23 thoughts on “Newsletter – Nov 29, 2016”

  2. Hi Jachym –

    We are not advising you place the adsene on your site. We are advising you create a block on the install that EVERYONES site will have. People are more willing to help if it means not having reach into their own pockets. Sad but true.

    By having a block with adsense people can add to their site (not yours) by choice to help you out and it will cost them nothing other than a small bit of space on their front page

    • Im not sure I understand this, but this is also not an option. Remember that it would be the exact same problem:
      1. they would then need the licenses too because their site would not be non-commercial
      2. how would that generate money to me…. even if I disregard my previous point (which makes it irrelevant), I still think it would be the same problem as if I put it on my site. Due to the nature of this page/template, AdSense is not likely to generate almost anything.

      Lets just leave it all as it is and hopefully it will be ok. I will do everything I can, also because for me, Meteotemplate has many benefits too. I learned programming (and Im still learning), Im making something useful and sensible, getting contacts all around the world, even learning words from new languages, creating a potential portfolio…

  3. I am amazed and impressed at the quality of what you have accomplished. The number of updates to blocks and plugins is astounding. My suggestion would be to work more for money and less on this project. There are updates coming several times a week! I find them hard to keep up with.

    Like you, I have learned a lot about HTML, Java and CSS from working with your stuff.

  4. Have you considered AdSense for just the meteotemplate.com website so you could generate some revenue from folks loading the page and downloading – but still keep the template ad-free and donationware?

    It would give you some offsets for visitors to the template, yet not impact users of the template or their sites.

    Some location suggestions are on the post-download page, a side block on the homepage, etc.

    • See my commetns about this below.

      1. this would no longer be non-commercial then – i.e. see below all the problems associated with that

      2. as I also mentioned in one of the comments below, AdSense only generates money if people click on it, not from page views. And so it is more likely to generate money for example to a blogger who has a blog about video games or a girl with a blog about fashion and if they have an ad for one of the products or similar stuff next to it, people are likely to click it. But now think about this particular situation… how many people go to my site and just happen to be looking for a new weather station 😀 not many 😀

      And since I also love clean design I really think that this would not be worth it. Even if I did not take into account all the licensing problems, it would generate maybe 1-2 dollars a month.

      • Hmm, quite the pickle.

        Well, another possible monetization aspect could be offering a “setup” service or support service where everything is free and available as it is now. You answer questions now as is – the basic stuff is great to continue, but you could have suggested donations for questions to help keep the lights on.

        The second one is a setup service. Some folks have no idea how to set up a site, but really want this awesomeness set up. The template is 100% free and not monetized, but in exchange for a certain donation amount you would set up their site for them and get them started. This in theory is a quick job for you since you’re well versed in it and is a way not tied to the template you could earn some extra donations.

        • I.e. you are suggesting offering full installation – something I do on average once or twice a week, sometimes including complete setup of MySQL in hosting cPanel as well 🙂 But that is part of the support too. I understand some people as much as they want to, have no clue what to do.

  5. Hi Jachym
    I wonder if it might be an idea to give people an idea what your running costs are on a monthly basis i.e. hosting etc, I know its hard to put a figure on you own time as some of it must be a labour of love if not all.

    • Ÿou are right, it would be difficult to make a generalization because my part-time job is not really fixed and it is up to me how much and how often I do it and I sort of adjust that based on how much stuff I have in terms of MT.

  6. You can look at it this way – you are suggesting me to charge some fixed amount annualy. Well, it does not make much sense. If people wanted to do this – they already can. They can simply send some fixed amount regularly for the fact I take care of the template, update it and offer support.
    Those who don´t want to do this, would most likely not do it if I specifically asked for it either so this way it makes no difference.

  7. Jachym – could you develop an extra block that displayed some relevant adverts for MET products from Amazon or Adsense adverts that were MET related that were tied back to an adsense or Amazon referral account of yours?

    Please could then add the block to their page costing them nothing but generating you revenue? It could be done in a tasteful way without spoiling the look of a site.

    • Hi Alan,
      no, I really want no ads whatsoever….

      First of all – it would then be commerical, AdSense is not non-commercial. Second, the revenue you get is related to not the number of views, but number of clicks. It therefore really depends on the audience and in this particular case, I dont think many people go to my site and are also interested in buying a new weather station so the revevnue would probably be like maybe 5 dollars a month (plus my point number one, so definitely not worth it).

  8. Hello Jachym ,

    I m very new with meteotemplate
    and so far i m very happy with you and the service you gave.

    Some ideas:
    Meteotemplate license
    1 year license for € 15,-
    1 year license for € 29,95,- ( with full support)

    or Send a donation newsletter 😀

    Greetz
    Klaas

    • See my posts below. I WANT to keep this free.
      Just to name a few reasons again:

      1. some people really cannot afford paying for it – I want even those to have the possibility
      2. my goal is not to make money out of this, but to enjoy working on it and to enjoy seeing other people´s websites
      3. making this commercial, even if just for 1 dollar, would make things much more complicated in terms of all licenses to many scripts used in the template
      4. implementing the actual payment gate in the page is also not that easy and I dont even know how to do it and how it would work. (eg. – sending download link only to someone who paid? How do you then prevent them from sending it to other person as a zip file too…)
      5. people would look at you totally differently if you sold it compared to when you just offer it. I like to be seen as the one who does this because I enjoy it and because it makes me really happy to see other people´s site. You could say Im not a good businessman, but I think thats not true 😀 I actually am, just that this is not a business for me…
      6. taxes – also would be much more complicated

      AND….

      Meteotemplate is actually something that helped me to learn programming as such and I am still learning it and there are (fortunately rarely) moments where something does not work no matter what I try and I have no clue why. In such case I have piece of mind in a sense I bear no responsibility and that person can only say, well too bad, unfortunately it does not work. It would be different if they thought – hang on, I paid for this and its not working and he didnt fix it.

      etc etc…

  9. Hello Jachym, I can only follow Alan’s words. The product are fantastic, the support very good. Thank you for the Greek Meteogram !! A part of my family comes from Greece.

    Best Regards from Hitfeld (Aachen)

    Alex.

    • Thanks, Im sure it will be ok whatever happens.

      I can only emphasize one last time that making two versions (one paid and one limited free) or making only one commercial is not an option and I am not considering it.

      The project will continue, it is only a matter of how fast and how much.
      Thanks!

  10. Hello Jackim

    I think all people who work with Meteotemplate know and recognize your superb work. I think like Sylvain it takes a frame to Meteotemplate. It seems to me that financially an annual contribution seems to me judicious why not to create a simple association with contributors who will have more advantages than others this seems to me logical and legal.
    cordially
    Pats

    • Hi Pats,
      no, I really do not want to do that. I know very well myself what it is like when even 20 dollars would be a problem and I want even those users to be able to use it.
      Likewise, as I mentioned previously, it would totally change the status of MT from non-commercial and so the price would have to be not just something symbolic.

      Last but not least – I just feel good about leaving it to others and offering it for free. I just feel better about it. My dad is a CEO in a major company and offered me help many times, I always refused it. Maybe you think Im stupid, but I just feel better being independent and in this case offering it to everyone, rather than having more money.

      Let´s see. It is hopefully not a question of will there be meteotemplate or not. Even if I raised nothing I would somehow be able to keep it alive at least in some way.

  11. HI Jachym,

    I think it will be time for you to think to have 2 version of the meteotemplate, the free version who have limited feature and the pro version with all feature.

    I know it’s not a simple decision, but the pro version can have 2 version of licence, one price when you purchase it and you need to purchase update, or a price for life time upgrade.

    I understand you make a excellent great job but you need to get some money to continue.

    • Hi Sylvain. This is not an option. First of all – there is no way I can find time to support two versions, just think about all the documentation, releases, download files…
      And also remember – as soon as I make this commercial, I would have to get all the licenses for commercial use for Highcharts etc. So the price then could not be some symbolic payment, but rather a monthly fee of maybe 20 dollars and not many people would like that…
      No, this really is not a solution.

  12. Jachym – Understand completely your situation and would like take the opportunity to thank you for such a great product and the support you give everyone on a daily basis. Hopefully the tide will change and the template continues to grow in popularity and you reach a level of funding that allows this great effort continue

    • Hi Alan,
      thanks, well I will see… I mean as much as I would love to, it really depends on you (not “you” in particular, but you as a user in general). If I cover the costs, things will stay the same. If I dont, I will have to do something I really would love not to do, but it would be necessary – get more part-time job hours and reduce MT support and development and downgrade hosting. Or if the opposite happens – I raise even more than I pay for the essential costs – I would spend even more time with it and possibly see if some HW upgrade would be possible in the future. But what I wanted to just say was that the problem is really in the fact there are ongoing costs and I need to cover those regularly, it is not a one-off payment for me either.

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