Architecture Notes
4.3 · Monetization

Supporting the Work — What Keeps a Solo Project Alive

2026.07.07~5 min

00Overview

Tools

  • Buy Me a CoffeeThe vessel for support (4.3.1)5% fee
  • AdMobBroad support via ads (complements 4.1.1)Free

01Why

A project is not one app, and not one article. It is the continuing activity of delivering value.

One app can only solve so much. One article can only say so much. So I build an app, write an article, then build the next product — and through that accumulation, try to reach more people. Which is why the machinery can't stop at products and content: the activity itself needs a way to be supported.

02How

Three angles again.

① Ads and patronage complement each other. Ad revenue and Buy Me a Coffee are not either/or; they pair well. Ads are the machinery of broad support; Buy Me a Coffee is the machinery of deep support. There is support ads can't carry, and there are users patronage will never reach. Having both makes the project more durable. Broad is detailed in 4.1.1 AdMob; deep in 4.3.1 Buy Me a Coffee.

② Support has no ceiling. Ad revenue has market rates; support for someone's work has none. A dollar, ten, more — all welcome. It can look like "a system that privileges those with money," but I'd argue the reverse. Theater VIP boxes and airline first class exist so that those with room to spare carry more of the load, letting the same value reach everyone else at accessible prices (economists call it cross-subsidy). Solo development works the same: because supporters exist, the ads stay sparse, the apps stay free, and the kids who can't pay stay served. That support carries not just me, but someone who can't yet support anyone.

③ One supporter outweighs the number. A hundred friends would be fun. But a life with one true friend is plenty happy too, isn't it? Connection doesn't measure by headcount. Even without ten thousand users, one person saying "I'm rooting for you — please keep going" carries value no revenue or download graph can express: the reason the next app gets built, and the next article written. Which is why the sentiment behind the support matters more to me than its amount.

03What

Supporting the work is not profit maximization.
It is how future products, future writing, and future users get raised.

The ways to support a project are many — Buy Me a Coffee, Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, plain donations. Which service barely matters. What matters is that a vessel exists for the feeling "I want to support this" — because without one, the feeling has nowhere to land. So the vessel stays ready. For the sake of whoever value reaches next.