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You're probably wondering why you would make a donation, and why I would ask you to. To be clear, you are not paying for the games that appear on this site, nor does your donation register your shareware. The money won't necessarily go to the authors, either.
All of the money that this website receives will be used to pay for hosting and, if there's any money left after that, to purchase the full versions of games listed on this site so that, a) they can be reviewed to help visitors make an informed purchasing decision, b) the authors can be paid for their hard work, c) shareware authors will recognize the demand for these programs and continue to make them available for purchase (or start selling them again), and d) to archive and preserve them. This site will never make a profit, and I'm not asking for anything for my time. This is a hobby site; I made it because I love these games. I believe in the principle of transparent accounting practices, therefore all expenses and revenues will be published on this page. 2008 Financial Statement
Donations through PayPal are totally secure, and the amount and currency of your donation are entirely up to you. What is it worth to you to have access to games that you used to play, or hidden gems that you are discovering for the first time? Even if it's just a few dollars, every penny helps me out. Donors will, of course, be graciously acknowledged on this page.
Relevant links on other websites will draw new visitors, as well as improve our position on search engines, so mention Classic DOS Games on your website or blog. If your site is informational or has something to do with gaming, you can interview me! I've been interviewed before, and I'm always happy to talk about the site, or classic DOS games in general. Post about Classic DOS Games on a forum that you visit frequently. Be sure that your post is on topic or relevant for visitors of the forum, and simply post a factual account of what you like about the site, or why others might enjoy it, so that your post won't look like spam. Alternatively, you can mention Classic DOS Games in your signature, and then it doesn't have to be relevant to the forum because it's relevant to you! You can let people know that you find the site valuable on social bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us and Furl. You can propose Classic DOS Games as a "link of the day" or "site of the day" on websites that have them. You could mention the site in your school newspaper to introduce your friends and classmates to classic gaming. You can also make a monetary donation without any cost to you! I host all of my websites on a single 1&1 webhosting package, and I can't recommend them enough. Their cheapest package offers 300 GB of bandwidth per month, 10 GB of storage, 5 MySQL databases, unlimited domains, and includes one free domain name registration, for $3.99 per month. If you outgrow it (which is unlikely), the $4.99 per month package has 1200 GB of bandwidth, 120 GB of storage, and throws in a second domain name registration. On top of that, they usually give you 50% off for the first three months. Many so-called discount webhosts don't offer as much in their most expensive packages — sometimes for $49.99 per month! — as 1&1 offers in their least expensive package. I honestly can't get over that. If you ever find a better hosting package, please let me know! Anyway, if you're looking for a webhost and decide to join 1&1, click this link and the site will get a commission. It's like a donation that costs you nothing. In fact, if you let me know that you've done it, I'll gladly send you a Classic DOS Games DVD in return! Classic DOS Games became an Amazon associate in order to link to some games that can no longer be purchased from the copyright holder, but are available new or used on Amazon. If you click this link before you buy anything on Amazon, Classic DOS Games gets a commission. It costs you nothing, and if you were going to buy something anyway, why not give a few cents to the site while you're at it? If you buy something big, like a TV or HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player, or anything over $150, the commission will cover the cost of a Classic DOS Games DVD. Contact me about your purchase and I'll gladly send you a DVD!
Unfortunately, all donations from the Have a Penny, Donate a Penny Campaign were kept by PayPal in order to cover their commissions. Here is an example of a donation.
Name: Donor's Name (The sender of this payment is Verified) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Amount: $0.01 USD --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Amount: $0.01 USD I contacted PayPal to offer a compromise where they could take their commission from all pennies donated on a monthly or annual basis, rather than on every donation, so that they aren't charging a 100% commission. They declined to alter their fee structure, so I refunded all donations to the Have a Penny, Donate a Penny Campaign. PayPal apparently isn't smart enough to realize how much money they could make from the pocket change of the billions of people around the world who use the internet so, for now, please donate your pocket change to charity instead. And if you're an eBay shareholder, ask them why they threw away $29 million per year at their next shareholder meeting!
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