The blogclout widget that allows users to add a button to their sidebar, or a link under each blog post is used a lot by some and not at all by others.
Essentially, the premise is that asking for donations has become lame and bloggers need to find different ways to encourage readers to dip into their funds to contribute towards hosting and the time spent creating content. It is a gentle monetization that allows for a small amount of money to be passed, without dominating a site with advertisements.
The installation of the widget is as straightforward as installing any other Wordpress plugin, simply upload the files to your plugin directory and then activate it from the plugin screen in your Wordpress Admin console.
A quick visit to settings > buy me a beer will then allow you access to the bits of this plugin that make it all work. (click the image for a clearer view).
The first setting is the PayPal email address that you want the payment to be made to. It is only PayPal that is an option here, but as this is the single largest payment vehicle on the internet I guess that is not too much of an issue.
Once you have added your email address you can then select the preferred currency for your payment to be received in. I am not sure if this is specific to my blog - but this setting never quite seems to ’stick’ and it defaults to USD. As I have only ever received half a dozen donations (many thanks to; Bill, Josie, Yertga, Rage, hUb8le, and ink4!) I have not spent any time investigating why this may be the case - but if you intend to use this plugin you should be aware.
Having chosen your currency you can choose an amount. This is optional. You can leave the box blank and your contributor can choose the amount - or you can put the amount you would like in the box. Please be aware that if you decide on an amount the contributor will not be able to change this.
Next up is a box for a URL to a ‘thank you’ page, which if you want to use you will need to create (easiest way is to write a new page in Wordpress - then cut and paste the full URL into this box).
If you are using this to put a button/link into your sidebar then you can add a title and perhaps a short (encouraging!) description as to what you are asking for.
Then there is a drop down to select ‘beer’ or ‘coffee’. This governs whether a foamy beer mug or a coffee cup and saucer are shown in your sidebar (if you want to have different icons to the supplied ones simply replace an image with one of your choosing - but both are perfectly adequate I think!)
In good SEO practice you can then define the alt text for the icon used.
The auto insert check box then governs whether a link will appear for every post (even if this is selected you can override this for each post by using the advanced settings when you are creating the post itself.
The box for name is an opportunity for you to influence what will be shown on the PayPal page.
The icon drop down here is for the icon shown in the post link (rather than the one above for the sidebar).
Then the alt text (in good SEO practice) for the link icon.
Then the link text itself.
I think that this is (in the main) a well conceived and tidy plugin. It does have a few issues:
- Currency seems to default to USD
- It is not entirely clear what each of the settings do until you try it out
But to be honest, if you want to encourage people to give you cash in return for the content you have created I am quite certain that this is the easiest and least intrusive method out there. All around a very sound plugin/widget, which has good appeal and delivers well for those that wish to use it.
I have run out of coffee - fancy buying me one? Tags: access, admin, amount, Beer, Bill, blog, blogclout, box, Button, click, coffee, content, contributor, currency, drop, email, installation, internet, Josie, link, lot, monetization, money, option, page, payment, PayPal, plugin, post, practice, premise, screen, SEO, setting, sidebar, site, text, time, upload, URL, USD, vehicle, view, widget, Wordpress, work
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