[Foundation-l] fundraising idea

[Colin Maroney]

hey, i didn't invent micropayments, you go ahead and make the best of it.

On 11/20/07, Debbie Garside <debbie at ictmarketing.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi Colin
>
> I think this is a fantastic idea!  Am I allowed to borrow it for another
> project I am involved in! :-)
>
> Best regards
>
> Debbie
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
> > [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf
> > Of Colin Maroney
> > Sent: 18 November 2007 07:49
> > To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Subject: [Foundation-l] fundraising idea
> >
> > Hi.  I have just this minute subscribed to the list and read
> > about your fundraising difficulties, discussed in early Nov.
> > I came after having thrown $25 your way, the average donation
> > i see.  I have an idea as to how you guys could make money
> > ethically, unobtrusively, wiithout alienating customers, and
> > it's cheap to implement.
> >
> > Micropayments.  Ask people to voluntarily become subscribers
> > to a micropayment system.  They give you $5 up front.  You
> > charge them .01 a page, or maybe .05 tops.  I like $.01
> > better, because it is literally the least you can ask.
> > Charge their account, you don't need to ask for a credit card
> > each time, you have $5, just take it out of that until it's gone.
> >
> > You can embellish the program a bit.  Don't charge for
> > contributions or edits or other "giving" activities, only for
> > article views.  In fact giving activities could earn you a
> > credit, although there are "cheating" issues with that.  Make
> > sure you remind them that they just donated a penny, and hey,
> > thanks for that, we appreciate it.
> >
> > When they use up the $5, which will probably take a while,
> > it's 500 articles, but they will use it up eventually, and
> > then you start  by emailing them a reminder and then nagging
> > them at the bottom of the article that they need to refill
> > their account.  DO NOT STOP SERVING THEM PAGES.
> > Anyone can still see Wikipedia for free, but you should make
> > your point that hey, it costs money, and you're asking for a
> > friggin penny a hit, so come on.
> >
> > How many articles do you serve a day?  a buck a hundred will
> > add up fast.
> > And it is an ongoing source of funding, permanent really, as
> > long as people are willing to do it.  So you have to sell
> > them on it, but i think it could work.  It's technically easy
> > to implement, i would think, you'd need a login and then just
> > track session hits.  You'd want to make real sure to avoid
> > double-charges or other BS that could piss people off, and
> > you'd need to be careful that people couldn't get in and
> > force payments from the wrong account, although there's not
> > much incentive to do that, since you can still see if free if
> > you want to.
> >
> > what do you all think?
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > == -- == -- == -- == -- ==
> > Colin Maroney
> > cjmaroney01 at gmail.com
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-- 
== -- == -- == -- == -- ==
Colin Maroney
cjmaroney01 at gmail.com
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