Donations

Another thing you can consider to make money from your blog is to ask for donations. This method is not for everyone, but if your blog provides information to readers, especially if this information is not readily available in a free format, readers will not have a problem donating.  If your blog is opinion based, you may not get as much of a response, but it can still be worth a shot. Likewise, if your blog is monetized with many other advertising and affiliate opportunities, readers will be less inclined to make donations.   You may want to consider giving readers a way to donate if your blog is just starting out and you offer information of value to your readers. If you do not have a huge readership, donations may be a good way to make enough income to continue your blog until you can utilize other monetization methods that require more traffic.  You may have dismissed donations on your blog because it seems tacky or dishonest, but many bloggers rely on donations for all or part of their income. Your time is valuable, and unless you are happy to write simply as a hobby and not get paid, you have to start somewhere.   Not everyone will donate, but those who do will do so from their own free will because they enjoy reading your blog and wish to see it continue. Most readers will not be put off by a donation button, those who do not wish to donate will not and those who do will. Very few blogs end up loosing traffic as a result of adding a donation button.  There are a few places you can go to set up an account to take donation. Companies such as Pay Pal and Amazon make collecting donations easy and only take a few minutes to set up.  If you already have a Pay Pal account, you can go to their website and look into setting up a donation request. It doesn’t take long and you simply insert a button into your blog that users can click and then make donations via Pay Pal. Amazon also has a similar donation program called the Honor System where bloggers can sign up and insert a button in their blog to accept donations. You can get the information you need from amazon.com by clicking the Honor System link at the bottom of the home page.  Remember, like any monetization method having a good amount of traffic and offering quality content is the key to being successful. You will not collect many donations if you do not have many readers or offer them something of value. This is why your blogs content and traffic are important.   Make sure you give your readers a reason to come back and a reason to donate, so they do not miss the next installment of your blog. If readers value what you write they will not hesitate to donate to keep your blog going.