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NC for Hire

As we all near July & August 20 being able to track member payments will be key for those of us who will use member payments to fund our networks. It would also be helpful to allow our members to see the progress towards our collective goal. If members can track the progress of our fund raising efforts it can spur them to action and help create the kind of team spirit to that shares in the success of a goal. There are widgets that can do this but what if you wanted to do something on your own?

Help me raise $1,000 virtual dollars


Instead of doing a lot of explaining you can participate in a working demonstration of what I am proposing. The image you see above is a dynamic image file created from a Google Doc. It is not static. What this means is that the image should update within a certain interval of time when the Google Spreadsheet receives new input. It is also embeddable which makes it ideal for posting on the front page of your network if you want to show the progress of your efforts. You could always link to it inside your network if you wanted to keep it private as well.

I put in 2 test amounts totaling $25 dollars. One idea could be to update your spreadsheet yourself on payment being received by filling out a Google doc form or simply typing the results in directly into the appropriate columns on the spreadsheet. Ideally it would be automated and one way you could do this is to create a redirect after payment that goes to a form (as a thank you page) where you would ask the subscribers the basic questions you would need answered to create your chart.

Well enough theory if you would like to test it out you could go to the network where I set up the iframe embed. I could not embed it here because forums don't accept iframes. When you visit the network just fill out the form and the results will update here or take a look at the form (removed, we've more than reached our goal). You can also view the results of the people who filled out the form before you. In this case, I used the test names of Eric and Evan. They chipped in 10 and 25 virtual dollars.

How much virtual money can you afford to spend and how long will it take to get to $1000 dollars. You decide..

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  • WOW... very nice. Before I started using a subscription based model, I took donations, and I had a similar progress widget. I can tell you that displaying a graph for your members to see really makes a big difference in the amount of donations you get.

    Display it for a while, to passively get the idea into peoples minds, then make a direct call for action with a broadcast message. The two work together brilliantly.

    Great idea to do it in Google docs.
    • NC for Hire
      Thanks. Google docs has been amazing in augmenting several aspects of my Ning Networks. This is just one of them.

      This one came out of a frustration with working with the Chip in widget. It didn't allow you to add an initial amount so that you can have a goal of let's say $500 and start off with $100 already accomplished and then have every contribution after that be based on that initial amount.

      I liked the graph function so I figured I could highlight that aspect of the donation/subscription part. I'm glad you liked it as I could similarly say WOW about your Supergroups.
      • yeah.. i had been using SPROUT, which was made by the same company as chip-in, but offered a lot of flash like design options. they discontinued their service except to big ad agencies though, so i had to give it up.

        Honestly, it doesnt need to be updated by the minute anyway...

        I would recommend putting the visual graph up front with a big "Contribute Now" button that goes to paypal, then have the NC manually update the google doc.
  • outta site garfield! i like.
  • NC for Hire
    P.S. If it's not abundantly clear anybody can add money using the forms to make the chart go up. Add 10, 25, 100 bucks. It's all monopoly money. I am not asking for real money. :-) Click here to add money to the chart in the discussion. I'll post a donor list when we get to 1,000 :-)
  • Looks like it handles large donations just fine, enjoy the cash G.
    • NC for Hire
      Big spender. I reduced your amount to match the current economic times and not the one in 4010. If you have that much much money it would be better spent helping with the Gulf situation. (FYI everyone - they gave an amount with like 28 zeros to kick the tires and it didn't break) I reduced it to $100 bucks. This is the current donor list for a current total of 668.95

      6/21/2010 Juan dela Cruz 25
      6/20/2010 Deckard Cain 50
      6/19/2010 WINGZZZZZ $49.95
      6/19/2010 BAbe-aham Lincoln $350
      6/19/2010 Thunder X 10
      6/19/2010 radialistas 5
      6/19/2010 Cindy Partipilo $20
      6/18/2010 gdgd 34
      6/16/2010 Evan 15 (i made these)
      6/15/2010 Eric 10 (i made these)
      5/1/1969 PinupLifestyle.com 100
      • lol!

        Now here is the big question G, can you display that back end info showing who donated? on the site embedded also?
This reply was deleted.
 

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