After moving my book from FastSpring to Gumroad, I decided to open the option to people of paying as much as they wanted, and I have been pleasantly suprised. The selling price point is 10U$, but I do get people consistently paying 20U$ or 25$, which is an amazing surprise, and a great feeling. I reached out to some of them to see why they payed more than what I was asking for.
The answers were surprisingly motivating: they found that the content I generate cannot be found anywhere else, and the depth and clarity of the tutorials I publish really helped them in their daily work. Some were not interested in the book itself, but they just wanted to give something back. They judged the effort I put behind the articles and decided to give something extra back.
I even got a professor who is planning to use the book as the source for one of his courses this semester.
It is a fantastic feeling when other aknowledge your work and effort.
Are there any trends with regard to a split of businesses/individuals paying additional?
I know when I can expense a purchase that I'm happy to pay more!
General overview, I see that people earning more pay more. Very few are business-related, many are students or either Ph.D. or Professors/TA. People higher up in the salary scale have been consistently paying more
That's nice to hear/read :)
The Leanpub ebook self-publishing platform supports a similar variable pricing scheme that allows to pay more than the suggested price. According to Leanpub, 20-40% of customers pay more, which confirms your experience.
Wow, great stats! I am really surprised by how people actually value one's work. I started paying it forward with the music I buy on bandcamp.
Gumroad shared some data on flexible pricing and how many customers pay more.
@aqui_c Gumroad's blog shared more insight into Pay What You Want.