Donate Button!

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   sallybeaposted 8 years ago

   I received a suggestion from a reader who wrote to me today, it reads:-
   
   ' I would like to make the suggestion that you add a "donate" option to your tutorials. I would like to do more than just offer my thanks!
   
   I don't mind admitting that when I joined HubPages I joined because I needed to earn a residual income.  This has materialized to some extent but the amount earned does not justify the amount of time I spend here.
   
   It is true that I could put a donate button on my own website and move all of my tutorials to my own site but I don't want to because I love the HubPages community here.
   
   I just wonder if enough is being done to reward writers for their writing.
   
   What do others think?   Is a donate button cheap or tacky or is something HubPages would consider doing?  We need something to replace the loss of earnings which are the direct result of Amazon and e-Bay Ads being removed. 
   Can we at least talk about it?

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      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think it's an interesting idea.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I think the idea is becoming more prevalent.  I see people asking for a donation for a 'cup of coffee'.   I just can't make up my mind.  Is it tacky to ask someone to pay for your work?

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            calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I don't think so at all.  If you get pictures from Pixabay, for instance, there is a button to buy the contributor a cup of coffee.  HP could develop their own in-house donation button that takes a cut.

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               LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That's a good idea I mean if it works for Pixabay why not ?

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               sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I am not sure that this would be the case, I think any donation, would be associated with our own pay pal accounts!

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                  calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  HP would want  a cut of any additional earnings.

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                     sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I don't think it would be feasible to have the donate button apply to 2 PayPal accounts so I don't think so.  I am thinking of this as a way to give back to writers what is gradually being whittled away by the lack of Amazon and E-Bay ads.

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                        calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        I like your optimism Sally.  I'm pessimistic that HP would ever allow us to put our own PayPal donate buttons on our articles so we could receive "cups of coffee" without HP taking a few sips.

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                           sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Thanks for giving me something too  about this Monday morning.

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Donating is not viewed as income and is reported differently by Pay-Pal. Here is a link to PalPal page discussing a donate button. Here is there notation regard using it.
      
      "Note: This button is intended for fundraising. If you are not raising money for a cause, please choose another option. Nonprofits must verify their status to withdraw donations they receive. Users that are not verified nonprofits must demonstrate how their donations will be used, once they raise more than $10,000."

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         The best explanation yet, thank you.   I guess that puts the kybosh on that one then, though I can't think of a better cause than myself.  I know that I would use it to buy materials for my Tutorials.  I definitely don't make a profit on my writing here because unlike many people I have to spend in order to create.

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   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   Sally, a donate button certainly is worth thinking about, especially for tutorial hubs such as yours that a lot of work has clearly gone into and offers very thorough instructions. As you say it would help to alleviate the loss of earnings from Amazon and eBay. I guess it depends on how HubPages interprets how Google would react to that.

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      sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Jodah, we can only wait and see.  I was brought up to think that money was not something you talked about but would I take on a job without knowing what the reward would be for my work?

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   peoplepower73posted 8 years ago

   I'm in.

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   alikhan3posted 8 years ago

   Good Idea Sally ....

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   yecallposted 8 years ago

   Of course all of us writers will totally love this idea!

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   EricDockettposted 8 years ago

   I'm all for getting more $$, but I'm not quite following the logic here. We're earning every time somebody reads our Hub. That's what the ads are for.
   
   Sites that use the donate buttons are usually doing it because they don't want to beat their readers over the head with ads. It's hard to justify asking for a cup of coffee to keep the site running when there are ads plastered all over it.
   
   So, in my opinion: Yes, donate button + ads = tacky and fairly insulting to readers.
   
   On the other hand, if HP implemented a donate button for a charity in the sidebar that might be okay, but it would also divert clicks away from ads.

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      sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I only posed the question because someone told me that they had received value from my hubs and would like to pay me for it.   I have seen a decline in earnings since our ads have been so rigorously policed and would be grateful if a new way could be found to improve our earnings.

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   agilitymachposted 8 years ago

   I am not sure how that would work either code wise or legal-financial wise, but if it could be done pretty easily, I'd love it.  I doubt anyone would donate, but if they did, that's just a bit more cash for me.  I wouldn't mind giving HP say 10 - 20 percent of my donations either.

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      sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      So would I and I would not mind sharing the same percentage with HP.

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      MizBejabbersposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The IRS would definitely want a cut. I'm not sure if HP sends 1099s to the IRS, but I report my paltry earnings just in case. It's not worth it to risk an audit. Sally's tutorials do take a lot of time and expense for the materials. She is very generous to donate them.
      Sally, have you thought about working for a magazine? Craft magazines need good writers (especially) or do you prefer to freelance? I take some jewelry makers magazines, and those are very professionally done, so they need good writers and editors.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I have thought about writing some e-books and of course, I would love the opportunity to write for publication.    I might  have to resort to doing this if my earnings don't warrant my spending any more time, money or effort here.  So sad really I do like writing for HubPages.

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   LouiseTeachposted 8 years ago

   I feel that in order to make any real money here, you would have to be writing every day, all day.  That just does not work for me.  If I understand correctly, the money earned here is actually ad-based, which has nothing to do with your articles...just how many ads are clicked, which are on your article page.

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      DrMark1961posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Payments here are based on page views, not just how many people click on your ads.
      No, you do not need to write every day, not even every week, to make a decent income here. (It does help to have more than 7 hubs, however.)

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   Julie Nouposted 8 years ago

   I hav a few suggestions for you sallybea, but i dont know if we allowed to exchange email addresses here?
   
   As you can see, i hav renovated my hub account, deleted all my old thin content hubs and replaced with good ones. Let me know though...

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      Julie Nouposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I mean, let me know what you think or if you interested.

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