Your Photography Group's Marketplace for Gear, Sales & Bookings
Let members rent what they need, sell items and products, and offer or book local services, all inside your group. Admins earn 10% of every transaction.
What Kofa is, in short
What it is
A marketplace that belongs to your group. Members list what they own and what they do, and other members rent it, buy it, and book it.
What members can do
Rent out lenses and second bodies or lighting kits and modifiers. Sell what they no longer need. Offer second shooting. Or just book from somebody else.
What you earn
10% of every rental, sale, and booking, paid to you. Keep it as income, or put it toward a public goal your members can watch fill.
It is already happening. It just has no rails.
Nobody needs to buy a $2,000 lens for one shoot.
Every photographer in this group owns a lens that somebody else needs for exactly one wedding. The 70-200. The tilt shift. The second body. The lighting kit that comes out four times a year.
Right now that gets solved with a favor, a DM, and no paperwork, which works right up until something gets dropped.
Kofa is the part that was always missing. Photos of what it looked like before it left and after it came back. The deposit. The payment, so nobody is chasing anybody for cash. Real records, both sides protected.
What people rent to each other
- Lenses and second bodies
- Lighting kits and modifiers
- Backdrops and studio gear
- Gimbals and drones
- Audio and interview kits
- Studio time and space
What people book each other for
- Second shooting
- Editing and retouching
- Assistants and digital techs
- Hair and makeup
And if somebody wants to sell rather than rent, they set up a page, share their link, and people buy.
Your community earns 10% of every rental, sale, and service booking.
of every rental, sale, and booking your members make. It accrues automatically and pays out to your bank account. You never touch the money in between, never invoice anybody, never chase anybody.
It is your money either way. The only question is whether you tell people what it is for. Two ways to run it, and neither is more official than the other:
You can switch between them any time, and change the goal or the target whenever you want. To receive a payout you verify your identity once and connect a bank account, the same as anyone getting paid on Kofa.
One behavior change. That is it.
People share their listing link instead of typing “DM me.”
That is the entire adaptation. Nobody moves anywhere, your group stays exactly where it is. The only difference is that when somebody has something to offer, they post a link that can actually take a booking.
Have people share their own listing links, not the group link. A photo of an actual 70-200 with a price on it is something somebody wants. A signup link is a chore. One gets tapped and the other gets scrolled past.
Three ways in, and your link works everywhere.
Nobody is forced down one path. Your members pick whatever fits how they already do things.
And your link goes wherever your people already are. It is a normal link, so put it anywhere:
Most groups end up using two or three of these at once. Put it where people already look, rather than asking them to look somewhere new.
Set up your community
Fifteen minutes, once, free. Easiest on a laptop.
Tell your providers first
You already know who they are: everybody in the group, because every one of you owns something the others need for a single shoot. You have seen their names a hundred times.
Message them before you announce, not to keep it quiet, but because they are what makes the announcement land. When everybody shows up and there are already thirty things listed, it looks like something real.
Hey [NAME], I am setting something up for the group and I want you on it first.
People ask about your 70-200 constantly. Now you can put it up with your price and your rules, and people book and pay right there instead of DMing you and paying you whenever they get around to it. Deposit handled, photos of the condition handled, no chasing anybody for cash.
You get the customers, and 10% goes to the studio fund.
Grab the app or just use the website, whichever you like. Fifteen minutes to put your first one up. I am announcing on [DAY], so post your link then.
[YOUR LINK]
Tell them to use a real photo of the actual thing, a clear price, and one line on what they will and will not do. A phone photo of the real item beats a stock image every time.
Announce it
New for the group, and honestly I do not know why this did not exist already.
Nobody needs to buy a $2,000 lens for one shoot. Meanwhile somebody else here needed that exact thing last month and went and bought their own.
We now have a page where we can rent our stuff to each other. Lenses and second bodies, Lighting kits and modifiers, Backdrops and studio gear, whatever you have. Services too, so if you do second shooting or anything else, put yourself up. And if you want to sell things, you can set up a page for that and share your link here.
Everything is handled on it. Payment, deposits, and photos of the condition before and after, so nobody is arguing over a scratch or chasing somebody for cash.
Get the app if you want it on your phone, or just use the website, no download needed. Either works.
10% of everything that goes through it goes to the studio fund.
[YOUR LINK]
Rentals, sales, and services go through our Kofa page. Payment, deposits, and condition photos are handled there, so both sides are covered, and 10% goes to the studio fund. App or website, either works. Link is pinned above.
“Why not just deal with each other directly?”
Somebody asks this in the first week, every time. Answer it in public, properly, once, then point back to it.
You can, and for small stuff between people who already know each other, go for it.
The reason to use the page is what happens when it does not go smoothly. The money is held instead of sent to somebody you met in a comment thread. There are photos of the condition before it left and after it came back, so a damage argument has an actual answer instead of two people's word against each other. There is a deposit. And if something really goes wrong, there is somebody to go to.
The other reason is that 10% of every booking goes to the studio fund. Every time you book on the page instead of in the DMs, you are putting money toward it. Dealing direct is fine. This just also does something for everybody else.
Two things, once a week
A few details
Listings, not signups.
Not members. Not accounts. Live listings with real photos. Everything else follows from it. If listings stall, the fix is always the same: go back to the people in your group who have things, and get them to post.
You are not building a new platform. You are giving your group a way to do what it was already doing, and getting paid for running it.
This guide is written for photographer and creator groups. For the full picture of how community marketplaces work on Kofa, see Kofa for Communities, or browse what people near you are renting.