I've been in a similar quandry myself. My freebies definitely "cost", not for the end user, but for me. For instance, I've spent nearly a month on one freebie..lol. It's part of my nature to spend as much time on my freebies as I have on any commercial item. Times are tough and people can't spend as much on things they love as they used to. I have friends who say I should be selling my creations rather than giving them away. I'm still on the fence on that...in the past people have shown their generosity to me in various ways (not always monitarily, but generously nonetheless) :).

As for the paypal link thing, I've had one on my old website for years now and have gotten a total of no donations. LOL I think it's pretty much a waste of time ;). I think generally, people will grab all the freebies they can and buy stuff that's not free, but won't "buy" freebies. There are however exceptions to this rule, but they are far and few between.

Laurie