On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 05:36:13PM +0900, Patrick Shirkey wrote: (cut) >Apart from that IMO the amount of money spent is useful to know from a >business POV. If 6 months of clicking can generate $450 for Google then >we must be able to channel that more effectively into LAD projects.
I guess you have a point. >My initial thought is that setting up a fund which can be used for LAUs >to make donations into would be viable based on this rate of income. Good idea. >Are there any companies which have merchant facilities that would be >interested in hosting/sponsoring this fund? We could set up an award >system where the contributors vote for their most used apps and the >money in the fund is distributed based on the votes. >IMO we need merchant facilities to allow people to use their credit >cards to make donations without the overhead which paypal charges. It >would also be possible for people to make cash transfer donations if >they don't have a credit card. Obviously the former is less hassle and >probably more likely to generate income. Paypal charges something extra cause there are real costs involved :). I looked up some prices for online merchant facilities for the company I work for and they are not cheap, you have to pay a monthly fee and some percentage or forfait per transaction. You need a relatively high volume merchant site to go with. (economics of scale). Is Paypal that bad ? I contributed to Ardour through Paypal and in so far I know, it works. I wonder if Paul is happy with their service ? >I am willing to do the web based work and host the portal for this if >there is someone who can host the bank account. I have some ideas on how >to do this efficiently. The technical (web-side) is usually not the problem here. The financial, transaction handling part is a problem though. best regards, Vincent
