Is It Fair To Ask Money From Your Reader?
How would you fell if you came upon a blog that instead of asking for comment at the end of each post, but asking for money instead, such as ‘if you liked this post, buy me a beer’ and linking it to his/her pay pal account? I’ve seen in some blogs that have a donation button on the sidebar, donation for what? I guess to support the ‘blogger/author/writer’, or what ever you want to refer to this creative specie as, to me it’s a total turn off. A donation button should be for a good cause, such as LP is for Book Box Fund, and Building Fund for Dannavieng Elementary School in Phone Thong, Champassak, and not to support any of us because we are desperate for money in my humble opinion.
When I came across his blog (won’t link to him because I don’t want you all to click to his blog), he bluffs more than he knows what he is talking about, I asked a simple business question just to see what type of advice he’d give (trust me, very basic, I think we all are guilty of doing it at one time or another just to test the water); no reply and I haven’t gone back since; until today, still no reply and saw that he is asking for money at the bottom of each post. I think a blogger should reply to a comment if it is a direct question to him/her, if you don’t know the answer, just says so, not leaving it unanswered. To me, leaving it unanswered meant that you don’t know the topic that you’re writing about, more like copying it from someone else. It’s a shame…what’s the point of writing then, in his case, I know he copied it from somewhere else because he also stole someone’s idea and passing it on as his, which was obvious to me because I recently told him about this person’s webpage, exact same idea almost word-to-word, Duh…how can you pretend that it’s your idea, really, who are you fooling?
I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today, or it is on the right side? Anyway, I’d love to hear what you thoughts are after reading this, please leave your comment here, (this is not a link to a pay pal account, for real!).
Hmm…I think I know which blogger you are talking about. I've seen this type of thing at another blogger which we both know.
We had this discussion before at our old LP board I think about how writers have their donation button on their site to support their career.
I wonder if this sort of thing really work. I've seen a guy created a non-profit foundation for his travel around the world. I am not kidding about this. He is one man foundation and the purpose is to travel the world and blog about it. Too bad I don't have the link anymore since it was bookmarked on my laptop. As you know my laptop was fried before Christmas.
Don't worry I won't ask you guys to support my living and studying here. The kids in Laos need their book and their roof over their school.
You know whom I’m talking about, the fees for his service was awful, and now this, asking money for reading his post, pretty soon, you have to sign in to read his blog.
I missed our old emotional icons.
Yep. I think you'll see something different at Saolao.net now. I updated the site after I read this post.
There are no icons but if you know the codes for smilies, then you can use it. I guess these developers think we all know our smilie codes from chatting so they don't need to add them in comment.
At least we have an editor for our comment. Make my life easier for sure. We'll see if we can have smilies listing for comment. Not making promises. It would be a bonus I suppose.
I did smiled at your saolao.net update, but couldn’t smile about it at my blog since it was a formal transaction and he didn’t violate any agreement that he has with me. It’s something that I can live with, not a big deal.
(sorry if you can’t follow what we’re talking about, it’s us and not you)
Yes, I was the one who went all out at first. I didn't expect anything in return. But after reading your post it doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy if you know what I mean.
Oh well, sorry to those that don't understand our inside conversation. It's nothing secretive but I know you all are lost.
I think the “Buy Me a Beer - PayPal Donation WordPress Plugin” is fair if the viewer thinks it’s fair.
Most of the blogs that have this plugin is not concerned about looking right. Now that nearly everybody is in web publishing, not all blogs are legit and trustworthy. Site with motives for profits are probably baloney and we have to judge if we want to hang around there. I’d stay away from those “Buy Me a Beer” blogs or if I suspect cheaters.
Adsense are fine if they are minimal and decent. Also I don’t mind if there is a pay pal button only on their about page for their open source project or some non profit DIY projects, but asking for cash is something I wouldn’t do.
I don't think it's okay but that might be only me. I don't want to link to anyone like that because he's a bit greedy, but then if I have an agreement with his blog, I can't just drop the link…to e-mail and tell him would be rude. Sim, I've a feeling that you've visited his blog and know whom I'm talking about.
How would you fell if someone just drop your link? I don't like to make people feel badly about themselves if I can help it, but at the end I'm the one that's feeling lousy.
I think it’s very fair to drop people’s link when they aren’t at your level of quality. Just say your’re moving on and both of you just don’t match. If someone dropped my link, I’d feel very at ease. And I like to know why so I can improve.
I believe that un-linking to those “buy me a beer” blogs is the right choice. I think they need a message that says that they’re just not serious enough.
Living in America has taught me that there are all kinds of sharks out there. In Loas, the shark are a bit easier to spot. Today, I’ve learn to say “NO” easily. But we musn’t let go of our humanity - we should continue to learn to trust.
Thanks Sim, great advice as always, link dropped, I feel much better. I need to practice saying NO to people, so the next time any of you ask me to do something, the answer might just be NO.