How to make it easier for people to donate to you, and other advice

[mouser]

It's very very hard to get people to donate to support your software.. but there are things you can do to encourage it:

• make it easy for them to donate
• let them know that their donation is important to you
• get out the word about your software (this is the most important part!)

i wrote an article that discusses some of these issues here: https://www.donation...icles/One/index.html

You'll notice on the entries (https://www.donation...ests/bcb/entries.php) page that people can click a gold coin next to your name to donate to you using our microdonations donationcredits system.

But this is not ideal for you because if they are not already a member of our site it is more trouble for them to first join before they can donate.

So, if you have another way people can donate to you (I suggest paypal, or amazon donations, google checkout, or a shareware service like shareit or plimus or kagi), then you should go to this page in your forum profile:
https://www.donation...ile;sa=CreditOptions

And put the link to that payment page in the box marked "Alternative External Donation Link: "

When you do that, anyone who clicks on your gold coin will also see instructions for donating DIRECTLY to you using that link.

I am here to help you if you need help with this stuff, or just give general advice on getting donations.

An important thing to do as well is to get out the word about your software.  One very good way is to submit it to software listing sites.  To help you do that, you should learn how to make a "pad" file, which most sites accept.  We can talk more about that if people need more guidance.

[app103]

Got a link for PADgen for ya! 

http://www.padgen.org/

This is the easy way to make a PAD file.

and a PAD faq:

http://www.padspec.org/padfaq.php

and a list of sites that accept PAD files:

http://www.asp-share...org/pad/padsites.asp

[Blaster]

Mouser said:

(I suggest paypal, or amazon donations, google checkout, or a shareware service like shareit or plimus or kagi)

it's ok if you live in countries where you can use this services....

But what about us who live in countries where these services are not supported??

Is bank account in "About" enough??


I didn't quite understand this:

You'll notice on the entries (https://www.donation...ests/bcb/entries.php) page that people can click a gold coin next to your name to donate to you using our microdonations donationcredits system.

You must forgive me, i'm not so good in economics...Does this mean that people can donate me (me personally) RIGHT NOW via this service (just click on coin and donate me NOW)? (lets say i did put my programs on this site, and they liked it and want to donate me)
I mean...Is everything has allready taken care off, or must i first create account in some of the services you mentioned...??

Can you please explane me this...


P.S.

Excuse my english.. 

[mouser]

Does this mean that people can donate me (me personally) RIGHT NOW via this service (just click on coin and donate me NOW)? (lets say i did put my programs on this site, and they liked it and want to donate me

yes, BUT only people who are members of this site who have already donated to this site.

only people who are members of donationcoder.com who have donated to this site have money in their account which they can give to you.  then, after you have received enough donations, we can send you the money you have received.


bank transfer is quite bad way to receive donations.  It's a lot of work to send a bank transfer from america and there is a HUGE cost to it.  so no one will be donating this way.

however, i think there are some international services for shareware authors that you could use, or other small payment services.  maybe someone can investigate these and recommend the best one?

let us try to find a way to solve this problem to make it easier for people to send and receive donations.  anyone else have any suggestions?

[Blaster]

Mouser:

yes, BUT only people who are members of this site who have already donated to this site.

only people who are members of donationcoder.com who have donated to this site have money in their account which they can give to you.  then, after you have received enough donations, we can send you the money you have received.

Well, that's great!!
It means we can put this explanation on how to donate in our "About" as well...???

[mouser]

absolutely.
in fact, let me create an easier url for you to use.
right now you could right click on the gold coin next to your name to get the link:
https://www.donation...rch=37544;fields=uid

if people click on that they would get to the page where they could donate to you.


BUT THIS IS EVEN EASIER: http://donationcoder.com/donate/37544
(the number is your userid on the forum, so others just replace that with your number)


Also this is important, read this post on how to customize the "blurb" text that is shown when people click on your gold coin:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2942.0

[mouser]

for more help on making a link to let people donate to you visit this page in your profile options:
https://www.donation...credits;detail=links

[Jazz]

Another option, if people are finding it tough to get users to donate, is to ask users to complete an action that will support the site. For example, you could ask users to take a short survey to support your site. Users who might not usually give monetary donations would have another option to help support. Survata has a good option for this (note: I do work there) and we're always looking for new publishers to add to our network. Feel free to reach out to    [email protected] for more info.