IMPORTANT: Paid Mods to be removed
There's a lot of discussion in the community questioning why Mod creators don't add Donate buttons to their projects. The simple truth of the matter is that, aside from real-world implications concerning donations, they just don't work. For mod authors this makes finding equitable solutions complicated as they also have to avoid doing things that inadvertently break network or provider Terms of Service rules that risk their accounts, work or even legal action. [updated 28th April 2015]
Value has unveiled a new initiative, Paid Mods (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent). Initially offerings will be for Skyrim but others appear to be planned (although not yet announced).
For Mod CREATORS this is obviously good news; all the time and energy spent creating mods can now be rewarded in a meaningful way.
For GAMERS (consumers/customers) it might not be such good news as they may now have to purchase their favorite (or new) Mods.
Which has inevitably (one might say "obviously") lead to a lot of... comment, 99.99% of which are in agreement that this new move by Valve is a bad idea, the only salient reason why being because "mods have always been free". Freely available to be consumed perhaps. But not free to make, and nearly always at the commercial expense of the creator, who doesn't even get a cut of the advertising revenue accrued by the mod hosting party.
The truth of the matter is that Mod creators have only offer their content for free in the past because there has never been an effective mechanism in place to 'charge' for their efforts - Mod's traditionally have never been recognised as DLC in the modern sense so have never occupied any status beyond being fan-made material, which has always put it in an odd position where monetisation is concerned, especially for games where EULA (End User License Agreements) don't make specific allowance for the modification and exploitation of original content ("exploitation" might not necessarily explicitly mean "revenue generation").
The key point about this new initiative on Paid Content however, is that's it's OPTIONAL; modders wanting to continue offering their wares without cost are freely able to do so, they just provide them as normal; those that don't want to do that can offer their content using different payment options, as either a fixed or pay what you want price - a mod being offered for 'free', at a 'fixed' or 'pay what you want' price, is entirely up to the mod creator.
The amount of revenue Creator can earn from selling their item or Mod via Workshops and Paid Mods varies depending on the Mod - this also applies to whether or not items or Mods can be sold; permission to do so it granted by the Developer through Valve.
For Skyrim Modifications revenue share (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=72850#Earning) currently stands at 25% (see resources links below).
An unofficial FAQ on this initiative is available here (https://www.katsbits.com/smforum/index.php?topic=665.0)
Creators should visit the Steam Workshop/Community Paid Content (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent) page for more details.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Modder & UGC (User Generated Content) Creators wanting to take advantage of this initiative are urged to thoroughly read through the
Getting Paid on Steam page, especially sections relating to
TAX and
TIN (Tax Identification Number) requirements.
Additional Resources
About Paid Content: FAQ's (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent)
Getting paid on Steam: Payment info FAQ's (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq/)
Getting Paid on Stead: Tax Information (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq/#Tax_Witholding)
Getting Paid on Steam: Tax US/Non-US TIN's (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq/#Tax_TIN)
Supplemental Workshop Terms - Revenue Sharing (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoplegalagreement/?appid=72850)