You may have heard the phrase “donation download” a time or two as you’ve read through our site or surfed our blog, but you may not actually know what we mean? The concept behind donation downloads is really quite interesting, and can even help increase your overall sales in the long run if you take advantage of this feature. Basically, a donation download is one in which you allow your customers to choose the amount they wish to pay for the download they receive. With a donation based download, your customers will enter their own price during checkout.
Right now, you’re probably thinking that PayLoadz has officially lost its marbles, right? How can one ever make any money by allowing customers to choose what they want to pay? What about overhead, production costs, and profits? Well, those are all very good points, but let’s think about it for a moment. Yes, you are allowing customers to pay what they choose. Yes, you may not be making a profit. However, in most cases, customers will pay what they think is fair for a download. Often, this is more than enough to cover your expenses and a little extra.
It isn’t hard to implement donation downloads for your products through the PayLoadz platform. It’s also pretty easy to get started if you are selling your virtual goods through your own website or blog as well. The best, and most direct way, is to set up donation buttons through PayPal. Here are the simple steps:
- Set the donation download price to at least $0.01 on your PayLoadz listing. (We can’t allow it to be $0.00 at this time.)
- Use the Button Code Generator at https://www.payloadz.com/sell/product_codegen.asp
- Choose one of the PayPal options presented to you.
- Edit the block of code you are shown to allow for the donation amount.
- Make sure you save the updated code into your website’s HTML source code.
- Always test your changes.
There are more detailed steps located in the PayLoadz Help section. But don’t worry, getting set up with donation downloads will only take a few minutes of your time.
Donation downloads can be used in a variety of ways. You may choose to use such an option if you want your proceeds to be donated to your favorite charity. Perhaps your virtual goods are related to a cause. Donation downloads can also be a great marketing tool. Perhaps you are offering a new virtual good and want to test it out on the market. Allowing customers to pay what they wish is a great way to test its popularity, functionality, and what it’s worth in the public’s eye.
Aside from donation downloads, you may also want to offer your customers free download files, sample files, or even special discounts. When used in conjunction with donation downloads, you will definitely see your sales increase. If your customers feel that they are getting a deal, which they are, they will become returning, loyal (and happy) customers.
