Gaining Donations

Gaining donations may seem like an easy way for a website/ blog to make money however I believe its one of the hardest. Obviously the best sites using the donation feature are sites that invoke feelings like website supporting charity. However it has been known for some websites to be able to cover their server costs by adding a donation feature to their site.

Having a large audience is probably the best way to earn money from donations from a website/blog. Using forums and other social networking features and giving users small rewards for donation gives members more a pride factor after donating. A situation starts to occur that members donate to show their loyalty and status to your website which can be good for your wallet however the community rarely gains from it.

On smaller sites its not really worth adding a donation button to your website as adverts could probably do the job. However mixing the two options may sound like a good idea but having adverts on your site could deter donations and having a donation button on your site could deter the interest of clicking an advert. Its best to stick with just the one revenue stream until the website gains views.

Another bad thing about adding a donation feature is that its unlikley that you'll become rich from it, like I said earlier you will probably only cover the cost of the hosting of your site. Excessive use of the donation button will lose your visitors and member to your site and there is a careful balance that your not pushing your members to donate to much or to little.

The best advice I can give you for earning money from donations to your site is

1. Think that if you came across your site would you donate to it?
   
2. Don't try and push members to donate as you will lose visitors.
   
3. Give a little reward or thank you to your donators to make them feel special.
   
4. To remeber that you won't become rich from donations.
5. The larger your internet community the more donators you will have.