DMs Guild Pay What You Want on the DMs Guild - An Analysis and Explanation

[RealAlHazred]

As an experiment, I put a one-page Cleric Domain I'd made up (the Community Domain) on the DM's Guild as PWYW. It's one page; I'd feel weird asking for even a small amount of money for it.

Here's my sales report:


For me, this is a ridiculous success. I'm humbled and pleased that people would throw some money in the pot. I have done this hobby for free for decades, which includes making exactly this sort of thing for my players (or even other DMs' players) without recompense. I now have to consider my massive binders of old material for possible finishing/polishing/publishing.

 

[jayoungr]

It's one page; I'd feel weird asking for even a small amount of money for it.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you just make it free?

 

[Jimbro]

Out of curiosity, why didn't you just make it free?

Impossible to do the DMs Guild. You can make PWYW, but the minimum price you can suggest is $0.50.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Out of curiosity, why didn't you just make it free?

I figured the guy who I wrote it for might throw me a quarter, which was a joke I'd made at the time.

 

[jamesjhaeck]

Impossible to do the DMs Guild. You can make PWYW, but the minimum price you can suggest is $0.50.

I don't think that's right. I've seen several free products on DMs Guild that aren't PWYW. This is the first one I saw: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/175140/Free-Dungeon-Map-3?affiliate_id=719494

 

[Jimbro]

I don't think that's right. I've seen several free products on DMs Guild that aren't PWYW. This is the first one I saw: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/175140/Free-Dungeon-Map-3?affiliate_id=719494

Well I'll be! I have no idea how he did that. I tried a bunch with Greater & Elder Elementals.

I know some of the resources are given for free.

 

[ccs]

Wow. That's crazy, especially when you consider it's so easy to go back and pay something for a product after downloading it for free... I wonder why more people don't do that.

I would assume the answers because they had no interest in paying anything in the 1st place.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

In general, PWYW is used to build an audience. Eventually, one might obtain a steady source of patronage but for a new designer, it's easy to be ignored at anything other than free or PWYW.

It's also important to acquire as much feedback as possible.

Personally, since I started last month, I've been fortunate enough to receive feedback on improving my craft. I've made some pocket money and the amount that people give me has been increasing the more I improve my skills.

I'm not really considering this more than a side income hobby though, since I'm not part of an established company.

 

[Matthan]

If reviews are really that hard to come by, I'll offer some of my free time. I'm not anyone special, but if you'll send me a PM with a link to your PWYW product, I'll take a look and write up a review. If I suddenly get hit with dozens of these, it'll take a while, but if it's just a few (and your products are short), I'll get through them in a week or so.

 

[Giant2005]

I haven't used DMs Guild specifically, but my experience with PWYW on OBS in general has been pretty abysmal. It definitely hasn't made money for me. I find a low price works much better.

I absolutely agree with this!
All of my products used to be PWYW and for a while they generated much more cash than I ever expected but as more and more people put things on DMsGuild, that no longer became true. People only have so much money to spend and tend to want a lot more than they can afford - the simple (and prominently used) solution is to pay nothing for those you can pay nothing for and spend your limited money on those you must.
I'd be willing to keep things PWYW if it wasn't for how DMsGuild is set up, but the problem is that if you don't get enough sales, your product doesn't get advertised, if it doesn't get advertised, then you lose the potential for sales. Free sales simply contribute nothing at all on that front, so you need to force people to spend at least something to keep your products relevant. I have since moved all of my products but one behind a paywall and they are doing better because of it.


The lack of ratings is a pretty serious issue with no solution though. I used to check all of my products multiple times per day for new discussions and such, but I quickly learned that was a massive waste of time. Now I just check them once per week if at all.