Getting my poems to pay for lunch?

This little snippet way, way down in Ron Silliman's latest linkfest caught my attention:

A new way to make
web content pay

Kachingle

Now, I like this idea. I like it a lot. I think it could be a way to get people to give me money for my poems - if they want to, of course. Currently the poems are accessible for free on my website - without any advertising to distract from the RikVerse experience, to boot. It is, in effect, my gift to the world (though some might be tempted to say 'a curse on the world', but I know people who know where you live, so don't!). But it would be nice if I could find a way to entice people to gift me back some cash in exchange for the joy (don't even think it!) my poems give them.

I tried adding a PayPal button once. I think maybe three people pressed it and coughed up some dosh over the course of two years. So the button went: it was embarrassing the rest of the site. And, like I said, I refuse to have advertising messing up my displays.

I could always restrict the number of poems on the site, and publish the rest in books for purchase. Lots of other poets seem to follow this model - a tidbit here, an enticement there. But I don't see the point of it. I want the poems to be read - widely read - so incarcerating them behind the walls of a commercial transaction is not going to help them meet that prime purpose, is it?

So Kachingle.com appeals to me in many, many ways. I ought to sign up to it immediately. What's holding you back then, Rik? I can hear you both asking.

Um, well I don't know if it will work in real life. The kachingle folks say they track people's movements across the web, where they go to browse, and I worry that if the tracking is perceived to be too intrusive then people just won't sign up. And if I branded my website as a Kachingle site people might see it as part of the Big Brother apparatus - I mean, what regular guy wants people to find out they read poetry, ferchristssake?

So I don't know. Maybe I will sign up.

Maybe I won't.