Donations . Does it work?

[DenDen60]

I have seen a lot of site with donations ad. Do they work?

Denis

[Ben_S]

Provided you have a site worth donating to keep online, yes.

[DenDen60]

Is this your own experience? Do you know of other people that used donations and it work for them also?

I would appreciate details if possible because I am working on a forum that will take a lot of my time.

Thanks
Ps. You can PM me of course.
Pps. When I mean detail I mean can it become a full time job.

[Ben_S]

I doubt you will make enough for it to become your full time job, but you can certainly make enough to cover hosting costs.

[Justyne]

if you want your hosting costs covered by this from my experience you can make it work. My community has been running like this for three years. I would not count on this to make any profit.

Also if you want your donation scheme to work:

a) make it transparent how much money is needed to run the site, have a meter to show your current balance for the site

b) give members an incentive in form or small privileges ie. higher PM quota, special banner, custom title... something. People like to feel good about parting with money.

[Luke Beale]

I dont think you can gain much money from donations.

Its better to find your own form of making money on it.

[DenDen60]

Its better to find your own form of making money on it.

Have you been able to make some ? If so what was your way ?

DenDen60

[mclane]

Our site pays for itself by selling advertising and having members pay for premium membership. We prefer each member to contribute a small amount vs. one or two people footing the bill.

If your site offers something valuable to a community... you can actually make some money on it. As others said, I've not found it lucrative or anywhere near enough to make a living. But the site can pay for itself.

Adam

[shaka]

i just charge a flat one off fee though have started adding some advertising but find the site does pay for itself   i only need 2-3 per month paying their fee 

[perlgoodies]

I have a thread asking for donations (sticky) on my forum and I make tons Unfortunately my site is a TGP and costs tons for storage and bandwidth, so I guess I make a little profit every month.