This is especially true if you’re having a hard time coming up with membership rewards in the first place.
It helps you engage your audience while making members feel like they are a part of a special community. And it can go a long way to making a monthly subscription seem fair.
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