An idea @amandapalmer would love: #Koomkey cash on Twitter
That’s right. I’ve name-checked Amanda Palmer again, but not to get beaucoup visitors via Twitter. This time it’s to reinforce her concept of supporting writers/musicians/artists (and anyone else you have a thing for) with small financial donations. Palmer’s all for sharing creative properties like songs, if it’s balanced with sliding-scale love donations as well. Her famous Kickstarter campaign is the gold standard.
So yesterday, out of the blue comes a tweet in my inbox saying, “I just put $5 in your #Koomkey #tipjar!” Say wha? At first I thought it was some kind of promotional scheme, as is ham-handedly popular on the Twitter, but I checked it out — it came from a fairly new follower (@TheresaLargusa — thanks again, Theresa!) — and found that it’s real, it’s legit, and it’s a terrific way to show support for your favorites with donations as small as 25 cents.
Koomkey is the brainchild of Joseph Lacko, who explains the whole thing in this YouTube video. And, by the way, following up on Theresa’s donation, Joseph kicked me a buck too! You can read a little bit more about the service here. After the perfectly reasonable 10% service fee, I’m sitting on $5.40 in virtual cash!
As Lacko says, the current way to reward people online (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is with Likes, which have the nutritional value of Styrofoam chips. Now you can dispense appreciation in a way that can actually add up, and those you give to can pay it forward.
I’m keeping an eye on Koomkey.
Oh, and please pop over and visit Theresa’s blog too: Semi-Daily Scribbles. Poetry, flash fiction, and great photos.
9 comments on “An idea @amandapalmer would love: #Koomkey cash on Twitter”
Chime in
SAMPLE MY BOOKS
Buy Parts Unknown — $4.99 & free shipping (U.S./Canada)
My spirit animal
Sounds really cool. That fiver was huge. Thanks for the information.
Yeah, it’s a pretty great idea. I’ll be interested to see how it develops.
Very interesting. That’s as if she bought 5 copies of Our Children 🙂
Exactly! And maybe she’ll still buy one, who knows? 😉
I would highly recommend that she does 🙂
Thank you, Kevin, for the Koomkey shout-out and lovely mention of my blog. The creative life is a solitary journey, but supporting others’ efforts is the whole point. Building community to which we belong, even when we’re shut up inside our heads for long stretches, is one reason why I make art. Oh, btw…I have, indeed, purchased a copy of ‘Our Children.’ I’m keen on picking up your other works, too. Huzzah!
Awesome, Theresa! Thanks for the purchase, and (I noted) signing up for my newsletter. I’ll be putting one one in the next few days with updates on Yesterday Road.
I agree with your take on the creative life. It’s a tough row to hoe by yourself, so cultivating relationships with other artists is key (if not Koomkey).
All best in your creative endeavors!
Thanks for the post, Kevin. Koomkey sounds like a brilliant idea. Please share out your experiences with the site as it sounds almost too good to be true!
It does sound a little TGTBT, but I think the makings are there of a good thing. The trick will be getting it to catch on in an exponential way.