Donation Question

[jekkal]

When paying Xepher's 25%, do I pay 25% of the donation before or after Paypal takes its cut?

(so on a $5 donation, do I pay $1.25, or $1.13 since they take out 45 cents?)

[Xepher]

Well, are you talking donations that come through the newsbox's donate button? Those are handled automatically, according to the settings you have for your account. You're not supposed to have another donation intake... at least not without talking to me first. I realize that may not be clear unless you read though a LOT of old forum posts though, so don't worry if you're already doing it. I do realize the little "donate" link on the newsbox isn't very large and can be unclear how it works to a lot of people. Thus, some people want to handle things different. If you email or IM me we can figure out what'll work best for you.

To answer your specific question, the newsbox handles the percentage after paypal gets their cut. A couple of sites manage their own donations directly, and pass the 25% along later. Since it's really just the honor system then, I've never even bothered to ask how they do their math.

[jekkal]

In that case . . . whoops. >_> Sorry there, I'd already had the account sitting about for a while, so I made the button one day on a lark.

I'll get your payment in whenever it's meant to be. Which form do you prefer?

[Xepher]

Well, I was expecting you to email me about it, but I guess it's not really a "secret" that there's an option for the newsbox to disable it's donation button. It's only meant for users who've talked to me first though, and want to handle their donations directly. DMFA (missmab.com) does this. Generally speaking, I'd say payments should be monthly, if you're taking in a fair amount in. If not, save it until it's more than 20 bucks, since paypal takes a cut, it seems wasteful to transfer lots of small amounts. It's up to you how you want to handle it. The other option is you can make your button go to the same link as the donate button on the newsbox does. Thing will be handled just the same as if they'd clicked the newsbox one, but it lets you have a bigger/more attractive button for donations. That option can be done with or without disabling the donate button itself.

Let me know what you want to do.

[fesworks]

I've never gotten any donations

Then again I have never really asked for any directly.

Once I get a chance to make some cool, Donation worthy wallpapers, I'll try it out.

[Xepher]

I'll be honest, back when I first moved to phase 2 and started accepting donations, I figured there would be a fair amount of them. If I exclude DMFA, there have only been 26 donations to users, and 18 of those to the same 3 people. Most donations are less than a couple bucks too. If it wasn't for DMFA, there would've been less than $500 in 4 years.

Point is, don't expect to make a lot from donations until/unless you have a huge user base that comes back almost daily, AND you routinely ask for (and possibly reward) donations.

[griever]

I've never gotten any donations

I've never gotten donations either, Fez.  It's why I try to keep my site tiny. x.x  I've contemplated holding off a raffle or something like that, but I don't know.  My guess is that most of the people who visit my site are too young to have a credit card or are broke college students (or people who would rather donate to the booze stash than anything else).  If you've got more ideas for encouraging people, I'd love to know them.

[fesworks]

insentives, like Wallpaper, are webcomic's best bet for donations. I don't believe that donations should be asked unless they get something for it.

Of course, there are the "need help" sorta situations, but those are a bit different than putting up a tip jar with no incentive.

[griever]

Ahh...I don't have a webcomic and if I did, there'd be maybe 1 reader or 2, but out of friendship....  I'm also not graphically inclined either.

[fesworks]

Sent a donation your way! I got a nice donation for The Shifter Archive. The rest I'm going to use to recoup costs of some previous ads for it, and for future advertisements.

[Xepher]

Yeah, I just got it. Thank you!