LNCal is a free tool that lets anyone book a paid meeting on your calendar.
If you consult on a paid hourly rate, offer time-based services, or simply want to take control of your calendar, you can monetize your time on LNCal.
To get started, you can set up an account with either a Lightning wallet or your email address.
Once you’ve set up your account, there are a couple different ways you can stack sats:
- Paid meetings
- Referring new users to LNCal
Let’s explore each option below.
Paid Meetings
To offer paid meetings to your customers, clients, or followers, you’ll first need to set up your calendar. From your LNCal dashboard, click the dropdown menu in the top-right corner and then select ‘Settings’.
Here you can pick your hourly rate, the days and times you are available for paid meetings, and how long someone can book your calendar for. You can also choose different rates for the different types of meetings you want to offer for your customers.
Calendar Integrations
LNCal also offers a Google Calendar integration so you can automate your booking availability.
This will only let prospective customers book your time when you don’t already have meetings scheduled in your Google Calendar. If you’ve set additional calendar constraints in your LNCal settings panel, those will be respected too.
To turn this feature on, click the dropdown menu in the top-right corner and select ‘Integrations’.
Payments & Notifications
When a customer wants to book your time, they will pick an available time slot, enter their name and email, and be shown a Lightning payment invoice for the rate that you set. LNCal’s 10% fee is added to the payment made by your customer.
When a successful payment is made, you will receive your sats in your LNCal account and you’ll get a confirmation email alerting you of a new calendar booking.
Referring New Users to LNCal
Another way to stack sats on LNCal is by referring new users. LNCal offers a referral program for all users with commissions paid in Bitcoin.
As a referrer, you’ll earn 50% of LNCal’s 10% platform fee (~5% of the total payment amount) if your referees stack sats on LNCal within 6 months of signing up.
As a referee, you’ll get 50% off LNCal’s 10% platform fee (~5% of the total payment amount) for all the paid meetings you get within 3 months of signing up.
To earn, copy your referral code or send someone a sign-up link via email. To find your referral code, click the dropdown menu in the top-right corner, and click ‘Refer a Friend’.
Getting Paid on LNCal
All LNCal payments happen over the Lightning Network. Your customers can pay with any Lightning Network wallet, and your funds are immediately available for you to withdraw.
LNCal vs Alternatives
One thing to note about LNCal is that there are a number of businesses that offer similar services where users pay in dollars. One of the most popular calendar platforms is called Calendly. Below, we’ll examine LNCal and Calendly side by side to highlight some of their biggest differences.
Starting Price
- LNCal is free to use, and comes with a native payment integration for paid meetings.
- Calendly costs $12/month if you want to be able to integrate PayPal or Stripe to accept paid meetings. Calendly’s free tier doesn’t offer paid meetings.
Fees
- LNCal charges a flat 10% fee to anyone who pays for a meeting on the platform.
- Calendly’s Stripe and PayPal integrations start at 2.9% + $0.30 in the US, but can be higher in other parts of the world, or when currency conversions are required. Stripe and PayPal payments also come with the risk of chargebacks.
Settlement Time
- LNCal payments settle instantly without any KYC process or withholding period.
- Calendly’s Stripe and PayPal payments typically take a few days to settle, but can vary depending on the region of the world you live in. These payments also require a KYC compliant bank account to be withdrawn and may be subject to occasional withholding.
Final Thoughts
If your business involves time-based contracts from a long list of customers, you’re well acquainted with the challenges of scheduling your work, and the payment delays and processing issues that can arise.
Now anyone can solve all their scheduling and payment processing problems at once, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a lawyer, a consultant, or a hairdresser. You can integrate your existing schedule in seconds and stack sats before your paid meetings even take place.
PS. I also published this on Stack Sats, but I hope that by posting the full article natively on SN, others will also start posting their long-form blog posts on here.