You can use donation button as a means of monetizing your web content. This is when you do not charge people for accessing your content but allow them to donate whatever they feel like if they feel like. There is a lot of negative perceptions surrounding using this as a means of monetizing web content and it is both from visitors and platform owners alike. This article addresses the notions (at least attempts to).

Dispelling The Negative Notions About Donation

The first thing is that donation is a way of helping the website visitors rather than the website visitors helping the website owner or the owner of the web content. Donation is about creating content that would have otherwise been paid to access for free and giving an option for the user of the content to pay what they are able to pay. The owner of the content is assisting the website visitor in two ways.

1. • He or she is providing content the website visitor considers to be valuable and profitable to them.
   • He or she is allowing the website visitor to either pay what they like for the content the website visitor acknowledges to be valuable or pay nothing for it.

The first negative perception stems of the wrong definition associated with donation:-

1. • It is a means of begging.
   • They are taking advantage of others.
   • It raises issues of mistrust.
   • It is not sustainable.

The negative perceptions above are shared amongst content owners and content users alike. Let us itemize each.

It Is A Means Of Begging?

Both content user and content provider might have this as a notion and it makes donation as a means of monetization distasteful. Both of them are wrong. It has nothing to do with begging. Someone is providing a service for free and asking the other person to either pay or enjoy the service without paying.

This is obviously a wrong notion to hold but it may stem from the fact that the word itself is rooted in charity. All people need to do is to hear the word donate and they tune off.

It Take Advantage Of Others?

The misconception of the word and it being associated with begging makes some feel that the site owner wants to take advantage of them. This still links to the notion that beggars take advantage of the sympathetic side of others.
However, it is quite obvious from how it works that if anyone want to take advantage of the other person, it would be the website visitor since they are the only ones in the position to abuse the right of having free access to materials they would have paid for in other platforms.

That fact is there are those who abuse it but there are also those who, realizing the importance of the opportunity they have been given donate more than the material would have cost.

The content owners cannot take advantage of the website visitors even if they wanted to because their materials are already free and accessible. For the content owner who is running away from this method of monetization because he or she feels that people will take advantage of them, what I have to say to you is that they will.

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However, you will have to look at the big picture because just as you would have people who will use your materials without thinking to donate anything, you will also have people who might give you far more than what the price you would have attached to the material had you sold it.

You also have the chance of building a network that trusts you and this is another way you can reap financial rewards through other means of monetization like endorsements, coaching and the rest.

It Raises The Issue Of Mistrust

This is just like what we said above although mistrust casts a dark spell on everything that is associated with you and your website. It is worse than the one we just mentioned and it is done by people who may choose to remain ignorant of how this type of monetization works.

There might be nothing anyone can do in this instance except to continue delivering quality content and building the positive network of people around you.

It Is Not Sustainable

This is a credible argument. Monetization using donation may not get the kind of  attraction other forms of monetization will have and might take a while before it starts bearing fruit. It  must also continue which means your regular visitors must be doing so every now and again and new visitors too will be adding. It might not be viable as a single means of revenue generation but who said anything about it being the only means of generating revenue.

Complementary Methods

Donation might go well with endorsement of books by others or other forms of endorsements. You can generate money through endorsements. It also works well with coaching or training programs. Some people who use it may frown at the idea of running ads on their website because of it looks like it visibly clashes with the ideal of running it on donations.

SEE ALSO: How To Become A Successful Blogger – Beginners Guide

There are people that do not have any qualms about this but you have to chose what side of the fence you want to stand on this issue. The other two we mentioned works with it and the coaching or training program be a means of regular income. You can publish hard cover books and advertise them on the platform. They will not mind buying such books.

Using donations and complementing it with other complementary forms of monetization works to boost the revenue generated by your website.