Non-ad earnings

[breeks]

Has Anyone tried this?

Non-ad earnings is a feature that lets visitors pay $3, $5 and $10 to your site through our Publisher Support Service.
For every 2-10 visits to your page, visitors will see 1 message asking for support.
After they’ve supported your site, they won't be asked again for 6 months.
During this 6-month period, visitors who make a payment will also see one less ad per page on your site (typically the last ad on the page).

Kinda like begging

[trebuchet]

The way my RPM is going, I may end up begging. I doubt it will work though. I've have donation buttons scattered about my sites for years. So far the number of donations stands at three, totalling $35.

[keyplyr]

I see similar offers to remove all ads for 6 months after donation.

IMO this would work only if your site is visited daily (or close to it) by the user AND if they have never heard of ad blockers :)

[graeme_p]

I think it could work even if users know about ad-blockers if you ensure that you have something that shows in place of blocked ads as there is no real ad-free experience. You could detect ad blockers and show a please subscribe message without blocking the content.

I do agree with keyplyr that you do need regular visitors. In addition the content has to be something that they cannot easily find a free replacement for.

[keyplyr]

I've have donation buttons scattered about my sites for years. So far the number of donations stands at three, totalling $35

I have an entire page set up for contributions and linked to from all other pages. Likewise I get few donations.

[IanCP]

Back in the days when my traffic was vastly greater, say 1999 - 2008 I tried donations with minimal success. Prior to AdSense I had to rely entirely upon Amazon to cover my escalating costs - quite expensive compared to today.

Like all things about the Internet there is no "one size fits all" answer.