[xavoy]

Believe me when I say that you are _by far_ the minority. _By Far_. I run a web site with over 16,000 registered users. They use the web site regularly and I get countless emails from people telling me how much the site has helped them. And yet, less than 2% pay for a cheap upgrade which gives them a access to a heap of new features and some amazing downloads. I've had one donation _ever_ (in over five years) and every time I ask for support or offer membership upgrades I loose massive amounts of email subscribers.

Whilst it's true that my marketing skills (or lack thereof) are partially to blame for these reasonably pathetic results, it's also compelling empirical evidence that you are in the minority (less than 2%).

If it wasn't for the on site advertising, which barely covers hosting costs, I would have shut the site down years ago. It eats up way too much of my time as it is.

[jrockway]

Nobody is going to pay for something they can get for free. You set an upper bound on the price when you gave your content away.

My guess is that the porn companies, which make you buy annoying subscriptions, make a lot more money that way than they would with some Google text ads. It's because they don't set the price at $0 and then ask for any amount of money. The set the price at $30 and ask for $30. Don't have $30? No soup for you.

[xavoy]

A lot of what I'm selling is not given for free. And the point wasn't my lack of success, but the fact that you said you'd give your money to someone who asked for it.

I'm just saying that even if this was true (which, based on what you just said, is not the case) that you would be the minority by a long, long way.