Donations For Free RPGs
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:16 pmA long time ago we talked about how getting paid to make RPGs might make the fun of making games more like work. At that time we also discussed if getting donations would have the same effect.
Well I was building a website for my friend's business and he asked about taking credit card payments. Long story short, we talked about using Paypal as a processor and I promised to check out the options.
While doing this I found out that you do not want to use the Donate button they have. Paypal apparently feels that only charities that are raising money for a "legitimate cause" should be able to take donations.
So I had to make my own button because "buy now" doesn't make sense and I doubt anyone would want to keep sending in payments like a subscription button does.
I made a button that says "Support Free RPGs", so far so good.
The problem is that they want you to define a set value for the donation, *ahem* I mean purchase. There was one way around this that I decided on. You can create a drop down menu that has different monetary amounts and descriptions. I decided to go with.
Buy me a coffee $1
Buy me lunch $5
Buy me a pizza $10
Buy me a T-Shirt $20
Send my wife on a date $50
I figure people might take pity on my wife. No one would hand me $50.
It's reasonably easy to set up through Paypal. I have no idea how to handle sales tax. That may never become an issue but it would be nice if I had to figure it out.
What do you think? Would you do something similar?
Well I was building a website for my friend's business and he asked about taking credit card payments. Long story short, we talked about using Paypal as a processor and I promised to check out the options.
While doing this I found out that you do not want to use the Donate button they have. Paypal apparently feels that only charities that are raising money for a "legitimate cause" should be able to take donations.
So I had to make my own button because "buy now" doesn't make sense and I doubt anyone would want to keep sending in payments like a subscription button does.
I made a button that says "Support Free RPGs", so far so good.
The problem is that they want you to define a set value for the donation, *ahem* I mean purchase. There was one way around this that I decided on. You can create a drop down menu that has different monetary amounts and descriptions. I decided to go with.
Buy me a coffee $1
Buy me lunch $5
Buy me a pizza $10
Buy me a T-Shirt $20
Send my wife on a date $50
I figure people might take pity on my wife. No one would hand me $50.
It's reasonably easy to set up through Paypal. I have no idea how to handle sales tax. That may never become an issue but it would be nice if I had to figure it out.
What do you think? Would you do something similar?
