Supporting Digital Creators Through Web Monetization

Image care of Jeff Sheldon, via UnSplash.

Every time you type your queries into a search engine to search for the answers you need or enjoy a podcast, web series, digital film, piece of music, recipe, or dance online, you are visiting content that others have invested hours, days, or even months into. Yet you are often able to access this content for free on the web, including tutorials and full courses. That’s part of the beauty of the internet, in that it makes learning and discovering other cultures, ideas, and ways of thinking more accessible.

The Problem

This is a very good thing, but at the end of the day, the creators of that content still need to find a way of paying their bills, and housing and feeding themselves and their families. This is the reason why increasingly you are bombarded with more and more advertising on the web and invasive marketing. Even if you are a creator that is successfully making a career from advertising dollars on your digital creations, the amount you are making is a tiny fraction of the amount that many of the tech platforms are making off of your content.

The Solution

Web Monetization is one way of changing this by streaming micropayments to the digital content creators whose content you spend time with on the web, helping to remunerate those content creators for their time and expenses, and allowing them to earn without invasive advertising.

Coil Web Monetization

This is an example of how we earn money to support our free and open courses.

How You Can Support Digital Creators Through Web Monetization

At present, the way you can support the creators whose digital content you spend time on each month with Web Monetization is with a $5 US monthly subscription to Coil. Coil streams $0.36 US per hour of time that you spend on Web Monetized content, until you’ve spent your full subscription each month. Best of all, creators see these micropayments added to their digital wallets daily with no wait time.

By purchasing a Coil subscription and adding the Coil extension to your browser and Puma Browser app to your mobile device, Coil will stream micropayments from your subscription to any Web Monetized content that you spend time on each month.

If you’d like to be extra supportive of our site in signing up for a Coil subscription, then we’d love it if you would do that with our affiliate link: https://coil.com/?ref=EricaHargreave4003, as the extra earnings from that will help us in keeping this open course updated as the Web Monetization ecosystem grows, adapts and evolves.

Getting Set Up with a Coil Subscription

Install Coil Extension to Your Browser

You are signed in to your Coil account and the page is not Web Monetized. Coil is not paying.

You are signed in to your Coil account and the site is Web Monetized. Coil is initializing.

You are signed in to your Coil account and the site is Web Monetized. Coil is paying.

This page is Web Monetized, but Coil is not paying. The most likely reason is that you are not signed in to your Coil account. Click the extension to see if it opens to the Coil sign in page.

If you are signed in to Coil and you get the Coil red dot telling you that Coil is not paying, the reasons can include:

  • Your account is missing a payment card.
  • Your free trial ended.
  • Your latest payment failed, so your membership didn’t renew.
  • You have a free Creator account.

To learn more about the Coil extension and how it works, visit this Coil Doc:

Add the Puma Browser App to Your Mobile Device

Puma Browser App

To support Web Monetized sites while surfing the internet on your mobile device:

  • Add the Puma Browser App (iOS / Android).
  • Once Signed in to the Puma Browser App, click on the 3 stacked lines, and add your Coil account settings so as to stream micropayments to the Web Monetized sites you spend time on.
  • Under settings, you can also choose to send micropayments to a Web Monetized Charity of your choosing while surfing the Web.

Another nice perk of the Puma Browser App is that they are privacy-focused. They don’t track users or sell your data. This privacy focus is one of the values that is important in the development of Web Monetization ecosystem.

Enjoy Some Web Monetized Content

Now that you’ve set up your Coil Subscription, it is time to go enjoy some Web Monetized Content. Below are two places to start that search, and to perhaps discover some new-to-you content creators.


Tune in to the next lesson to find out how to Web Monetize the digital content that you create.