I receive dozens of e-mails every single day. Most are from people asking for my help with various Synology-related issues. I help them, for free, and after I’ve helped them, I tell them they can support the work I’m doing by making a donation, if they want to. Roughly 90% of those I help never donate anything; they just don’t answer anymore, not even a goodbye or thank you. Every couple of days I get an e-mail in which someone is complaining about me asking for donations at the end of every one of my articles.
The people sending me these e-mails where they are complaining about asking for donations are downright upset. They tell me things like: such a great article, but why ask for donations? Why isn’t your article free? I tell them: it IS free.
First of all, my website is free of ads and you will not find any affiliate links, so there are no annoying pop-ups or videos or banners that prevent you from enjoying the content. There’s no tracking or cookies, which is also a plus. My practical guides and tutorials are free – I’m not charging anything for them. I keep my website updated with all the latest news and information and really do put in a lot of work every single day. You can even say mariushosting.com is my job. But I need to pay bills too, just like everybody else.
Most other websites make money from advertising, affiliate links selling products and things like that. I don’t do any of that. So to keep dedicating so much time and effort to my website, I rely on donations. Is it that wrong? I do work for the donations I receive by offering quality, unique and practical content and support every single day. And, as many of the people coming to mariushosting for the content have told me, I am helping them pay their bills to. A lot of them actually have their own small businesses and come to mariushosting for the articles that help their business thrive, or so they tell me. Funny thing is, none of them ever made a donation after I’ve helped them, even though they tell me they are prosperous business owners with lots of clients.
What drove me to write this article today was the following incident (I’m not giving any names because I am a firm believer in respecting someone’s privacy). After I had helped someone with their Synology, spending quite some time and providing information unique to their situation for free, they thanked me. Then I told them they could support my work by sending a donation. I got a reply saying they were upset by my asking for donations, that they didn’t expect that and actually felt offended. They continued to say that asking for donations made me lose credibility in front of them and that it was not okay. Honestly, I felt incredibly disheartened.
The world is so divisive nowadays. I wouldn’t have dreamed of receiving backlash for donations, that are optional and nothing more than a way to show support for the things and people you feel deserve your support. I am lucky though that there are so many cool people out there, who are honest and kind and show their support for mariushosting.com with donations. It’s with your support that I can keep mariushosting going strong and produce great content for you. So I want to thank all of you who have been supporting mariushosting, some of who’ve returned to donate countless times over the past year. Unfortunately, the disappointment stays with me because it wasn’t just one person upset by me asking for donations, or two, or three, but 50 or more.
I apologize again for dedicating an entire article to this topic. This is why this is the first and last time I’m talking about this.
This post was updated on Sunday / June 30th, 2024 at 4:00 PM