It's Monday... time to piss off the readership!

07/21/2008 01:02 PM by Chris Toohey

Back in February, I asked for feedback and suggestions on a subscription service for various applications and tools that I planned to release on this site. I really liked the "tipping" idea that John Smart had suggested, and thus added some Paypal donation links to the site. It's now almost 6 months later, and in that time I've released the following downloadable applications/utilities:

• Sorting Hat v0.1
• SOTU - Remote Console Reporting v0.1
• SOTU - Remote Console Reporting v0.2

... not to mention Quick and Dirty Mail Application Document Importing Example Database and Excel Export Example Database just prior to my aforementioned 02-27-2008 post. All downloadable examples or fully-functioning applications/utilities/etc., and released because I think it'll help people. That's honestly why - and if there's a second reason behind it, it's to get feedback from the community on how I'm doing things... do you have a better technique/method/etc., I'm all ears! It's not to make money or push the need for someone to Paypal me a dollar if they like what they see.

To date, I've have received $0 in donations via Paypal (or anything else for that matter). Now, this tells me that the subscription service for software would have been a complete failure. The Tip Jar to this point has been a complete failure. So... I think it's time for me to ask you, Constant Reader, for suggestions. But before I get to the question, I want to lay down my motivations behind this post:

1. I do not want people flooding my Paypal account with pity-donations... that's not why I posted this today.
2. I know this post will come across to some readers as whiney - as someone had commented that our "WTF of the Week" on an episode of commenting on buzz-posts getting more hits on PL than something that's often truly revolutionary was whiney and childish - but again, I am not trying to say "woe is me, gimme monies!!!".

So what am I getting at here? Basically this: Since I do believe that a subscription service would fail miserably, and the tip jar approach has so far failed... I'm looking for suggestions on making the most out of providing downloadable applications, utilities, and tools while giving myself the opportunity to justify the personal time investment on said projects - possibly through some form of compensation.

So... any thoughts? I'd prefer candid responses via the comments so we can discuss this as a community... but feel free to email me or IM me with your feedback if you don't want to go "on record" calling me an jerk ;-)