I’ve been thinking about how to do this as a part of the plugin activation process itself: after activating a plugin for the first time [or after upgrading], you get some sort of notice for donating to the plugin writer [or maybe a charity of their choice]. That way, people get a shot at using your plugin and determining if it really has utility for them. Not sure how this would work, though…

Geof– I’m going to leave it like this for a little while so that the sample size is large enough to be meaningful. Then I will make a few changes and we can check out the results.

It seems like before someone has actually used your plugin is one of the worst times to ask for a donation, because they have no idea whether it’s going to work or not and if they like it or not.

Matt makes an interesting point. What about not showing the notice for first-time users who come in un-referred [that is, on their own or from Google], but showing it to repeat users or people who’ve been directly recommended to you by a non-search engine? That’s going to remove people who have no idea who the hell you are, but should support input from “repeat customers” and the viral marketing of your stuff.

[Note: posted long before the first coffee of the day.]

My first download from you, and first donation made. Felt kind of cheap paying you a buck, but that’s what you asked for and I was more than happy to oblige given

1) the quality of the plug in,

2) the obvious effort put into the README file and the q&A

So you know, here’s basically how it worked for me.

I saw the implementation of the Share It plug-in on your blog first. I wanted it.

Then I read the README.

Then I clicked to download the plug in and got your little nudge to donate. I thought, “let me get this installed and we’ll see.”

I got the thing installed, changed the defaults easily thanks to your clear instructions. I was impressed and felt motivated to thank you.

I then made a conscious effort to come back here to pay for the download.

Only I somehow ended up on your donate page with a default $25 donation showing (confusing and probably leads to dropped transactions), which I changed to $1 and then proceeded to PayPal to seal the deal.

Other than the confusing payment process on your site, it worked. But then I was motivated to give you that dollar, so I’m not sure it works for everyone.

There’s got to be a way to make the process easier for people.

How about something where people are prompted to “ask me to donate $1 if I still like it after a one week.” They enter an email address and a week later receive an email money request from paypal asking for a $1 donation?

Nicer if PayPal would add this to their merchant tools.

Also when viewing the blog page it seems to just back to the top of the page. just an fyi.

have a happy new yaar.

Open source software are really saving users like me dimes here and there. Yeah, software may be free, but the effort that programmers put into shouldn’t be.

Great idea, if I ever have a plugin or some-such of my own I might try it out.

Michael Visser – I’m sorry, I don’t know what error you’re referring to – perhaps you can e-mail me details.

What you’re doing though is great and many businesses will happily donate to support you as you’ve saved them R&D investment.

Just hit me. How about you keep all your downloads public and free but stagger public updates to WP plugins once every quarter. All the paying supporters get the updates while the public can wait for the quarter to roll over…

> Can you clear up the error message when you type “notspam”! It throws a mean error at me.

Certainly you didn’t go into this type of project thinking you were going to make a living off of it? Why does anybody go into any sort of project that is open source?

I get the idea behind the donation. And yes, it would certainly be a good social project to see who is actually willing to pay for something that truly works, and who isn’t. It is often a good goal to shoot for when making a product such as this: recognition.

But there is something far greater to be said about the person who creates something that is worthwhile and gives it away than somebody who creates something worthwhile and sells it.

Micropayments certainly would be a good instrument to use to receive some sort of monetary reimbursement for the time put into the product itself, but I don’t see it as the wave of the future.

I mean, certainly the great money machine will march forward, with or without that 1$ tip jar option.

Asking for donations isn’t wrong; micropayments aren’t wrong. In fact, I applaud your effort.

I’m sure you have day job, so your true concern shouldn’t be with donations. If they like it, they will donate. Your concern should be how is this product going to make the users end experience any better. All the stuff that comes after that is merely an added bonus.

Keep up the good work.

Interesting idea. The thing is, people generally won’t donate ‘before’ trying anything (based on personal experience).

I get the idea of micro payments and the way the ‘suggestion’ kicks down on-click is pretty cool – but it’s very much a solution looking for a problem.

There are some fields using the idea already – such as online music stores, although the model perhaps is a little different.

If one is going to request a micro payment (and I do understand this is a ‘proof of concept’ post) for a download – then one either needs to have it as a requirement to download, or as part of the resultant download once it’s installed.

Reason? People by nature will only really reward effort where it’s due in their opinion – even if it’s only a few cents. Those people do exist, but are quite rare, I have found.

Making something ‘optional’ means most folks will not option it.

Part of the reason micro payments (again, this is imho) never took off, is that the methodology used to drive it (usually in place of a regular donation model) means that it just doesn’t interest people.

And the problem really isn’t with the payment scheme used either – it’s the still prevalent mentality that asks “..why should I pay $1 (or even 50c) for something that is gratis?”.

Until that mind-set changes, imho micro payments are only really an option for an ongoing service, or subscription model.