Financial Support WinCustomize

from WinCustomize Forums
Just read the message about the performance issues on WinCustomize.

I think that it is necessary to have a available place for the skin community.

Therefor, may I suggest that the skin community supports WinCust by donating an amount of money to WinCust, instead of buying a CD with a lot off skins we already have, never will use etc.

I would freely donate $ 20,-.

Regards,

Kees Mulder
27,644 views 42 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Purrrr... Yeah, but you'd get a CD for your $

and who knows, you might crash/burn and loose all your skinz.

gotta love the shiny round things!

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Purrrr... what with all the doom & gloom anyways?

It was said by Frogboy that the down time was due to release of DesktopX .90

hehe I remember DL WB for the first time...took me all day at .02kbs
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Personally speaking, I would not be in favor of WinCustomize having any sort of subscription at this point. As long as there are other skin sites available like DeviantArt, there just isn't enough pressure on WinCustomize to justify anything like that.

The best route (I think) is to have T-shirts, CDs, and other optional goodies that users can purchase that help support the site and the user gets something useful. Heck, if we ever had a hard drive crash and didn't have backups, maybe someone could loan us their WinCustomize CD! (just kidding) >

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Coffee Cup I'll buy a CD but what I really want to buy is a coffee cup...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
David, how much would you pay for a coffee cup? Anything is possible if there is enough demand. What do people want? We were think 3 T-shirts and the CD, but would it be better to have 2 T-Shirts, a CD and something like a coffee mug? What do you guys really want? I have some good contacts on the promotional products side, so let me know and I'll find out what it would cost. Let me know what you guys want and how much you are willing to pay, and I'll see what can be done. It would be great if we can support the site and get stuff we want. I work for Stardock, but I'll still personally be buying some of the stuff to support the site.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Coffee cup, that's a pretty good idea. I think hats too. Lockergnome sells this kind of stuff, we can look over there and see what they do. I'd buy a hat.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No thanks no T-Shirt for me
but you could put me down for the coffee cup for sure
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Coffee cup?
I'd say preorder one for me, and one for Doreen too...

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
How about a baseball cap. That's what I would buy!
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Coffee cup, t-shirt, baseball cap, windbreaker, a complete WinCustomize ensemble. For the skinner that has everything....except a life
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Don't forget the 'designer' luggage....and the 'signature' perfume for the ladies...

I'm in need of a new coffee mug......
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Mouse pad would be cool (and the aforementioned coffee cup). Can never have enough coffee mugs.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Looks like a coffee cup would be pretty popular. I'm not sure what the going rate is, I think it depends a lot on who makes it. A friend of mine made promotional mugs for his company and they cost him $5 apiece with two color screening, but he bought hundreds of them.

Jafo - designer luggage and signature perfume? would that really go with a baseball cap?

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
DavidK - I wouldn't go there if I were you, might be too much information.
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Dave....it would make a statement.....just not sure what....hehe...
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Purrrr... hehe, I don't recognize my hubby W/O a bbc on!
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OK, all these things are physical things that need to be shipped and passed through customs for us international guys. What about trying to think of things that can be downloaded? A Wincustomize screensaver? If somebody knows a musician who'd be willing to share profit a Wincusto theme song could be cool. You know, digital ideas would be better IMO.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I know, that idea doesn't help the bandwidth issue, but they could be hosted at sites such as download.com and MP3.com.

Here's another idea. What about having a contest each month for the best skin suite. Anybody could enter the contest, everybody gets to vote (like the skinz T-SHirt contest), and the winner gets to have his suite up for sale on this site.
The suite doesn't need to be 10 applications, it could just be 4 apps, such as DesktopX (or Litestep), Windowblinds, Winamp (Or Coolplayer or WMP) and a 4th optional application like IconPackager ICQ Plus or KewlpAd.
Profits would be shared between Stardock and the skinner. Of course prices need to be reasonable, how about 5$ for a suite?
How about that?
That way there could be a new 5$ suite every month.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
paxx...bad idea....Treetog would win every darn time....[at least until I cast those concrete gumboots for him and take him 'swimming']...
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
$5.00 items don't work out very well. The problem is: card processing. every order has 2.5% taken off as a fee, then $.30 per transaction. So, out of $5 you actually see $4.57 (that is with Stardock picking up the gateway fees and any chargeback issues). So, even if only 25% went to the skinner, WinCustomize would only see $3.43. Considering that this route would add bandwidth usage, I'm not sure how much it would help.

David, if your friend paid $5.00 per mug, he got ripped off. I have been looking into low runs of mugs (150) with 3 color imprint, and so far, it looks like it will be reasonable. Hats are also within range with a 2 to 3 color logo.

How much are you guys willing to pay for a mug or hat? Would you be more willing to buy several things at once (Like a mug, T-shirt and hat) if we keep the s/h a flat rate (Like $5 US/ $10 international) no matter how much you buy at one time?

All input is appreciated!
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Even if Stardock gets 3.43$ per order, I believe mass could make it worthwhile. Every month a new suite would be introduced, but the older ones would still be available. So after one year, there are 12 suites to choose from. Given they are going to be excellent suites I am sure a lot of people will readily buy them. Sales would probably increase as more suite are available. Say 1000 people buy each suite every month, then there would be 1000 suites sold the first month, 2000 the second month, etc.
I don't think it's unreasonable to think that after a few months there would be more than 5000 suites sold every month. At 3.43$ a shot, that's more than 17 000$ of revenu for Stardock. I think it could help pay for the bandwith.
And the best thing is that there are practically no cost involved into putting it into place. So even if you only get half of that amount, well, you get 8 500$ a month and it didn't cost you anything.
You could still sell CDs, and T-Shirts, and such, but sell top quality skins as another additional revenue.
My suggestion.