• by Colin Kirkland , Staff Writer, February 1, 2023

You’ve seen Linktree, that compact list of links living in your musician friend or favorite publication’s social media account bio. Despite its prevalence on Instagram, Linktree actually spans most major social media platforms -- it’s everywhere.

Over the past few years, Linktree has become among the most popular link-in-bio creators, helping brands and creators earn money via tools like Shopify, Spring, Payment Locks and a Tip Jar, which are all integrated indirectly into the service, providing fans multiple options to connect and show their support.

To further its impact, however, Linktree has announced three new updates aimed to provide creators and brands more diversified revenue streams.

Option one: Buy Me a Gift

Similar to Linktree’s most popular feature, Tip Jar, creators can now pick one of five emoji gift options (coffee mug, beer mug, cake, gift box and a taco) to represent what a fan’s gift means to them. They can then set a price and connect their PayPal or Square account to be paid.

Better yet, Linktree says it won’t charge any transaction fees “for a limited time.” Once creators add the “Buy Me a Gift” link to their Linktrees, they can share a URL to bring users to it directly.

Option two: SendOwl

Linktree has partnered with checkout and digital delivery platform SendOwl to help creators seamlessly sell and deliver “almost any online product,” including audiobooks, videos, images, software, memberships, exclusive events, courses, and more.

Once creators set up a SendOwl account, they will be able to display up to 10 digital projects directly in their Linktree as a browsable carousel.

Customers can then tap “Show Now,” which will redirect them to browse a creator’s entire SendOwl product catalog, or they can tap “Buy Now,” which will take them to checkout for a specific product.

Option three: Bonfire Links

This one’s for the merch.

Linktree has teamed up with merch-provider Bonfire to help creators add a storefront to their storefront, then create and sell custom wearables.

Bonfire’s major appeal revolves around its all-in-one service, which includes printing, inventory, and shipping.

Linktree, which accounts for almost half of link-in-bio action on Instagram alone (the company says it has 1.5 billion unique visitors a month across platforms), was valued at a whopping $1.3 billion in a Series C funding round last year, shortly after partnering with TikTok.

With over 50 million people across the globe identifying as creators, according to SignalFire, influencer services like Linktree and other link-in-bio companies have become major commodities, with no choice but to keep evolving.