The beer button
DMZ · May 27, 2007 at 9:23 am · Filed Under Site information
About that beer thing: I was playing around with plugins on Friday and threw that up for a minute to play with, Russ Hausman immediately hit it, and I cracked up laughing. Since then, ten others joined him, and I bought decent beer last night for the first time in ages (beer turned out to be more expensive than $3, but whatever, right).
Now, I don’t know if asking for random small amounts randomly for a specific purpose is more effective, or really how we might get any amount of money out of USSM, much less make a delicious living at it, but in terms of random experimentation, that worked out kind of nicely and made me grin last night while enjoying an Anchor Steam.
I think it’s a great idea, and I’d like to steal it.
Cheers! 🙂 Tho I kinda think the button should be on the column, little intrusive / ad-like on every post.
Yes, the struggle between noticability and unobtrusiveness wages eternal
Well, I don’t think it would be a problem if it was up in the byline, below the author’s name.
Leave it where it is – it’s just right.
I agree with Marbledog. It has been well documented over the years that Anchor Steam is your beer of choice.
Now we should also send Pagliacci’s with beer.
Derek,
I laughed too as I logged into Paypal. Simpy, the best reason ever to use Paypal.
I had to make up for the time King Station totally hosed up my plan to send a beer your way a few years back.
Perhaps the next time I’m in Seattle, I can do so at the ballpark.
Buy the author a beer means “support the continued existence of USSM,” right?
Not to me. The authors have been very straight up when financial concerns could have an impact on their work. I don’t see any veiled attempts to collect monies, now or ever.
For myself, it was a chance to buy a friend a beer, nothing more. Frankly, the ability to buy a friend a coffee or a beer or a meal is the reason I go to work.
When I saw it the other day for the first time, I thought it was fantastic. Leave it up, you guys certain earn it.
w/r/t continued existence of the site: probably too weighty a topic for this post, but as much as I’ve been accused of using USSM to promote my other writing (which I guess means the book), USSMers on the whole didn’t buy the book, so if that was my strategy it sure didn’t work, and we all continue to have written for years and years for pretty much $0.
I would love it if USSM paid the bills. It doesn’t, I don’t think it ever will, so I’ve given up on that.
That said, I would feel a lot better about the amount of time I spend writing for/keeping this thing running if there was some kind of actual compensation. It would also do a lot to immunize us against having something else come up and have to walk away for financial reasons, which has been a more serious threat to USSM’s existence than I think we’ve really discussed.
Well I for one enjoy the opportunity to wet your whistle.
🙂
Cheers.
I’d hit it!
Oh, wait, I did!
I very much enjoyed the opportunity to support the site, and will continue to buy a beer once in a while. I like it on each post, as it is easy to find and lets me kick a few bucks in when I enjoy a particular post or just happen to be flush in the Paypal department.
I have always advocated this method of money-raising… give a LOT of people an opportunity to contribute a small amount. I did this last year, in a way, on my personal blog and raised over 3,500 dollars for breast cancer research. I hope you enjoy the same success with your labor of love.
Wait a sec — there are USSMers who haven’t bought the book? That’s disgusting. Buy the goddamn book, you ingrates!