What would you not do for revenue?

[Heatman]

Making money from a website or forum is something which most webmasters look forward to because everyone wants to make money and profits from their investment.

But in your quest for making money on your forum, what are the lines that you're not willing to cross because you wish to make money?

 

[Tracy]

I don't advertise on my site.
But I do hit manufacturers up for evaluation units to do reviews on. One responded that they would be happy to provide various pieces of equipment that they manufacture, but they had certain guidelines that they required the review to contain.
One of those basically was the equivalent of not being able to say anything overly negative about the item. By that, there were referencing anything that would discourage someone from buying one.
Told 'em thanks, but no thanks - that any evaluation review would get the same treatment that an item that I purchased out of my pocket does, other than letting the people reading the review know it was an evaluation unit and I had not paid for it to review.

Sometimes it's not about the money.

 

[Bob]

I don't advertise on my site.

Same!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I won't beg.

So many people contact me begging for me to use their service. When I ask to see experience and why I should choose them over another, they can't answer. They just continue to beg.

Everyone has to start somewhere but begging is not the answer.

I could never do that in order to make money. To me, it's like panhandling on the side of road.

 

[Nomad]

I won't beg.

Aha! You mentioned it.
A lot of people resort to begging and I think this is one of the worst ways to make money online.
When I started my first website, I added a donation button. It was of course begging. However, I managed to receive enough donations to run the website for a couple of years. I than removed donate button. Since then I have not asked for donations.

 

[Henrywrites]

I won't beg.

So many people contact me begging for me to use their service. When I ask to see experience and why I should choose them over another, they can't answer. They just continue to beg.

Everyone has to start somewhere but begging is not the answer.

I could never do that in order to make money. To me, it's like panhandling on the side of road.

You are correct. To beg is not what I am willing to do. I mean, it doesn't even make any sense to beg as it will mean that you are not ready to get better at your niche. If you become popular in a particular niche, then you will discover that begging is not part of how you can get anyone to use your services.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

You are correct. To beg is not what I am willing to do. I mean, it doesn't even make any sense to beg as it will mean that you are not ready to get better at your niche. If you become popular in a particular niche, then you will discover that begging is not part of how you can get anyone to use your services.

I've had to block this one guy a few times now.

He pleads for me to give him and his team a chance. I asked him for proof, and he could never give it to me. That's not a good way to do business.

I could provide awesome and engaging forum posts as a service. I can prove it with all the forums I post on based on content that gets a lot replies and reactions. But that's the proof.

I can write excellent blogs as a freelance writer. You can see my blogs and a few others I've wrote for that use my name as the author. That's the proof that I'm good at it.

This guy was just begging and pleading and then scolding me for blocking his other account, saying I am not helping a small business because I'm not giving them a chance. They charge $300 an hour, too. LOL.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Aha! You mentioned it.
A lot of people resort to begging and I think this is one of the worst ways to make money online.
When I started my first website, I added a donation button. It was of course begging. However, I managed to receive enough donations to run the website for a couple of years. I than removed donate button. Since then I have not asked for donations.

I welcome donations.

I put the Buy Me a Coffee link in all my blog posts but I'm humble about it. "If you enjoyed this post and you want to support me further, you can give me a one-time tip" something like that.

That's fine!

Totally appropriate.

If I begged or threatened to quit blogging if I didn't get donations, that's where it's bad. IMO.

 

[Heatman]

I won't beg.

So many people contact me begging for me to use their service. When I ask to see experience and why I should choose them over another, they can't answer. They just continue to beg.

Everyone has to start somewhere but begging is not the answer.

I could never do that in order to make money. To me, it's like panhandling on the side of road.

Does this include asking for donations on your site? I've seen so many website owners doing that to raise money for either one project or another.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Does this include asking for donations on your site? I've seen so many website owners doing that to raise money for either one project or another.

No. I think asking for donations is fine and even explain why you are requesting them.

But I've seen forum owners in particular, send emails and DMs begging for it. Threatening to close if they don't get it. That's what I see as begging.

Asking for donations is fine as long as you can accept it when people don't do it. Not everyone is going to donate. In fact, the majority of people will not donate, but some will.

I put a "Buy Me a Coffee" link on each one of my newsletters. Usually, I get around 10 to 15 donations out of 3,000 subscribers. LOL. I'm fine with that, too.

 

[Heatman]

No. I think asking for donations is fine and even explain why you are requesting them.

But I've seen forum owners in particular, send emails and DMs begging for it. Threatening to close if they don't get it. That's what I see as begging.

Asking for donations is fine as long as you can accept it when people don't do it. Not everyone is going to donate. In fact, the majority of people will not donate, but some will.

I put a "Buy Me a Coffee" link on each one of my newsletters. Usually, I get around 10 to 15 donations out of 3,000 subscribers. LOL. I'm fine with that, too.

It's crazy when they think that threatening to close down their community simply because you didn't donate a certain amount of money to them is very low and stupid do like say it's because of the person was actually the reason why they created the community in the first place? So, why threatening to shut down because the person refused to offer donation?

I will tell such forum owner to be my guest and shutdown immediately!!

 

[Tracy]

So, why threatening to shut down because the person refused to offer donation?

The ones I have seen do this are more of a "beg" than a "threat".
They probably don't have the best understanding of human interaction and their wording is frequently not the best. Usually there is a sense of panic for them as they probably really want to keep the site going but have found out that financially a site costs more than they originally thought.
Some of those also are ones that started a site thinking it was an instant pathway to riches, not realizing that those days are long gone and they have figured out that you have to actually now address running a site that you want to make income on as a business, with a business plan, solid funding resource and adequate staffing. And when the reality sets in that you have to spend money to make money panic starts as they had assumed it would be free/easy money income stream.

If you are running your site as a hobby, then you still need to treat it as a business, but the funding is assumed to be present since hobbies usually cost and are budgeted for. But by the same token, those hobby sites are subject to not being able to be paid for if life circumstances change. Some then get to the point of desperation because running a site has become part of their life and if they lose that, they feel that they have lost a major part of their life so they start trying to get others to help fund it.

 

[Heatman]

The ones I have seen do this are more of a "beg" than a "threat".
They probably don't have the best understanding of human interaction and their wording is frequently not the best. Usually there is a sense of panic for them as they probably really want to keep the site going but have found out that financially a site costs more than they originally thought.
Some of those also are ones that started a site thinking it was an instant pathway to riches, not realizing that those days are long gone and they have figured out that you have to actually now address running a site that you want to make income on as a business, with a business plan, solid funding resource and adequate staffing. And when the reality sets in that you have to spend money to make money panic starts as they had assumed it would be free/easy money income stream.

If you are running your site as a hobby, then you still need to treat it as a business, but the funding is assumed to be present since hobbies usually cost and are budgeted for. But by the same token, those hobby sites are subject to not being able to be paid for if life circumstances change. Some then get to the point of desperation because running a site has become part of their life and if they lose that, they feel that they have lost a major part of their life so they start trying to get others to help fund it.

It doesn't make any sense for them to put it out as a threat because that's definitely not going to work in any way. They never gave anyone money to keep for them, hence it's why they can't mount any pressure on anyone to give them money.

 

[Tracy]

It doesn't make any sense for them to put it out as a threat because that's definitely not going to work in any way. They never gave anyone money to keep for them, hence it's why they can't mount any pressure on anyone to give them money.

Yeah, I look at it the same way that I do getting those emails from a site saying "upgrade your account now, we need help keeping the site going".
Unless you have a giant site, you should be able to run a decent sized one on less than $100 a month. Most people spend that much money getting their Starbucks coffees each month.