Donation Ware instead of Fixed Fee ?
Over in the Keyword Avalanche Forum, I decided to post up an offer of a bunch of graphics and templates which are usable with smArticle. Instead of asking for a set fee (say $97 for the pack), I decided to simply place a "make a donation" link instead.
I am wondering whether asking for "whatever the buyer wants to pay" might be a good way to increase sales. Obviously some people will pay $1, whereas others will pay a reasonable amount…
This should be an interesting social experiement, it also gives the opportunity for those without a lot of cash to spend, to get a decent product for a small outlay.
I'll update the thread over the next few days to let you know how it goes.
I did try this previously with a "menu making" program which I had coded for me - didn't work too well as nobody really had a use for the program. Think I ended up makeing about $20 - I actually lost money as it cost more than that to get programmed.
For this new "donation product" , I spent $67 on resell rights for the graphics, then an hour or so putting together the 2 templates that they plug into. So, all in all I need to raise about $150 or so to be into profit on this. Will I make $150 in donations? Only time will tell.
Comment by Oli Allen — July 26, 2006 @ 2:27 pm
"This should be an interesting social experiement"
The interesting part will be seeing how many people post about the thousands of dollars they make with Adsense, and "donate" $0.01 for your templates
Comment by burt — July 26, 2006 @ 2:46 pm
Very true - in the Paypal pages I ask for their KA username so I could grab a bit more data.
Comment by Dave — July 27, 2006 @ 1:10 am
It will be interesting to hear the results.
Comment by burt — July 27, 2006 @ 1:01 pm
It's actually gone surprisingly well. However, bear in mind that the buyers are (in the main) Internet Marketers who are used to spending money.
At this point the average donation is $33 - and I have recouped my outgoings with a tiny bit of profit. Not made a massive profit on this, but don't expect to!
Now, I have no doubt that if I was to open this up to the general public, the amounts donated would be much lower…
Maybe I will do just that in a few weeks time as that would also be an interesting experiment.
Comment by Dave — July 27, 2006 @ 4:00 pm
That's good to hear. I think it's a good way to get people to know you.
Put out a good product on a donation base and then release something really good at a fixed price.
Comment by burt — July 29, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
OK, so I had 10 "buyers" of this pack, and the average "donation" was $31.15.
I basically doubled my initial investment, so anything raised from this product from here on-in is a bonus.
I did think I would "sell" more than 10 (considering people can put their own price on it), perhaps the actual product is not that appealing.
I'll leave is as donation ware for a few more days, and then turn it into a proper AIS product (fixed fee with auto download).