Will they work as income for your blog?
The answer is likely a maybe, with a lot of caveats.
In order to receive any worthwhile amount of money, through reader donations, a blog would likely have to fulfil a number of requirements.
There would have to be large readership. Ten visitors per day is unlikely to provide much of an income.
The readers would have to be loyal to the blog. They would have to appreciate the value, offered by the blogger, in the form of information and/or entertainment.
The blogger would have to provide top quality blog content, that would not be readily available elsewhere. If the blog posts could be replaced by someone else for free, then no donations would be forthcoming. Why would there be?
Are there any examples of a blog that meets these criteria?
Other than a few celebrity bloggers?
The answer is yes.
Check out baseball blogger Aaron Gleeman.
While I have no idea about the amount of money collected, Aaron made a request to his readers for donations to his PayPal account.
Because of the high quality of his baseball analysis, almost unrivalled anywhere on the internet, he has a large and loyal readership. I am one of them.
Aaron meets all of the requirements, of a blog that can gain revenue, by getting donations.
His donation campaign was quite successful and Aaron thanked his readers for their support.
The quality of posts Aaron provides to baseball fans, are considered worth paying for, in the manner of a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) pledge drive. His readership appears to have taken that position.
While asking for donations is never easy for bloggers, there are some of you who may be quite successful with fundraising efforts.
The key is to develop a fairly strong readership base, that is loyal to reading your blog entries.
The way to achieve that goal, is to provide useful and interesting content, on a daily basis. You must maintain a high level of quality, like Aaron Gleeman, in his baseball posts.
With your loyal readership base in place, your blog can then be in line to receive some donations.
Think great content, first
That is always the first step to a great blog.
And to donations!
