I think encouraging people to sponsor a random user would be good, and making sure that the "someone gifted you a paid account" tells them all the shiny new features they can use, so they're then more likely to renew. That will also give you long-term growth in the number of paid accounts.
Also, having a public counter of how much money you've made in a month or whatever could be encouraging for this one-off - seeing your little bit make a difference to Dreamwidth will make people want to donate more to reach milestones.
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I think encouraging people to sponsor a random user would be good, and making sure that the "someone gifted you a paid account" tells them all the shiny new features they can use, so they're then more likely to renew. That will also give you long-term growth in the number of paid accounts.
Also, having a public counter of how much money you've made in a month or whatever could be encouraging for this one-off - seeing your little bit make a difference to Dreamwidth will make people want to donate more to reach milestones.