Where’s That Tip Jar? The Blogger’s Cycle

by Silicon Valley Blogger on 2006-12-131

Oh yeah, the joys of blogging! The question that many bloggers often have is about how they can begin making money with their site. One way some people are doing it is by having a donation button on their site, with the hopes that one of their loyal readers will show them some appreciation. In my opinion though? It’s going to be tough to convince any reader to part with their hard earned cash. Unless you’re wildly popular, I doubt it will work.

You’ll need many thousands of readers a day visiting your site before you probably snag a bit of change. A better way to make money through your site is via ads or perhaps through a subscription service. Then again, either route has no guarantees. Many sites exist on the web that make a pittance with their site. Subscription services are pretty much impossible as a business model unless you are an online media company or newspaper. And it’s not a popular method either. Ever hear of traffic drops when a site opts for the subscription approach? Yes — the online world is very used to the “free” paradigm. Thus, ads are the preferred approach for monetization, but goodness knows how readers aren’t too fond of ads either (install an ad blocker on your browser if you care about it that much).

At any rate, I thought this was pretty cute.

tip jar

I think I’m somewhere in the second row. Still haven’t popped open the tip jar yet though ;).

However, if you’d like to learn more about e-tipping (the euphemism for web donations), you can find out more over here, where simple and free e-tipping methods are discussed.

Copyright © 2006 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

William Dougherty December 13, 2006 at 11:15 pm

Great find! I hung out the tip jar a long time ago!

-Bill

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