Time to start putting something back into the box
AnimeBlogger.net has always been supportive of new writers all over the world to establish their blog for free. As we continue to expand and include new bloggers to the anime blogosphere, we have reached a point where advertising dollars are not enough to pay for the hosting services.
Hence, we have decided to appeal for donations to cover the taxes and hosting fees of AnimeBlogger.net. The first goal is to raise US$1600 to cover three months of hosting and the taxes applicable to AnimeBlogger.net. When we have secured that amount, we are looking into adding another server in order to accommodate more writers, which is where the second goal comes in. If we reach our second goal of US$2200, we’ll be able to add another server.
If you are wondering how you can donate to us, there are various ways. First, you can directly donate to the site via Amazon or Paypal from our donations page. Second, you can buy AnimeBlogger.net merchandise. As an incentive to those who donate, everyone who donates more than $5 will be entered to win a prize. Currently we have a sponsor that’s paying for two AnimeBlogger.net shirts for winners. You can also contribute any anime-related items as prizes for the lucky draw.
AnimeBlogger.net needs your help. Everyone is integral to the support of AnimeBlogger.net. Every little bit counts to hit our target, be it $1 or $100. You will make a difference. Thank you and please continue to explore our anime blogging community!
Donation Meter Plugin
We encourage you to let others know about AB’s donation drive, and to help with that we have a Wordpress plugin available that you can use to put a donation meter on your sidebar. The donation meter shows the the current donation amount in green, a bar extends out to the first goal in red, then the second goal’s in yellow. The plugin pulls its data from our servers so it’ll update itself as we get donations in.
To install the plugin on your blog, first save the plugin file and change the extension from .phps to .php. Now upload this file to your wp-content/plugins directory. Then you activate it and add the following code to your sidebar wherever you want it to appear:
<? php dd_display(170); ?>
The number specifies how many pixels wide the donation meter should be, so change the 170 to something slightly less than your sidebar’s width. The plugin outputs all the necessary code, with the header being an <h2> and the meter itself enclosed in <ul> tags. (We choses these because they’re the most common.) If you need to change these you’ll need to edit the plugin code to do so, but it’s really straightforward. Finally, there’s a set of sayings that the plugin will randomly put below the donation meter itself, here’s the default ones:
$sayings[] = ‘Just a bit more guys!’;
$sayings[] = ‘It can\’t hurt to help!’;
$sayings[] = ‘Be a pal, a PayPal!’;
$sayings[] = ‘We need money. Badly. :(’;
$sayings[] = ‘Keep us in business.’;
$sayings[] = ‘Feel good; lend a hand.’;
Feel free to change these or add new ones if you’d like. 
(Note: single quote marks in the text will need to have a \ in front of them.)
