..am I on my own?

[Oblivion Knight]

Whilst I like the idea of being able to earn some money back from a project, I rarely pursue it..

Why? - Adverts aren't "cool", nobody likes them, and many go out of their way to block them.

Sure, I could pursue donations and/or premium memberships - That comes with its own pressures though, feeling like you need to deliver something in return for that investment.

So I simply choose to run my projects at a loss, out of my own pocket - because it's my belief that being a webmaster isn't about monetization..

..I kinda feel like I'm increasingly alone with this belief though!

 

[Altair]

I agree with this sentiment somewhat. I am on the fence.
I joined a forum where premium is $ 25 a month with not enough value. Besides the point that is way too much to ask of somebody. I also see forums where they offer premium for a certain amount and offer nothing of value. I am against this.
I joined premium here because I know Xyphien has invaluable tips on how to grow membership.and traffic. For five dollar a month I get something in return that will be help tremendously and get my sites off the ground with traffic.
If premium is done right with something to offer and with the right price I see no reason not to offer it if you have creative way to offer something in return.
I have never done a donation and never will. I was always the impression why should I pay four your hosting bill. If people want to spend their money on that then good for them.
On my forum I will not have a donation section but if I can come up with a good premium offer then I will do that.
For adds I am also on the fence. On my tutorial website I will be putting adds on the site down the line to earn some money. However, my personal blog and fun little sites I'm building no. The purpose it not to gain a little income. Its for fun and not for monetization.

 

[Xyphien]

I agree with this sentiment somewhat. I am on the fence.
I joined a forum where premium is $ 25 a month with not enough value. Besides the point that is way too much to ask of somebody. I also see forums where they offer premium for a certain amount and offer nothing of value. I am against this.
I joined premium here because I know Xyphien has invaluable tips on how to grow membership.and traffic. For five dollar a month I get something in return that will be help tremendously and get my sites off the ground with traffic.
If premium is done right with something to offer and with the right price I see no reason not to offer it if you have creative way to offer something in return.
I have never done a donation and never will. I was always the impression why should I pay four your hosting bill. If people want to spend their money on that then good for them.
On my forum I will not have a donation section but if I can come up with a good premium offer then I will do that.
For adds I am also on the fence. On my tutorial website I will be putting adds on the site down the line to earn some money. However, my personal blog and fun little sites I'm building no. The purpose it not to gain a little income. Its for fun and not for monetization.

I'm very pleased to hear that It means a lot. As for donations, I think if done right it is just as good as premium. For example, donations here are a minimum of $5 and if you donate you automagically get a month of Premium. Essentially, with this you can pay what you feel premium is worth whilst helping out the site, as well as it's a way around subscribing to the premium membership as a lot of people are against subscriptions.

If you'd like advice on a good premium offer, feel free to make a post about it giving information on your forum

Why? - Adverts aren't "cool", nobody likes them, and many go out of their way to block them.

I agree with this, most advertisements are in your face and something most people do not like. That's why I have it so you only pay for the footer ad, and the header ad is given for free. This way it's not random, unmonitored ads, it's those who are here in the community which I've found people enjoy a lot more when it's a reward versus something shoved down your throat.

I've always felt that communities should be free, however certain services should not be if they provide enough value. The marketplace takes a percentage of sales because it allows people an alternative to Flippa which you have to pay $45 PLUS a percentage, as well as the premium articles which are things I do that's proven to help, as well as giving away some valuable Do-Follow sites that anyone can use to boost their SEO without paying for them. All of those I believe should come with some sort of paywall, however a normal forum/site that's there for community interaction shouldn't be overly monetized, I do agree with you on that.

 

[TopSilver]

In my opinion, making money with your site isn't always a bad thing. I recently have added ads to my site. They aren't intrusive so it's not completely a bad thing. Though I recently also added info links and I'm considering removing it for logged in members. Currently we do not have ads for members logged in but I do have the little affiliate links enabled for members. Also it's always something to consider to offer members a one-time or small yearly fee to be put in a premium usergroup and be ad-free. That's something I have considered but at the moment I'm not going to put up any ads for members. Just something I thought about later down the road.

 

[EntitledStories]

I don't like ads. Depending on the project I may reluctantly put them or try to keep the site ad-free. On my EntitledStories site I don't run ads. Right now I'm just trying to build a userbase. Once I build a userbase I plan to offer purchasable rewards that users can give each other while supporting the site, similar to how Reddit handles awards.