Work without salary?

I was thinking about working without salary. I have a rather low self-confidence regarding my own perfomance (typical of women).
Often, I cannot estimate the value of my work for others properly. It is a subjective matter: For one person my advice is incalculably valuable. For the other it is only a small tip, a jigsaw puzzle part on his way. Maybe he is even disappointed because he had expected more from me.

What would happen if I estimated no firm hourly wage for my work, but asked my customers to decide  how much my work is worth? It is very tempting to take this path. I simply do my work and then leave the burden to my customer to decide how much to pay me. There is a possibility that I get bamboozled but honestly? I think that I might get paid quite well.

What is your opinion? Would you dare to try it this way?

Radiohead took this road with one of their albums "In Rainbows". Everybody could download it and decide whether and how much to pay. I could not find out what they have earned with this strategy, but the following albums had fixed prices again. Maybe I could learn from the minimum wage model. I would suggest a minimum wage (I do not want to starve) and then the customer might deduct a bonus depending on his satisfaction or draw off a maximum of 5% if he is absolutely discontented.

But maybe I am just an incorrigible idealist who is dreaming of the basic income :-). Photo credit: marfis75 via photopin cc