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How to Make Money on Your Website - Using Donations

Business Ideas, Online Businesses

Small Online Business Idea: Making money with your high traffic and/or high reputation website using Donations.

(The rest of this post assumes you’ve already got one or many high traffic/high quality websites. If you haven’t finished step 1 yet, go here for information on how to build a high traffic website.)

Getting Money from Donations on your Website - Basics:

Rather than trying to offer a direct trade for people’s money in a traditional two-way transaction, some websites can get away with simply asking visitors to make a donation. Whether this donation seems worthwhile or not (whether you’re a legitimate charity, community organization, or just some kid hoping for a quick buck off your blog) anyone can ask their online community for a donation and see what happens.

Most websites that try this technique will get virtually or literally no money via donations. However, the sites that do get money can get big amounts of money. It all depends on what kind of website you’re running.

How it Works:

Setting yourself up to receive donations is remarkably easy. The hard part is getting people to actually donate.

From a technical standpoint, set-up is as easy as 1-2-3

  1. install the code on your website (see below for details)
  2. instruct visitors how they can donate, why they should do so
  3. collect the money in your account and do whatever you want with it.

If you’re interested in actually getting people to donate, the following tips may be helpful:

  • People only want to donate to a legitimate cause. This can include charity, entertainment, voluntary payment, support for a website the visitor found helpful, etc. If your website offers nothing that would lead a person to donate, consider whether you can offer a donation-friendly motive or if you should simply forget about donations.
  • Fraud is illegal. If you say donations will be used for one thing, then turn around and do something else, you’d better have a good lawyer or an international hide-out. If you’re simply looking for a few extra bucks to help keep your website afloat or increase your income, be sure to say so on your website.
  • Use a trusted, secure donation service (see below.) This reduces visitors’ fear of getting scammed. Don’t build your own unless you’ve got a big-time major brand at your disposal.
  • Let potential donors know what their money will go toward. Be as specific as you can without getting pedantic or dishonest.

Dangers:

Aside from potentially diluting the focus of your website (too many options makes a website confusing), calling for donations may hinder the overall messaging of your website. If you think your visitors will be turned off by seeing a donation option, maybe you shouldn’t include one.

Important Partners:

  • My favourite option is offered through Paypal. Paypal is trusted, secure, and easy to install on your site.
  • Another fair option is offered through Amazon. Similar concept, similar process.

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