One of the ways open source projects generate revenue is through "donations." Many developers complain that few people donate. This article shares some tips to enhance donation willingness.

1. Design an Attractive Donation Page

Independent developers often overlook the aesthetics of their products. In fact, a visually appealing interface can effectively increase users' willingness to pay, and donations are no exception.

Which of the following two donation pages would you be more willing to donate to?

2. List Donors

People tend to follow the crowd. If users see that many others have already donated, they may quietly assume that the product is excellent.

After all, a donation list itself serves as a form of "user review."

3. Offer Some Free Donation Channels

In addition to asking users to pay real money, you can also use some "free" channels to benefit yourself, such as various referral rewards, Alipay red envelopes, etc. Here are some channels:

• Wise: After registering through the referral link, the invitee receives a transfer limit of up to ¥4500, and the inviter receives a cash reward of ¥450.
• N26: After registering through the referral link, you can receive a reward of €40.
• Alipay red envelopes: Both parties can earn a small amount of money.
• DigitalOcean: An overseas cloud service provider where the invitee can receive a USD 200 balance, and for every USD 25 spent, the inviter can earn USD 25.
• Alibaba Cloud referral rewards.
• Various referral rewards for internet tools.
• Encourage users to give you a star on GitHub.

Consider mentioning what value these free channels can bring to users.

4. Use Items Instead of Actual Price Displays

Living in the country, many may have experienced this: when a friend helps you with a small favor, giving a red envelope can be awkward, so you might treat them to a meal or a cup of coffee.

Donations are similar; consider converting the preset prices into roughly equivalent items while also leaving an option for a custom amount.

5. Provide More Payment Channels

A common method in the country is to place a payment QR code. However, for users, saving the QR code and scanning it can be a tedious process. Another example is that e-commerce platforms try to simplify the payment process for users, such as always asking if you want to enable Face ID payment.

Here are some payment channels available domestically:

• Alipay, WeChat, QQ payment codes
• UnionPay payment codes
• Cryptocurrency wallets
• Personal PayPal payments

For international options, consider:

• Stripe
• Gumroad
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Lemon Squeezy
• Personal PayPal payments

If your product serves a global audience, providing a complete set of receiving channels becomes even more important.

6. Don’t Make Users Feel Forced

Don’t make your approach too aggressive.

If you really need users to pay, you should consider changing your product's revenue model. Conversely, if you choose to go open source or completely free, don’t make users feel that they can’t use the product without paying.

Place the donation link in a prominent but unobtrusive location, and don’t block user actions with a donation panel.

7. Put Effort into Your Product

The last and most important point is to focus on making your product great. A quality product is the most effective means to increase donation revenue.

Based on these tips, I created a real donation page. If you enjoyed this article or found Geekits helpful, feel free to leave me a tip on the page! :-)