5
19 Comments

Adding a donation page: Do I even bother? 🤷‍♂️

I've been thinkning about adding a donation page 💵 for buildfaster.co

I sell HTML themes that are easy-to-use and beautifully designed. That is where my revenue comes from.

However, I have seen other sites have donation pages (to Gumroad, Patreon, etc.).

Should I implement a domation page into my site? Would people actually donate to help me create more landing pages and advertise?

Or would it just sit there like a pretty-little-thing on buildfaster.co doing nothing 😕

on June 22, 2020
  1. 6

    Only do this if you offer free templates. I went to your site and I don’t see any.

    1. 1

      Yeah, that makes sense.

  2. 2

    Hey brayden, on the freeones you could put. Pay what you want.

    1. 2

      Good idea :)

      I’ll try that out

      1. 1

        Good luck Bryden !

        1. 1

          Haha thanks!

  3. 2

    I feel like a donation page belongs on a personal site, not a business one. (unless it's primarily free as mrbenny mentioned)

  4. 1

    Maybe put out a few freebies. Could attract a lot of attention/traffic to your premium themes, and you'd also have a case for donations then!

    1. 1

      I’ll try that. Especially if many IndieHackers thinks it’s a good idea 👍

  5. 1

    If you are running a business, don't do it. I saw different discussions on this and having donation button on a business page does more harm that good, because customers will think twice before buying from you, because a business asking for donations is either shady or has money trouble. And neither of these two gives me confidence we would have a good long term relationships.

    Although this applies more on other long-term SaaS solutions rather than selling themes, I think it would also apply to bigger customers for who long term support is important. You don't want to invest in a theme, only to find out you can't get support for something you bought, a few months later when you encounter some bug.

    1. 1

      I totally hear you.

      That makes sense. I will now for sure not consider adding a donation page.

      Thanks for your help

  6. 1

    I wouldn't do it, because I believe that donate button works great for charity/free products, but that's only my opinion.
    Why would you do nothing? Why can't you create more templates and promote more your product/website?

    1. 1

      Ok makes sense. What I mean by "it would do nothing" is that I would put the donate page on buildfaster.co hoping for donations, but it would generate nothing.

      Hope that's clear.

      1. 0

        Oh sorry, I read last line as "Or would I just sit there..".
        Maybe If I really wanted to add some donate button I would definitely use Buy Me A Coffee service instead, just because it sounds and looks better.

        1. 1

          Oh no worries :)

          I've heard about that, I'll check it out. Thanks!