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?