Google Checkout, No More

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER "AFTER"

We've checked out Google Checkout, and now it's time to check out.

It seemed like a good enough idea. Because GooCheckout is trying to beat Paypal, it's letting people use it without finance charges through 2007. So we could spend the year trying it out and come out with an extra 2-4% of our donations, which were at about $50 a week in December. By the end of the year, that adds up to about $50-$100, just for switching a little code around.

However-- stop me if this sounds familiar-- we underestimated users' reluctance to sign up with a new payment system. There were reasons to think Checkout would be better for us than Bitpass, reasons like the venerable Google brand and the wider range of payments.

This is not irrefutable evidence that Google Checkout is completely useless to everyone. Although I can't confirm this, I suspect that our audience has access to fewer credit cards per capita than the audiences of other webcomics, making a switch between payment systems more daunting. Other websites with extremely loyal donor bases might want to try putting Paypal and Checkout links side-by-side and see what results they get. Try a tagline like "Use Paypal OR... make sure EVEN MORE of your money reaches us!"

Bottom line, though: we went from getting about 97% of $50 to 100% of $0. Do the math.