How to make money from paypal donations

They used to be everywhere. In fact, I know a few bloggers who would rake in four figures a year just from their donate button. So where did these buttons go? And why is the donate button almost dead?

The donate button was a pretty simple invention. Other times people would have a little bit of text explaining how the money would be used; server costs, time writing more posts, etc. The interesting thing is that the donate button did not work equally on all blogs. In fact, if you took two blogs with an equal amount of traffic and subscribers you would find that they all made vastly different amounts from their donations.

Well a donation is a very specific thing. You usually give it to someone based on an emotional impulse like compassion, love, pity, gratefulness or guilt.

So the text you add to your donation button area is important as talked about here and here but the topic that you write about and the relationship you have with your readers is even more crucial. The sites that got the biggest results were:. I know of some really terrible sites in my opinion anyway that ended up getting a lot of donations from very infrequent readers.

Well in some respects it is dead. And I think it is a case of death over use. They just got used to the point where people got sick of seeing them. In fact, I know that it became a little but uncool to put these badges on your blog.

The distinction between ads and selling A really interesting point came up in my post on blogging controversy last week. It seems as though there is a massive perceived gap between selling and adverts. People think selling is something really dirty.

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Places its alive and well One thing to note, however, is that people still donate to online marketers and bloggers, just in different places. For example, you will often see Wordprss Plugin developers ask for donations inside their plugins. Some of them do quite well. And I think that shows something important — you need to be providing a huge amount of value, something seemingly tangible even , to get people to send you Paypal money.

Have you ever donated in the past? What would a blogger have to do to get you to part with your hard earned cash? Oh, and do those buttons annoy you? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. If you enjoyed this post you might like to check out: A 9,Word Guide on How to Blog How to Get , Visitors from Google 41 Tips to Get 10, Email Subscribers How to Start a WordPress Blog in Five Minutes Finally, hit the button below to get a free report and email updates so you're never out of touch.

I tried the donation button in the footer for the last 2 months and the result is 0. Will have to test it over a month or two to see the results. Never felt a compelling enough reason to. Know what I mean? The well known example is Panera bakery, but it could be applied to internet products that were previously free. There is a good example at Akismet, https: Those sharing folks at Akismet even share some data on this and the effectiveness of a simple smiley face.

Again, its a valuable service that they are giving away first though right? This has a bit contribution to the sense of fair value. However, the technique provides the right nudge. This is an interesting question. In any event, I think that the Donate button has diminished in popularity in the last few years.

Perhaps people are finding better success selling their products than using the donation model. I have also seen blogs which ask for support via their affliliate programs. I have never used the donate button and do not think I would donate to a blogger.

I feel it is your decision to begin a blog and I feel kind of weird myself asking for money from my readers. I would rather make money with advertising or obtain items for free from companies to review than ask my readers for money.

I do not see it very much lately so I think it is going away for the most part. I never really made anything off it because I took it down before I could get any kind of readership.

Felt hypocritical to ask for caffeine money once I gave up caffeine. If you have ads and affiliate links all over the place, it is hard to get a donation, and with all the ads, it even looks a bit needy.

I also like giving something useful to people and letting them getting it for free or make a small donation. Might not make a person rich but if it is a great thing, they might donate. Or adding a donate button at the end of a great free book! One of my readers told me I should put up a donate button during my trademark legal crisis to ask for help paying my legal fees. She said she would donate. After that I was pretty pissed off at the internet for a while.

Honestly I give away tons of free advice that most people charge for, spend hours on email and phone helping people and when I asked for help, zero, zilch, nada. Having said that this post made me feel better, I may not have got donations, but I am not alone!

Sometimes blogging is just a labour of love. However, having read this post, I think that what I might eventually do is create a more emotional appeal. I have one on my main landing page but not on the main website. Perhaps I should also try to find a way of writing an ebook that would appeal to the diverse bunch of folks reading my old essays.

I like that WPCandy page quite a bit. I have donated to blogs in the past. I Usually do it when the author offers a nifty solution to a problem or they have a plug-in or solution that takes care of a nagging issue I have had.

One blog in particular is written by a guy in Germany that developed a small fan management program for an older Dell laptop that has extended the life of that PC many years. Being honest, I would never donate to a website.

Solved: Donation fee? - PayPal Community

I used to have a donate button on my website, but when I started to put adverts on the site instead, I felt that it was a bit checky that people had to look at the adverts and then I asked for money. I can see the point in donating if you get something in return, but just for the sake of it, I just seems like giving money away. Ryan Imel over at WPCandy. Ryan outlined the strategy in this blog post: Imel is also launching his own ad network, Pressed Ads: Sorry for putting in so many links, Blog Tyrant!

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from how WPCandy has tested different funding models. Imel is really trying to make WPCandy financially viable without completely selling out. A tough balance, indeed. On another tech forum, I started a discussion on media business models. Many print newspapers are in decline. But I noticed two kinds of media outlets that consistently thrive:. Both are doing quite well, while their competitors are rapidly losing market share and ad revenues to the web-based outlets.

You could say that WPCandy has a bit of both qualities. And WordPress has a enthusiastic community, one of the best in the open-source world.

So a donation-based model can work, but it takes as much thought and effort as simply charging for your services.

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Updates Tools Best Of THE BLOG ARE YOU STARTING A BLOG? Buy Me a Beer: How did the donate button work The donate button was a pretty simple invention. Where did the donate button work best? The sites that got the biggest results were: Personal development blogs Blogs are now like philosophy texts in that people will change their life and circumstances based on something they read online. If a blog helps someone get over depression or lose a lot of weight there is a good chance they will buy you a beer.

Daily routine sites like video game forums and server hosts My little brother is a Star Craft addict that plays in tournaments around the world. Blog hosting bills anyone? Personality based sites ie sites like Steve Pavlina When people become loyal to a single identity they will donate cash. Especially if that personality adds a lot of value to their life and is considering going offline due to a lack of funds. Why the donate button is dead So why is the donate button not seen so much anymore?

I think that is one part of the donate button controversy — it just seems too needy. How come you leave the donations area up? Also, does that top subscription area convert well?

Diggy I tried the donation button in the footer for the last 2 months and the result is 0. Rachelle I wonder how it converts though.

Make Money Online Through Donations | Techzoomin

Kien Leong Sure is. Tracey Grady This is an interesting question. Rachelle One of my readers told me I should put up a donate button during my trademark legal crisis to ask for help paying my legal fees.

The faceless part of the net. Rachelle Having said that this post made me feel better, I may not have got donations, but I am not alone! Food for thought, thanks for the advice. Salah well I didnt really donate but it is really nice that some readers donate,because it makes the blogger thinks that readers really enjoy reading his post and like his blog it is kinda of showing love! Simon Duck Being honest, I would never donate to a website.

I am a sting though: Marcus Ryan Imel over at WPCandy.

How to Set up a Paypal Account to Receive Donations: 6 Steps

But I noticed two kinds of media outlets that consistently thrive: Thanks for the links, Regards, Simon Duck. Glad you found this material helpful. I love sharing great content. Haley Kauzlarich This particular is probably the most superb weblogs I have browse in a very quite a while. GET THE FREE REPORT Subscribe to the mailing list and join over 20, smart bloggers who are starting blogs and developing them strategically.