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Donations instead of sales

by MattJackson
7 replies
So I have a website aimed at school kids and a product thats not selling very well. I was thinking about scrapping the price, giving away the product for free and asking for donations.

Has anyone had any good experiences with this?

I think i'll still use a sales page but change it to say I used to sell this product for ten dollars but now you can have it for free and if you like it please pay what you think its worth.

I a way its like the ultimate return policy and copywriters say the better the return policy the more sales you will get.

This is not altruistic, i am trying to make as much if not more money but this does have to benefit of more people getting to use my product and fits with my beliefs better.

I guess what i am looking for is 1. stories of people who have done this and it has worked well and 2. tips that would make people donate more (for example having the names of the last 10 people to donate in the sidebar would encourage people)

Thanks for your time
#donations #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Neil Morgan
    I did try this a good number of years back with a link shortener service, in the days when those were very new.

    How much did it make?

    Not one shiny penny.

    Good luck!

    Neil
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      How do you sell - or take donations - from school kids (underage?). I'm sure it's done but have never understood how it would stand legally.

      With that age group I think you'll be giving away the product as I would doubt many donations would be forthcoming.
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      • Profile picture of the author agmccall
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        How do you sell - or take donations - from school kids (underage?). I'm sure it's done but have never understood how it would stand legally.

        With that age group I think you'll be giving away the product as I would doubt many donations would be forthcoming.
        Obviously this is something the Parents would be getting, not the child.
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  • Profile picture of the author dannygnenerate
    I would give you a shortcut on this one... Let it go.

    It would seem plausible that you'd make some money if people felt what you were giving them is valuable enough but that's not usually the case and isn't a lucrative model.

    I do understand what you're looking for but I'm being very realistic here. I'm not saying it wouldn't work so I will ask you what type of money are you trying to make here? Are you advertising this online in year books or where parents are going? What age kids? There are lots of variables to consider when approaching a situation like this.

    Your onsite content will be based on how they get there. I personally believe if a person has a product they should have multiple sites that are different depending on how they are sending their visitors there. Think about some of these things. Conversions or donation comes out of the hands of people who like your presentation. Having social proof only adds to what they want to do but if they really want to donate then they will.

    Daniel Brown - PAL
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  • Profile picture of the author Eutaw
    It is good in theory..but does not work in the real "sales" world
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      this is something the Parents would be getting, not the child.
      "aimed at school kids" isn't obvious and there are a lot of sites online aiming at kids rather than their parents.

      Downside in selling to kids is many don't have a method to send money even if they have the money - and you can't create a contract with them so you can't enforce any terms for the product or for the sale.
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      My ducks are absolutely not in a row. I don't even know where some of them are...
      ...and I'm pretty sure one of them is a pigeon.
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      • Profile picture of the author fluffythewondercat
        I think i'll still use a sales page but change it to say I used to sell this product for ten dollars but now you can have it for free and if you like it please pay what you think its worth.

        Have you ever heard of "pay with a tweet"? That's one option.

        Another is to look more closely at the world of fremiums. There are ways to make money giving product away for free. The Chris Anderson book "Free" is not (ironically) free but it's only a couple of bucks on Amazon. Worth the read.

        fLufF
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