Sell Ongoing Spiritual Guidance by Message

Spiritual coaches can sell ongoing guidance by message using two priced formats a follower re-purchases whenever they need them: a text-only Paid Question for a single check-in, or a custom request for a longer written reading or recorded reflection. Each message is its own paid purchase — there is no subscription, membership, or recurring plan involved. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling.

Best format for each use case:

A pattern many spiritual coaches recognize: one follower keeps returning, first about a breakup, then a career decision, then a recurring "can you just check in on this for me?" Each message takes real time and none of it gets paid. The fix for that unpaid pattern is to price each guidance message on its own through Brillay — one time, no membership — the same way the first one should have been priced — and the same pattern shows up in fitness coaching, where async progress check-ins for fitness clients follow an identical per-message price instead of a monthly plan.

Pew Research Center's national survey, fielded July 31–Aug. 6, 2023, found that 70% of U.S. adults can be considered spiritual in some way, including 22% who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious (Pew Research Center). Pew Research Center also reported on May 21, 2025 that 30% of U.S. adults consult astrology, tarot cards, or a fortune teller at least once a year, based on a survey of 9,593 U.S. adults fielded October 21–27, 2024 (Pew Research Center). Those two Pew Research Center findings describe a large audience that already looks for spiritual guidance outside a church, temple, or formal congregation — the same audience that finds a spiritual coach through short-form video and then asks for a personal answer by DM.

"About a fifth of U.S. adults (22%) say they meditate at least a few times a month with the primary goal of feeling some sort of connection." — Pew Research Center, Spiritual Practices, December 7, 2023

What does selling "guidance by message" actually mean?

Selling guidance by message means a follower pays for one specific written or recorded response, submits their situation through your Brillay page, and receives an answer within the delivery time you set. No live call happens, no calendar slot is booked, and no ongoing commitment attaches to that single purchase.

Followers pay upfront as guests, no follower account needed. Brillay's published answer to "Do my followers need an account to pay?" says followers check out with no account and pay by card through Stripe; there is no Brillay account to create and no app to install (Brillay — How It Works, FAQ "Do my followers need an account to pay?").

Delivery happens on your own time within the window you set. Brillay's published answer to "Are Brillay interactions live calls?" is: "No. Brillay is asynchronous — you answer questions by text and deliver Personalized Videos or services as recordings or files on your own time, within the delivery time you set. There are no live video calls or appointments to schedule." If the follower returns next month, they buy again as a second, separate purchase.

Spiritual and religious frameworks already carry weight in how people decide things, though the evidence is narrower than "people use readings to make decisions." Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study found that 53% of U.S. adults say religious teachings and beliefs are extremely or very important when making decisions between right and wrong. Pew Research Center's 53% figure measures religious teaching in moral reasoning rather than paid spiritual coaching, so the 53% figure should be read as evidence that a large share of U.S. adults treat spiritual input as consequential — not as a measure of demand for readings.

Is this a subscription, or a series of paid messages?

Message-based spiritual guidance on Brillay is a series of individually priced, one-time purchases, with no subscription or membership. Each guidance message stands as a separate purchase whenever the follower returns.

Brillay states this the same way everywhere on the site: No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. (Brillay — Pricing)

A recurring "guidance circle" also asks for a kind of commitment most Americans are not currently making. Pew Research Center found that 14% of U.S. adults say they are involved in a spiritual community, and just 4% of U.S. adults are involved in a spiritual community but not a religious one, in a national survey fielded July 31–Aug. 6, 2023 (Pew Research Center). Per-message pricing asks a follower to join nothing at all, which is why per-message pricing fits an audience that mostly is not joining spiritual groups.

Describe the offer accordingly. Avoid language like "join my guidance circle for $20/month," since no recurring charge exists to back that phrasing up. Instead, describe a repeatable, priced unit — "One written guidance response, $25" — that a follower chooses to buy again whenever they want it. Nobody is locked in, and a follower returns because the last message helped, not because a plan auto-renewed.

Should a guidance message be a paid question or a service?

Use Paid Questions for a short check-in answered in writing, and Custom Work for a longer reading, a recorded reflection, or any request where the follower needs to attach context. The dividing line is format and length, not how serious the question is or how much the follower is struggling.

Brillay describes the offer itself this way: "A follower pays your set price, sends their question, and you reply with a written answer. You decide the price and how fast you reply." On a Paid Question, the follower sends one text question and the creator sends one written reply within the creator-set reply time; photographed card spreads, PDFs, and videos are delivered through Custom Work.

Custom Work carries the attachments and the richer delivery. Brillay's published answer to "What format can I deliver in?" is: "A written delivery note, plus up to 5 files — video, audio, images, PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (video/audio up to 20 minutes) — and/or a private link for anything larger." Brillay's description of the same offer adds the inbound half: "The follower can also attach their own files when they order (a track, a resume, a screenshot), so you have everything you need before you start." A follower sending a photo of a journal page, a birth chart, or a written spread therefore needs a custom request, not a Paid Question — the same attachment logic applies to selling a website or funnel audit, where screenshots and URLs travel the same way a birth chart does here.

How do you price a message-based spiritual-guidance offer?

Price each guidance message as its own line item, sized to the format and the working time it takes, rather than as a tier inside a monthly plan. A short written check-in and a longer recorded reading are different deliverables, so they can carry different prices while both stay standalone, one-off purchases.

*Prices above are illustrative examples only, not earnings guarantees, Brillay data, or survey results. Results depend on audience, positioning, demand, and the specifics of the offer.

For an outside benchmark on what this labor is worth per hour, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median hourly wage for "Religious Workers, All Other" (SOC code 21-2099) at $18.25, or $37,960 a year, in its May 2023 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). A $25 written reading that takes 30 minutes of focused work prices that half hour at $50 an hour, well above the $18.25 national median the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published for the occupation, which is a more defensible starting point than guessing.

The wider coaching market gives a second reference point. The International Coaching Federation's 2025 Global Coaching Study counted a record 122,974 coach practitioners worldwide, up 15% from 2023, and estimated global coaching revenue at $5.34 billion over the prior year (International Coaching Federation, executive summary published September 15, 2025). Dividing the International Coaching Federation's $5.34 billion global revenue estimate by its count of 122,974 coach practitioners implies average annual revenue near $43,000 per coach — arithmetic on two figures the International Coaching Federation published in its 2025 Global Coaching Study, not a per-coach figure the International Coaching Federation itself reports. Those International Coaching Federation figures describe paid guidance as an established professional category, so pricing a guidance message at a token amount signals something a coach probably does not mean — the same category includes offers like pricing async leadership feedback for managers, which draws on the same coaching-market benchmarks.

Keep the delivery time realistic and consistent from purchase to purchase. A creator sets the delivery time when creating a service: The first setup step is to give it a clear title and description and set a price and delivery time, and one delivery closes the order. Brillay's product documentation caps a Personalized Video or service delivery promise at up to five days, which is the longest delivery time a creator can publish on a guidance reading. For Paid Questions, you set the price and reply time.

What does it cost to sell a guidance message?

Payment-processing fees are deducted separately, so a creator's take-home on any single guidance message equals the follower's payment minus the platform fee minus processing.

Brillay's pricing page states the arithmetic directly: "Creator earnings = follower payment − platform fee − processing fee," on top of the fee structure already stated above.

Stripe publishes 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge as its standard US pricing for domestic online card payments (Stripe); international cards, currency conversion, and other payment methods are priced differently. On a $25 written reading paid with a US domestic card, Brillay's 8% platform fee is $2.00 and Stripe's published US domestic card rate works out to $1.03, leaving $21.97 before taxes; tips and goals carry a 5% platform fee instead.

What should each guidance response include?

Each paid guidance response should give the follower a direct answer to the question they actually asked, the reasoning behind that answer, one grounded next step, and an explicit boundary about what the reading is not. Vague affirmation that never addresses the specific question tends to feel unfinished to the person who paid for it.

A structure that works for most guidance responses:

• Direct answer: Address the specific question asked, not a generic reading.
• Context or reasoning: Explain the "why" behind the guidance so the answer doesn't feel arbitrary.
• One grounded next step: A reflection prompt, a small action, or something to sit with.
• Boundary reminder: State that the response is guidance and reflection, not a professional diagnosis or a guaranteed outcome.

A written guidance response is also the easiest deliverable to scope in advance, because word count and delivery time are both stated before anyone pays.

What should a guidance listing avoid promising?

A guidance listing should avoid promising a specific outcome, a guaranteed prediction, or advice framed as medical, legal, or financial direction. Describe the deliverable as reflection or perspective instead. Overpromising sets a follower up for disappointment and can create liability unrelated to the platform the guidance is sold on.

Pew Research Center's survey data on how Americans actually treat astrology, tarot, and fortune telling supports describing a reading as reflection rather than prediction. Pew Research Center found that 20% of U.S. adults engage with astrology, tarot cards, or fortune tellers "just for fun," while 10% do so for helpful insights, and just 1% say they rely a lot on what they learn from those practices when making major life decisions (Pew Research Center).

"Most say they engage in these practices for fun, rather than for insights or guidance on life decisions." — Pew Research Center, 30% of Americans Consult Astrology, Tarot Cards or Fortune Tellers, May 21, 2025 (source)

Practical boundaries worth stating in the listing: the response is not a substitute for therapy, medical care, legal counsel, or financial advice; the reading reflects your practice, not a certified prediction; any timeline mentioned is a possibility, not a promise. If a follower's message describes a crisis or a decision with legal or medical weight, redirecting that person to an appropriate professional is more responsible than answering the message as a standard guidance request. Brillay's published answer to "What if I get a request I don't want to fulfill?" is: "You can decline and refund it. You're always in control of what you take on." Brillay's pricing page adds that "Refunds are supported and may reverse the payment, transfer, and platform fee depending on the transaction status".

Brillay's published five-step setup — claim your link, turn on offers, add the link to your bio, followers pay, you deliver — lets creators enable Paid Questions and Custom Work directly. The absence of a credential requirement is a platform fact, not legal advice: licensing and advertising rules for spiritual or wellness services can still vary by where you operate, so represent your background accurately.

What else can you sell alongside guidance messages?

Alongside guidance messages, a spiritual coach can offer Personalized Videos, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries on the same Brillay page. Each of those four offers absorbs a different kind of request, which keeps the guidance offer narrow — one question or one reading per purchase — instead of letting the guidance offer turn into a catch-all.

• Personalized Videos: A recorded encouragement video for a specific moment, separate from a full reading.
• Tips: A way for a follower to support you without buying a specific reading, with no reply or delivery required.
• Goals: Cash toward a defined goal, like a meditation series, shown with a funding progress bar rather than a product or shipment.
• Brand Collaboration Inquiries: A separate intake form for wellness brands, routed to its own inbox and kept out of your follower-facing offers.

A recorded reflection in particular has a broad base to sell into: Pew Research Center reports that 38% of U.S. adults meditate at least a few times a month, including 22% who meditate mainly to connect with their "true self" or with something bigger than themselves (Pew Research Center).

Every paid interaction, whichever offer it came from, lands in one creator inbox: Brillay states that "Every paid interaction lands in one creator inbox: private threads for questions and services, delivery status for Personalized Videos, goals progress, and a separate place for brand inquiries".

How do you get a message-based guidance offer live?

To get a message-based guidance offer live, claim your Brillay link, turn on one default guidance format — a short text check-in or a longer written or recorded reading — and set a single price and a single delivery time before adding anything else. One scoped offer is easier for a follower to understand and buy than several overlapping options.

Name the offer by what's delivered ("Quick Guidance Check-In," not "Monthly Guidance"), and state format, price, and delivery time up front. A follower who wants guidance again next month simply buys the same offer again, because there is no subscription or plan to manage on either side.

Every extra step between interest and payment is a place a buyer can drop out, and ecommerce data puts that drop-out rate high. Baymard Institute puts the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, an average calculated across 50 different studies containing ecommerce cart-abandonment statistics. A follower who has to find a booking calendar and wait for a confirmed slot gets more chances to abandon the purchase than a follower who pays for a guidance message on the same page where they found the creator.

For the audience-fit question, see how spiritual coaches get paid for guidance DMs. For how guidance income compares across formats, see how much do life coaches make, and for a closely related message-based offer, see selling life coaching by message.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions spiritual coaches ask before turning on a paid guidance offer: whether message-based guidance is a subscription, which Brillay format fits a given request, whether a certification is required to sell readings, and what selling a guidance message actually costs the creator in platform and processing fees.

Is this a subscription my followers pay every month?

No. Each guidance message is a separate, individually priced purchase a follower makes whenever they want a response, with no recurring charge tied to it.

Which offer fits a written reading versus a recorded one?

Paid Questions carry one written question and one written reply, privately. A photographed spread or a video reading is delivered through Custom Work, where files and links are part of the deliverable.

Should I use a Paid Question or a custom request for guidance messages?

Use Paid Questions for a short check-in answered in writing. Use a custom request when the follower needs to attach a file, or when your response is a longer reading or recording: Brillay states a custom request is delivered as "a written delivery note, plus up to 5 files — video, audio, images, PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (video/audio up to 20 minutes) — and/or a private link for anything larger".

How fast do I have to deliver a guidance reading?

You set the delivery time when you create the service, and Brillay's setup step reads "set a price and delivery time". Brillay's product documentation caps a service delivery promise at up to five days. Many spiritual coaches quote a shorter window, but the promise should be one you can keep on a repeat purchase.

Do I need a certification to sell spiritual guidance?

Creators can enable Paid Questions and Custom Work through Brillay's five-step setup regardless of certification status. Licensing, advertising, and professional-practice rules can still vary by where you operate, so represent your background and training accurately and avoid claiming credentials you don't hold.

What does Brillay charge to sell guidance messages?

Brillay's fee has two parts: the platform fee stated above, plus separate card processing — Stripe publishes 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge as its standard US pricing for domestic online card payments; international cards, currency conversion, and other payment methods are priced differently.

Create your free Brillay page and turn the next "what should I do?" message into a priced guidance offer instead of another free favor.