I wonder how many of you agree with me that placing a donation button is un-ethical and should be avoided. Many a times I have seen donations buttons on the sidebar of bloggers asking for donation directly for the services provided or indirectly by just placing a paypal connected yellow colored button. Many blogger and top websites ask for blog donation using terms like “ Need ***$ to pay the server bills“.
The first category can be justified as they are providing something valuable to the blogging community and are asking for appreciation in monetary terms. However bloggers on the other hand who embed the ‘logo‘ in their template thinking of generating an income stream are simply creating a negative impact on their readers.
Donate for server
Its shows their interest in generating EASY money rather than providing quality content.
This was the case wherein the blog is fairly new and does not have a reader base.
Well established blogs or the ones that provide something valuable to their readers, on the other hand have tried to generate income via this method but few have managed to do so, the famous example being of Jason Kottke who quit his job in 2005 in order to focus on his blog. The point to be noted here is that he too couldnt sustain this way of generating income and eventually shifted to advertising in the year 2006 .
This is my personal opinion and would be happy to know what other bloggers think?
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Ok, I think somewhere its not beyond ethics, because it totally depend on readers to take decision for donate or not, suppose i am reading some ugly article on the web so how could my mind gives a permission to donate for such an article. Lets take an example of Wikipedia which is a source of knowledge, but they hate ads on the website. They request for donation which is i think a very good thing. A twitter based blog http://www.twi5.com and a blog of a guy who made platinum SEO plugin are a also a good example.Atleast they need something for their income. I remember the sentence said by Mr. Om Malik in Wordcamp : We are not here for the social service, we need money for survival
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yes, i totally agreed for this statement ..
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@Himanshu You reciprocating what has already been mentioned in the article !
1. Wikipedia is an information directory and is not a blog, so comparison should be made.
2. Twi5 and the one who made SEO plugin, as i said have made valuable contribution and they deserve something in return.
it is blogithical becuase if he is providing good content and he depends on his blog to get income only placing donation button is nothing wrong,as lot of blgogers palce google adsense ads and earning income through them.
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Even i feel the same. Though the catch is you should place donation button when you are really need. Either for Server cost or for promotion.
It depends on each person whether to keep it on his/her blog or not. I personally don’t like those donation button.
If the blogger has another way of revenue from the blog then there is no need of putting donation buttons.
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@Paritosh,
I don’t agree. For ex: If you have a post which is helping a lot to readers, then the reader might ask you that he may wants to donate it.
I have a real example on my blog, just happened 2 days back. Check this post http://www.niharsworld.com/2008/06/16/use-virtual-audio-cable-vac-to-solve-missing-stereo-mix-problem/
and also comments at the end.
Nihar™s last blog post..Friday Night Links Party – 15 May 2009
@Nihar You are not getting what i am trying to say in this post. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PLACING DONATION BUTTON WHEN YOU HAVE PROVIDE SOMETHING USEFUL.
@Paritosh,
Got it. BTW nice post where you can have a lot of healthy discussion via comments.
Nihar™s last blog post..How to Remove Wordpress Meta Generator tag
Hi Harsh,
I have placed a donation button on my downloads page. I did not have one there until someone said they wanted to donate. I then put it up on my downloads pages.
I offer downloads for free ranging from ebooks, plr articles, images and graphics and if you want to donate, then you can. I don’t say you must or force anyone, it’s their choice.
If I get a donation then cool, if not then still cool.
No one will donate to fairly blog harsh. because they dont have user base and traffic. it takes time. you need to test many things on definate time.
Asking donation not beyond ethics. If you can provide more Something valuable. Better to leave this on visitors.
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@George Here we are talking from bloggers point of view. If the readers are willing to donate then there is nothing like it.
It would eventually depend on how your readers take it…
Although i would’nt personally approve of it until you are providing some service which no one else in the blogospehere does…
Cheers
Sandeep
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Ok Guys, Here’s my sensible two cents.
I do not see whats ‘ethical / un-ethical’ about donations ? Ethic is humane and should not be mixed with – fund-rising / donation / ‘chanda vasuli’, when one is doing something ‘for the society’.
Now the article should have been titled ‘To or NOT to have donation plugs on a website and the impact of it on your audience’.
To answer the question ‘To or NOT to’ – a matured head will know how to handle it.
Most common practice we notice is see ‘Need $$ to pay server bills’ stuck flashing into visitors face on some Grade B sites, now my-my – if you are getting so much traffic that your server bills are running high, for god sake monetize the site ! Use the space where you put up your donation banner with a decent advert and you mostly will cover your server charges and save a few $$ more !
There are two category of webmasters who put these kinda stickies or advertisements :
1> Genuine group A category sites, who give tons to the community while making peanuts for themself – classic ex: Digital Point, Wikipedia. They give many folds and the community responds to all that info they get out of them, directly or indirectly !
2> Degraded Group B sites, copy paste content, use RSS scrappers, write meaningless s**t and whole lot of other things and expect visitors to donate to pay their server bills, which hardly would see a few hundred visitors a day ! Ex: Don’t even get me started
.
I personally think it is very fair to ask your visitors to donate, let your visitors (assuming they are smart and you have been of help to them) will judge if you deserve the donation or not !
Just by sticking some ‘Donate’ button, no ones making money, not any I know of
.
/G
Great write up Mr. anonymous
Though I personally don’t feel any thing wrong with putting a donate button on your blog. If you article is helping someone and he is intrested in donating a part of your bill or want to treat you with pizza or beer, Its ethical and right.
The thing is no one is forced here to donate. It’s always reader choice to be or not to be.
Interesting Topic. I’vent seen many blogs asking for donation, I think I’vent seen any. Bloggers are also on internet to earn some amount of money but the amount of blogs are on interest is uncountable. The sites which asks for donation are unique+huge traffic+reliable. I am not able to decide yet will read few more comments to decide.
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Many bloggers don’t ask for donation directly but they do it in other ways like asking for “buy me a beer” or “buy me a Pizza”.
It’s quite ethical as I mentioned in my above comment.
Mr, anoynomus It is highly depends on visitors. If you know certain things than it does not means other peoples know. i agree most of the blogger do copy paste.. You should not tell them simply s***.
If certain bloggers write very ground level things for newbies. Who knows what is benificial for others.
Blogging is just fun few peoples and serious business for others.
Business is highly motivated from Opportunity to get juice from every where. many bloggers use 5 or more revenue sources in their blogs.
Why do they leave donation???
Mate placing a donation button is good instead putting Pop Ads [Some Big blogs even do this] in the blogs…
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@Balaji Pop up ads are not that bad provided they are shown after specific no. of pageviews and besides the so called ‘big blogs’ need a way to earn money.
Just for your info. pop up ads are good money spinners !
@Paritosh
I go with you and pop up ads are good for your blog if you have good traffic. I think I was using clicksor few months back and with their pop up ads, earning was too good. The only thing is it might hamper your readership as many people don’t like pop up ads.
Well pop-ups are fine by me unless they’re totally unrelated to the site you’re visiting. Pop-unders are far less irritating, but I don’t know a quark of how the returns are
I was aghast at seeing how irritating sites like Ymail, In.com and WaY2SmS(sth similar atleast 
) can get! I mean covering 70% of your pages with ads, and hiding some useful content too could do quite some damage I guess.