Are Donation Buttons Tacky?

Jul 12 2008

donation box Someone recently asked me what I thought of PayPal donation buttons.

This blogger was brainstorming for ways to make money, and was thinking of adding a donation button, but she was concerned it would look tacky.

It depends.

I personally don’t mind donating to sites that offer useful information or tools that I can’t find anywhere else.

In fact, I’ve donated to sites and blogs that offer free scripts and plug-ins that I’ve used.

In a world where people are always looking to make money, it’s important to reward hard-working people who have taken the time to offer something useful at no cost.

On the other hand, I do believe it’s very tacky to have a donation button on a site plastered with ads and very little content.

If you think about it, the donation button works a lot like affiliate marketing. If you provide useful content and help people, your audience will be open to rewarding you.

However, if you appear greedy and have more advertisements than helpful information, your audience will be turned off and perceive it as begging.

I’ve never considered adding a donation button. I’d rather earn money through affiliate programs and contextual ads (AdSense, etc.), but I do believe there is a place for them if used in the appropriate way.

What do you think? Are donation buttons tacky? Have you ever used or thought about using them?

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14 Responses

Arial

July 12th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
1

I hate them. I hear what you’re saying about adding them on useful sites but it still seems greedy to me (unless it’s a charity site of course). When there are so many ways to make money from your site (AdSense, affiliate programs, other CPM networks, etc.) why not use them? Donation buttons always say to me, “Please give me money” and I just don’t get a good feeling. Maybe it’s because when I see them they are always on those cheesy/worthless sites with very little useful information.
Alper

July 13th, 2008 at 6:45 am
2

I agree with your assessment that very commercial and ad ridden sites will not get many donations. Why should they? But donations on sites that are clean and clearly specify what the money is needed for do seem to work to some extent.

In any case it implies a different relation, with advertising and the likes a third party is trying to inject themselves in the site owner - visitor interaction while with donations it remains very much a one on one affair.

We think donations have their place and we are producers of an alternate style of donating (see my link). If you have ideas, how me may improve our service to make donations more appealing both for site owners as for visitors, do let me know.
John P

July 13th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
3

I had one on my blog for a while but took it off because no one donated. I agree and realized it was because people probably didn’t think my blog was professional enough or as Lisa said provided enough useful information. I’m going to wait until I have more to offer. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them if you have a good blog and they are presented in the right way.
Linda P. Morton

July 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
4

I do add in-depth informative content on my blog, and I’ve completed more than 100 posts, but I certainly never considered asking for a donation for that content.

I do sometimes ask people to opt-in to one of my lists in exchange for more information and even occasionally provide a link to one of my sales pages.
Melanie

July 15th, 2008 at 12:08 am
5

I put ads on my site so I feel that it’s a bit dirty to put a donate button on there. I don’t make much per click per ad (but I’m moving away from Ad Sense and toward people buying space) but I still feel dirty asking people for money when I’ve got ads on there.

I’ve got great content in my opinion and I find my content more important right now than profit. I would rather have my dignity than $1.50.

Thank you for your post, I like it!
mxyzplk

July 15th, 2008 at 9:54 am
6

I put some ads on my site, but I don’t get the money from the ads yet, and I need instant cash to any account to my payment processor to start a growing my business, and I was thinking if I put some donation button it will help me to grow the a good to start.
By the way, do I hope you have other good idea beside make a donation, and I also try to make some direct paid to review.
Paul

July 16th, 2008 at 7:59 am
7

I use ads on my site, but have decided against a donation button.

I think those that put a donation button on every page/post of a site definitely looks tacky. If you use a button, you should place it in one location (maybe the sidebar) only so it doesn’t look like you are begging for money.
Shari Thomas

July 16th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
8

I have the “Buy Me A Beer” link on each of my blogs. No, I don’t consider it tacky, since it’s posted one time only in a single sidebar, and generally towards the bottom of the sidebar.

I write for your enjoyment, and if you like the stories I tell (all of them true), and appreciate my efforts, then I really appreciate it when you reward me with a beer.
Christine

July 16th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
9

I’ve been wondering about this very topic. I’ve run across a few websites that have the donation button on them, which some are very useful sites, and if I had money TO donate I would. Of course there are other sites that use that button, and it’s definately very tacky looking and feeling.

I agree that the site should be useful and offer something in return for the donations. As for the adsense, and affiliate ads, so far, I haven’t gotten anything from them. Which is why I’ve been considering the donation button… google says you specifically can NOT ask people to click on the links to help support a site… so donations could be the only way to bring in any money. I just don’t know.

Interesting post though!
PLAYTHERE.com

July 17th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
10

In 2004-2005 we tried the donation and flopped miserably. In our case it was our audience we draw just are not donators. We had to fully go to ad sponsorship. But tacky, no, just hit-or-miss.
Natural

July 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 am
11

i don’t put ads on my blog, other than an EC widget, but there’s no monetary payment due to me because of it. I used to have a donation button on my personal website, but since i did a make over I forgot to add it back. No one ever donated anything to me because of that button, begging doesn’t seem half bad if that’s what you want….just waiting for donations to fill your paypal account is probably unrealistic because everybody can get one.

if you have a cause, other than i said so, i might be so inclined to donate. a charity. yes. your checking account, no. same goes for me.

i’ll add you to my reader
goofblogger makes money online

August 13th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
12

I don’t think that it is tacky. It might seem like begging, but if it is presented in a light fun way the effort is ok in my book. I have no problem at all when I see on a blog a donation button with text associated that is friendly. For example, text such as : “if you found the information useful, why not buy me a coffee ?” is non-confrontation and polite. Do I have a donation button on my blog? The answer is no…at least not yet
Delbert

August 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
13

I think they are necessary, as not everyone has enough ad revenue to pay for expenses, let alone a profit. This is true for almost all independent artisans I know. It’s a useful tool for them to get some freelance sponsorship support.

I personally have donated to websites that provide useful information. This is because I understand the cost of hosting. Single page sites, blogs that are hosted for free would be unlikely to get donations from me.

The “donate” button is the modern day equivalent to a street musician have a hat or instrument case to catch ‘tips’ or donations. Not exactly shameful or tacky.

I would be willing to assume that most people that aware of the cost of hosting and maintaining a website would understand the need for such a device.
coosbaytv

August 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
14

Lisa:

This is great confirmation to what I am doing with the site that I have linked to my name.
My hope is that by providing content to help people relax, de-stress, and find some piece of mind, they can regroup and get back to what ever it is they need to get done.
As this “content” is video and not text oriented, there is nothing for the viewer to find useful other than a quick place to “get away from it all” without leaving their office. I think that to the right people that will be worth something once it catches on!