Buy Me a Beer Wordpress Plugin
written by John Chow
Ankesh Kothari just released new WordPress plugin that allows my blog readers to buy me a beer via PayPal.
The plugin adds a “Buy Me a Beer” button to your sidebar and at the bottom of every post. When your readers click on the button, they are taken to the secure PayPal page so they can donate money for your drinking habits. For people who prefer non-alcoholic drinks, there is a setting to replace the beer mug with a coffee cup.
I haven’t given donation as an online moneymaking method much thought. However, I do know that it can be a viable source of revenue. Steve Pavlina has stated more than once that his second biggest income source, after Google AdSense, is donations from readers. Ankesh has been testing the buy me a beer plugin on his blog. The results so far are:
5800 unique visitors. 3 people bought me a beer (Total $11). Not much, but still more than what AdSense pays me for that same blog.
Ankesh can add another $7.50 to that total because I just brought him a pitcher for the plugin. It’ll be interesting to see if any readers will buy me a beer. I’m really thirsty. Please buy me a beer!
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(21 votes, average: 2.71 out of 5)
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I’m betting at least $300 towards this month’s revenue will come from this.
And now I see TTZ Media ads in place of adsense on the posts! What the hell’s going on! So many changes…
Diversifying? Trying to be his own boss? Better ROI? Who knows…
self-promotion
TTZ ads will be the next big thing in blog advertisement revenues…
Just wait and watch.
hmm, i doubt it
Haha I was half joking, only because I’m the one who’s coding the entire project. Just my ego.
I notice you and John and have been testing the new TTZ ads on your server. When is it going to be released? Need more beta testers?
When I finish the development of the product catalog, and brush up some other features here and there.. then we’ll release it.
I’ve got the new beta of TTZ running as well on my site. It’s quite a bit easier to use than the old version.
Its a fun looking plug in but a bit of a cheap shot really, kinda like online begging, as opposed to the ‘donate’ buttons which are used to support charities or open source projects….
On anohther note, have I got this right….
JC sells links with no follow for $10 per month, then announces he is going to stop Google indexing the comments pages to avoid having pages in the suplimental index
i disagree - i think it makes my interaction with John more personal than a “donate” button.
as a beer lover, i hope he’s actually going to buy that beer with the money i donated. thus , there’s more of a personal interaction going on there.
to be honest, if he put up a “donate” button i wouldnt have bothered, as i see donate’s all over the place. but after reading his “google supplemental” post, i just felt i HAD to buy him a beer (big problem with supplemental on some of the sites i manage = john chow gets a beer for the heads up on this issue..)
sure, with jc’s traffic, it’s easily achieved
Thats a big chance yes
John, I would buy you beer but I’m afraid you’re going to go for that “sissy” Smirnoff. I cannot have my money go to waste like that.
Promise me that you’ll drink a real man brand of beer and I’ll buy forthwith
why use the word sissy
i think you’re being sexist
Don’t knock the Smirnoff! However, if you really want, I promise to get a real beer just for you!
Don’t let them give you any guff about your choice of beverage John, I’m an astonishingly girly drinker myself.
But not that girly.
I stick to fruity blue stuff…but at least they don’t come with parasol umbrellas!
Smirnoff and beer — there is no contest. I absolutely love them both LOL.
I got an email from him too about the beer. I think I’ll put it on mine also! Beers anyone
Oh ya?
YA!
JC you’re evil making a post about something that is controversial. Now people will comment on this and we’ll have a good discussion going….
He’s so evil and we can’t do anything to stop him!
Not really controversial. just donations. Not even intrusive or anything.
Agreed, it’s actually a very sensible way to approach donation requests. Changes it from begging to something that you’d do for an acquaintance in a social setting.
hmmm, social begging
You should take it off the contact form page. It appears at the very top of the page and looks really off.
I’m interested to see what you can bring in with this puppy.
Good luck John!
Ankesh Kothari is the one who deserves the beer
That’s why I brought him a pitcher!
Is it that crap Canadian beer?!
careful…
Yeah that’s a dangerous statement…
Very dangerous… at least, we’re not drinking over-watered piss over here
Okanagan Springs beer, sleemans, Alexandre Keith can kick Pissweiser’s ass anytime.
King of beers my ass.
it’s not nice
That’s nice of you!
I should do so too, because I adopted his idea and wrote a “Buy me a Beer” module for Drupal.
must have clicked the wrong link
I wanted to reply to John’s reply on my comment.
i bought him a beer - for that Google Supplemental post earlier. Three bucks isnt going to kill me.
John I think you made enough money last month to buy us beers instead!
hmm, you’d like that , wouldn’t you
An online beer fest sponsored by John through his buy-me-a-beer campaign — not a bad idea!
I agree with Amanda. Buy us some beer!
haha, should be.. “Can I buy you a beer, send me your paypal email here”
I gotcha John…enough for the both of us
Actually it’s nothing else than a donation link and I’m quite sure that I’ve already seen it somewhere
I love that idea…I have a regular donate button but this would be soo much cooler. Too bad it’s for wordpress and not blogger..
What’d be REALLY sweet is if he actually made some videos of him drinking the beer that people donated. might be dangerous but entertaining.
thats an excellent idea!
or maybe just a photo of the beer that he bought from your donation. nice feedback idea there.
john should post a video too
John, if every suscriber gives you a beer, when you will post agani?
if people donate to john.. will they donate to someone like me?
Worth a shot huh? I could always use extra money to help pay bills etc.
Who couldn’t use the help?
No, even a better idea… use the beer money to start hosting local pub nights for marketing brainstorming and business ideas.. this would be great and Id make the trek to vancouver for one!
this would also solidify readership in my opinion.
i doubt you’d get enough money though
I want to see pictures of John actually drinking these beer though
That would be a great addition to the restaurant reviews.
Is there a girl version with a Long Island Iced Tea?
if you dont use Wordpress, all you need to do is substitute john’s email address in the URL with your own paypal email. then anchor it with “Long island iced tea” on your own blog. nice blog design you have there.
have a look at the url that john is using - its pretty straightforward to incorporate that using href tags into your own blog , no matter what the platform.
(i’ve done it in blogger)
unlike john, my buy me a beer doesnt appear at the bottom of every post. but i have it as a blob on the top right.
It’s just a mildly modified “Donation” button that you can get directly from PayPal. You could have very easily created a custom version yourself.