On Jan 9, 2009, at 1:12 AM, A. Johnson wrote: > Problem: DW needs to make money to run! And we want to have more > than just paid accounts to make people want to give us money. Small > impulse purchases are especially awesome, but small money amounts are > disproportionately eaten by fees. So, for instance, if we sell $1 v- > gifts? We only get 67 cents if someone buys just one, because there > is a 2.7% + 30 cent fee for the transaction. That is sad and a waste. > > Possible solution: We implement a (nonrefundable) points system. It's > a lot more flexible than the gift certificate system. Points are > bought in bulk, but can be used on tiny purchases that would otherwise > be awkward to offer for payment.
[snip] I like this idea a lot. I've been thinking about that very problem lately -- small-scale payments are inconvenient for everyone, and while there's a business-based benefit to having small items for sale (like vgifts), because people are willing to spend $1 here and there, there's also a corresponding barrier to payment there when people think "eh, I don't want to haul out my credit card for only $1 of purchase". (I know I personally am *way* more likely to buy a friend a vgift if I have $1 kicking around in my PayPal account, for instance.) The existing LJ gift certificate system is so inflexible that it's nearly worthless for things like this. It'll also allow us to build in small one-use features that cost us money but that we want to open up to more than just the paid userbase. (Ongoing features, such as extra userpics, etc, get into some hinky issues around prorating and/or staggered expiration dates that won't be insurmountable to solve, but which will require tons of engineering. That can be done down the road.) For instance, like you suggest, exporting journal to .pdf and stuff like that -- stuff that takes resources, but which is useful enough that it shouldn't only be a paid-user feature. The *immediate* problem I could conceivably see with this is accountancy-based questions about how to carry that particular revenue. But that's hardly insurmountable, just another small layer of accounting. There'll be long-term social/business issues revolving around this (it'll inevitably bring up the wish for a-la-carte paid account design again, which we've covered in the past -- I need to write up a Wiki page that I can point people at with the pluses and minuses of that idea and why we've decided not to go with it at launch) but I don't think they'll be insurmountable. > These points could be transferrable--you could donate points to other > users in any amount, enabling a micropayment system between users. > Community users could donate towards having their community get a paid > account, for instance. (Hopefully paid communities will get more > extra community oriented perks -- see http:// > dreamwidth.cometheapocalypse.com/notes/ > Possible_paid_community_features > for ideas). Communities could run contests and pay out in points. > It helps spur a gift economy between users--they may not want to drop > $10 or $20 on another person for a paid account, but they might be > willing to drop 50 cents or $1 worth of points easily. I particularly *really* like this; it means that the solution is good for the business (avoiding high transaction fees) *and* good for the userbase. Part of the cool thing about social-media sites is the economies they build (in terms of social reputation, friends, social currency, etc) -- having something like points would allow users to trade that social currency for actual services. (How many times have I wanted to tip someone who makes awesome posts, but not enough to buy them a whole year of paid time, for instance?) If we set points to be worth something very small, like $.01, it will let people micro- tip. We'll have to be really clear that donating points back and forth between users is something we can't arbitrate and once something's donated, it's donated and there'll be no undoing the transaction (else that way lies madness), but I think with the proper messaging, we're good with that. --D -- Denise Paolucci [email protected] Dreamwidth Studios: Open Source, open expression, open operations. Coming soon! _______________________________________________ dw-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dwscoalition.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dw-discuss
