Donate Button

Do you think Google should offer one?

[Visit Thailand]

For years, some people have said that donate buttons degrade the quality of a site but I disagree and more and more I am finding myself wishing that there was a donate button I could click to reward a site for the info it provides.

I would like it to offer me the options of different amounts, whether the sum is recurring monthly, annually etc and for the cash to be taken from my AdWords account.

I will never work with PayPal and so that is not an option, but I trust Google and would willingly top up my AdWords account so that the donations could be dedcuted from there.

Some of the stuff I read on the net is garbage but of course now and again there is a real gem. I do not want join that site or become a member but I would like to occasionally say thanks with a micro payment.

Perhaps it is just a dollar or 10 or more.

Your thoughts?

PS. I posted this in AdSense because as a publisher I am sure I would earn more from GAS and the payment to the publisher would be through their GAS account.

Added: Also if you think about it, when there is a crisis, millions of people may donate to a charity, just giving a dollar or two. Those people probably would not have given anything before.

A win win for everyone

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

The cynic in me says that no one would contribute. I built a website a few years ago, which offers a useful free service. It's a comparison tool based on an online spreadsheet. The object was Adsense and it provides me with a trickle of income each month.

I also put a donate button on this because it really does offer useful free service with no registration required. In the six years since the site was created I have not received a single donation. You may think that is because people don't like the website and that I am overestimating its value but there is clear evidence that this is not the case.

I also offer a personal copy of this spreadsheet for close on $100 (£60) and people do purchase copies. This is not high volume but my point is that I have never received any complaints about this. This suggests that the people who pay the money are pleased with the purchase so while it clearly has value no one thinks they should donate.

[farmboy]

Maybe instead of giving publishers a gift this year, Google could just donate some money to charities of their choosing on our behalf. I'm sure every publisher would just love it.

Oh...wait...


/sarcasm


FarmBoy

[Visit Thailand]

Interesting BDW. I guess it very much depends on the site, its content and readership plus how easy it is to donate.

And let's be clear this is a donation to the publisher not a charitable gift, although if G did it correctly I am sure they could make it work for tragedies like the floods in Pakistan as well. But I am primarily looking at this as a revenue source.

The companies I have spoken to said they would like the idea, as would I obviously.

I will give you one example. I am about to buy a new laptop and of course have done a LOT of research. One website's forums in particular, as well as its review page, was so helpful I would definitely have donated if they had a Google Donate button that pulls cash straight from my AdWords account.

I wont't touch PayPal at all but I trust Google and would have happily donated.

Of course for massive corporations I doubt it would have an impact, but this is more for the smaller companies that do a lot of work and some may feel should be rewarded even if it is just through micro-payments.

I also feel this is better than going to a Subscription base or Member-based system.

Added:
Here is an interesting AP article: [google.com ]

[jetteroheller]

Got 2 weeks ago surprisingly 20.-EUR. It turned out that my wife was talking with somebody about my work :)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Interesting BDW. I guess it very much depends on the site, its content and readership plus how easy it is to donate.

Perhaps my donate option was not obvious enough but I had a text link to a donate option below the main nav menu on every page. I have changed this to a more obvious image.

Personally I think the problem with my website is that they are not going to donate until they try the tool and after they have done so they will probably just move on.

[Leonard0]

if they had a Google Donate button that pulls cash straight from my AdWords account

Not many average Joes have AdWords accounts.
Maybe when Google's new music service gets going in a few months there may be a payment system that can be used to donate to favorite websites, charities, etc.

[Visit Thailand]

they are not going to donate until they try the tool and after they have done so they will probably just move on.

That's just it, the whole concept behind the Donate Button or a Thank you button has to be 100% impulsive, in that the user thinks great work thanks, clicks once to go to the donate page, chooses the amount frequency and confirms. All done in seconds, no need to give a site you do not trust your credit card details or even your name, it is totally anonymous and from that perspective risk free.

Something like this would only start to gather pace once it becomes more common.

Would I ever click on an ad (anywhere) - I doubt it. Would I say "Thank you" by offering a small micro payment to the site via G - definitely.

Google can make money from this by taking a percentage. Plus, imagine the press coverage as well, when if it were used for charitable donations by billions of people making micro-donations of just a dollar or a few cents. Wow.

I have never given to a cause like that but if i could do it painlessly, and quickly and for small amounts I am sure I would start donating.

Not many average Joes have AdWords accounts.
Maybe when Google's new music service gets going in a few months there may be a payment system that can be used to donate to favorite websites, charities, etc.

You could be onto something here. Perhaps music and micropayments for music will be what gets the ball rolling.

I just want to add that I see G just as the middle man, the innovative 21st century banker, the guy that stores my cc details securely and allows me to go to other sites and say "thanks for your info etc" or "I am not rich but I want to help" and that site gets some extra revenue etc.

If anyone can do this, G can.