Our Free MoodleThemes effort has become a big money gobbler!! We have many strategies to generate funds..but would like your feedback very much. Please complete the Infoseek poll beneath the Member Login menu on the left on the MoodleThemes site. Thanks. Many more themes on the way!
>> MoodleThemes
Himmat,
Why not start with a paypal donate button?
Ralph
Hi Ralph. That's the first thing we thought of. I just wonder if donations will actually come in in good enough amounts to allow us to compensate people behind this effort adequately and enable us to lure even better designers to join in! We have a paid themes site ready for launch..the problem is commerce invariably brings in petty impluses and considerations. If donations don't work..commerce is the only answer to our predicament. Let's see..Thanks for the reply.
If you use Mambo/Joomla together with your Moodle site you can now download the Mambo combo template (pic below) for the ProLearn15 Moodle 1.5x theme at >>MoodleThemes
Himmat,
how about having your site name embedded in the theme ,and user have to pay so that your "Ad Banner" is removed .
Conor
Himmat and all Moodle users,
I want to assist Himmat's ask for help with a more general posting.
In the point that you can use Moodle for free I see one reason for Moodle's success story. But this does not mean that everybody must do anything for free.
Try to see it the other way around. With every funding for those people engaging in Moodle's further development you can help to make Moodle better. You enable the engaged people to do more great work. And please compare those fees with the licensing costs for commercial products!
Not only Himmat and his crew design Moodle Themes for their living. Several others offer themes - among others some web designers and some Moodle partners. We all make our living from this work. All of us do a great additional job to support Moodle with our unpaid work and/or with a percentage of the income to fund future Moodle development. I do not know anybody among these people not taking the open source thought serious.
Lets take the chance to discuss this toppic. What do you think about payed work for Moodle?
Urs
Hi. I agree with Urs. The benefits of getting funds and remaining open source are far greater for both users and developers. Just imagine if most Moodle developers go commercial..for one thing they certainly won't collaborate! Isn't selfless, free-flowing collaboration the factor that makes open source tools like Moodle and Mambo fly?
In the unfolding of an open source project that gains wide-spread acceptance and adoption (like Moodle 
) people will need support services beyond the free type provided in forum boards. Not everyone knows how to install and maintain an e-learning server, insure their instructional staff are adequately trained, create a unique look or theme for their site or add custom functionality to Moodle.
Moodle offers a significant cost benefit to organizations that are vested in proprietary commercial programs, or just getting underway with their e-learning initiative. What is often not realized is that our white-hat good guys (Martin and team) making all this possible are just like you and I in terms of their basic needs. They have families, mortgages, car payments, children they want to put through college, vacations they would like to take etc.
The number of organiziations using Moodle and support forums who visit the Donation page once in awhile is embarrassingly low. Giving and receiving are at opposite ends of the see-saw, and we know that to maintain a balance both must be present. As Urs points out, one attempt to bolster prospects of ensuring Moodle continues to evolve at the pace it has is through contributions made by commercial organizations (Moodle partners) when they provide professional support services like theme development.
Whenever an organization contracts with an authorized Moodle partner for support services, they are making a contribution directly to Moodle. Whenever an individual or organization visits the Donation page, they are ensuring the future of Moodle. Whenever Moodlers sign up for conferences (MoodleMoots) held each year around the world, they are investing directly in Moodle as well as their own professional development. Finally, whenever you support people like Himmat, who has given the community so much in the way of free themes, it allows him to contribute even more to Moodle. This is a win-win-win formula.
Martin is at this full time and he now has a staff of people working for him (which he pays out of his own pocket), to make sure that Moodle stays on track development wise. Find a way to support Moodle today!
) people will need support services beyond the free type provided in forum boards. Not everyone knows how to install and maintain an e-learning server, insure their instructional staff are adequately trained, create a unique look or theme for their site or add custom functionality to Moodle. Moodle offers a significant cost benefit to organizations that are vested in proprietary commercial programs, or just getting underway with their e-learning initiative. What is often not realized is that our white-hat good guys (Martin and team) making all this possible are just like you and I in terms of their basic needs. They have families, mortgages, car payments, children they want to put through college, vacations they would like to take etc.
The number of organiziations using Moodle and support forums who visit the Donation page once in awhile is embarrassingly low. Giving and receiving are at opposite ends of the see-saw, and we know that to maintain a balance both must be present. As Urs points out, one attempt to bolster prospects of ensuring Moodle continues to evolve at the pace it has is through contributions made by commercial organizations (Moodle partners) when they provide professional support services like theme development.
Whenever an organization contracts with an authorized Moodle partner for support services, they are making a contribution directly to Moodle. Whenever an individual or organization visits the Donation page, they are ensuring the future of Moodle. Whenever Moodlers sign up for conferences (MoodleMoots) held each year around the world, they are investing directly in Moodle as well as their own professional development. Finally, whenever you support people like Himmat, who has given the community so much in the way of free themes, it allows him to contribute even more to Moodle. This is a win-win-win formula.
Martin is at this full time and he now has a staff of people working for him (which he pays out of his own pocket), to make sure that Moodle stays on track development wise. Find a way to support Moodle today!
Find a way to support Moodle today!
One thing we can learn from Sakai is that making it easy for institutions to contribute to a project can reap benefits. A US public institution, for instance, often can't easily just 'donate' to a software project, there needs to be a purchase order, tax information, and something in return (even if just a membership in a consortium).
You're right Michael, this seems to come up across borders as a problem. It's not that an instiution doesn't want to contribute to Moodle, its that no formal procedure is in place to do so. I like your consortium idea and will start to pester Martin with it. 
Hi Michael. Is there a listing of people contributing to moodle..apps, themes, documentation, promotion etc?
I had a thought recently..that people who want to go fully or partly commercial with their Moodle enhancements should pay back from part of these earnings to the Moodle project. After all if not for Moodle such income wouldn't be possible.