IdeaSift

Fans lack flexible ways to pay creators outside ads and subscriptions

Fans who want to support individual creators often face ads or recurring subscriptions instead of a simple per-article, per-podcast, or per-video payment. Creators also want more direct and predictable earnings, while some fans want to keep their real names private from the recipient. Hosting and platform-specific monetization requests appear in the evidence too, but a direct-payment product could address the shared need across most signals.

For independent creators and their fans. Mentioned from Oct 2023 to Nov 2025 on Bluesky, Hacker News and Stack Exchange.

10 different people described this problem in 10 separate discussions.

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0 mentions in the last 12 weeks
Indie fit
4.0/10
Pain
5.4/10
Frequency
8.6/10
Willingness to pay
7.7/10
Momentum
5.0/10
Who pays
Professionals
Competition
High
Build difficulty
Medium

What people said

Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.

  1. I wish there were a simple way to be able to pay content creators (and by extension somehow the platform they are hosting their content on) for just the content
    ixwt on Hacker NewsNov 2023Asked for a toolWould pay
  2. I would pay to watch videos using microtransactions on a platform that is not owned by a depraved company
    throw10920 on Hacker NewsDec 2023Asked for a toolWould pay
Build brief

See what to build and who will buy it

  • 2 product ideas with the smallest useful version and pricing
  • 4 places to find your first customers
  • 8 more quotes from people who have this problem
  • Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks