Unobtrusive Monetization - Part 1
— — Don Parakin — blogging
For gits and shiggles, I thought I would experiment by adding some unobtrusive monetization to this blog. In Part 1, I describe what I added. In Part 2, some months from now, I’ll describe the results.
Needs
Every now and then I read a blog that really helps me. Something that gives me some value in either time saved or knowledge gained. Sometimes it’s something I wouldn’t mind giving back a little to show appreciation for the author’s efforts.
Although this blog is very new, I have hopes it will produce something its reader(s) will value. If that ever happens, it would be interesting to see if any reader does give back something given a way to do so. So …
I need “a way” for my reader(s) to donate a small amount, if they so choose. This “way” must somehow get something of value (money, preferably) from the reader to me.
Candidates
Since this wasn’t a decision of any importance, I did not do a thorough search for and evaluation of candidates. Instead, I did it quickly, narrowly, and shallowly. Apologies if I missed your favourite.
I looked at PayPal, the usual suspect, but it seems to target registered charities and was not otherwise a great fit. Same for donorbox. Minipay looked like it could work (with some banging). Ko-fi came closer.
The winner was BuyMeACoffee. It has a comparison to Ko-fi that seemed good enough for me (they wouldn’t allow it on the internet if it wasn’t true, right?). The most important feature for me: zero cost (since I suspect I’ll get zero revenue).
Setting it up was super easy. Generate the code for a button or widget and add it to your website. Connect your Stripe and/or PayPal account and you are all set. When the cash starts rolling in (lol!), BMAC will keep their 5% fee and the rest goes into your Stripe or PayPal account.
Next
The way the world (usually) works is you must give value before you get value. So, this experiment will depend heavily on how much value I give in my upcoming blog posts. So, that’s motiviation for the next step: write some valuable blog posts.
After that, a year or so from now, I’ll write Part 2 of this experiment: how it worked out and how much I made.