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wpsharks / wp-kb-articles

KB Articles for WordPress; adds a new Custom Post Type.
http://wpkbarticles.com/
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Incentives for KB Article Writers #93

Open jaswrks opened 9 years ago

jaswrks commented 9 years ago

@raamdev If I'm a writer, readers can give me Hearts. Whoopee! (lol) I get valuable feedback through GitHub issues, nice! However, it would be extremely cool if I was occassionally rewarded by my readers in some way. Incentive!

What more can we do to offer incentives?

I'm not sure if this would make it into the WPKBA plugin itself, or if it would be something that a site owner could choose to add on their own through their ability to edit the default template files in the WPKBA plugin.

I just wanted to bring it up and hopefully find ways for readers to reward writers; i.e., more than just Hearts. Maybe a secondary reward that is made possible (i.e., mentioned to a reader) upon giving a Heart.

I'm trying to think about this from a writer's perspective. Let's say that I hire somebody to write KB articles. They get paid of course, that's a part of the agreement. However, it would be very rewarding for a writer if they are occassionally rewarded by their readers too.

What Actions Need To Occur Here?

raamdev commented 9 years ago

Integrate with something like Flattr? Link to my web site? What options do we have?

I love both of those ideas.

I'd say at a bare minimum, we could improve the author card at the bottom of each KB Article to include any bio information found on the user's account:

2015-03-23_13-42-23 2015-03-23_13-40-56

I also think integrating with services like Flattr and/or creating a widgetized area at the bottom of the KB Articles is a great idea. A widgetized area would allow donation plugins like Easy Donation to easily be added to the footer of all KB Articles (I don't think Easy Donations allows for the donations to go to specific authors; but having a widgetized area at the bottom of the KB Articles would allow site owners to utilize that area for such a purpose).

Improving support for social sharing services (see #94) would also be a great way to incentivise KB Article writers, especially if those services allowed the KB Article author to be mentioned when sharing the KB Article (outside the scope of WP KB Articles).

jaswrks commented 9 years ago

@raamdev writes...

I'd say at a bare minimum, we could improve the author card at the bottom of each KB Article to include any bio information found on the user's account:

Cool. A lot of themes will include this already, or it might be introduced by another plugin; i.e., there are plugins that include this at the bottom of each post of a certain type. https://wordpress.org/plugins/sexy-author-bio/

So this being optional would be key I suppose.

@raamdev writes...

creating a widgetized area at the bottom of the KB Articles is a great idea

Love it! That seems easy enough, and if empty then it shows nothing by default.

@raamdev writes...

Improving support for social sharing services (see #94)

I read over the other issue you opened and I agree.

Other Thoughts

Most users will not donate. WordPress plugin developers can tell you this.

I'm trying to think about this from a user perspective some more. In my experience, most users have technical questions about something discussed in an article. They realize that it might be well beyond the scope of the software and support service, but they want to know so badly that they are willing to pay for advice.

The end-user (i.e., site owner) feels a certain connection to the author, because they have read several articles they've written. So in their mind, asking that author a question is much easier than seeking a developer to assist them.

So in a perfect world, the end-user could ask the author a question.

e.g., "Hey, what if I'm running iThemes Security? How would I configure iThemes Security to avoid the issue that you mentioned in this article?"

What if the author (or WPKBA software) made it possible for an end-user to donate $25 (or more). In addition to helping the author (thanking them), it would also grant them access to a form where they can ask one question.

The understanding would be that it's a donation, but as a way of saying thanks, the author will answer one of your questions to the best of their ability.

Things like StackOverflow and software for WordPress like this come to mind.

jaswrks commented 9 years ago

Adding a list of actions (↑ above) that need to occur.

raamdev commented 9 years ago

What if the author (or WPKBA software) made it possible for an end-user to donate $25 (or more). In addition to helping the author (thanking them), it would also grant them access to a form where they can ask one question. [...] Brainstorm other ways (i.e., ideas, existing services, software, other plugins) that might be used in connection with incentivizing authors and/or facilitating a donation accompanied by a Q&A session.

I think we're on the same page, but I just wanted to point out that I strongly feel that such functionality belongs outside the WP KB Articles plugin, as it's not something directly related to what I see as the primary goal of this plugin: to allow the creation and display of KB Articles on a site.

What we should do is simply add a widgetized area at the bottom that allows another plugin to add this functionality. In fact, we could even consider creating such a plugin for WordPress, something that allows site owners to provide an "Ask a Question" area in return for a donation, and that plugin could then integrate with WP KB Articles widget areas and possibly even integrate with s2Member for the payment gateway functionality (or just include its own payment functionality).

Cool. A lot of themes will include this already, or it might be introduced by another plugin; i.e., there are plugins that include this at the bottom of each post of a certain type. https://wordpress.org/plugins/sexy-author-bio/

So this being optional would be key I suppose.

Right. Themes may or may not add such functionality. It would be great if we could just widgetize those areas (as you mentioned in the next-actions list above) and then have a "WP KB Articles Author Widget" that includes options for showing Bio, Website, etc.