Paying for a new server and site hosting is one of the more complex problems teams face in growing and surviving. I am going to show you a set of ideas that can help you overcome this problem, and how to use HONEST promotion methods to help your team cover its costs. Lets get started..

Traditional Methods:

- Donations are probably the most common method clans use to fund their server and site. You will find that most members who have the ability will certainly donate a few bucks to help keep the team afloat. PayPal offers a link set-up for this, and you can find all sorts of modules, blocks, and plug-ins that support it.

- Pay-To-Play means you charge your members a few bucks a month to fund the clan’s hosting needs, while this can take away from recruiting efforts, it is a solution you see often in multi-server teams.

- Referral programs are often offered from web hosts and server hosts, send them new customers and they will discount your servers or strait out send you a check.

Newer Ideas:

- Advertising on your site has become more popular, but is often looked down on by teams themselves. There are a lot of new programs out there that can make it less awkward than in years past. Google’s program uses content focused ads that are meant to display ads that they think your team and visitors may be interested in.

LinkShare lets you pick the advertisers yourself to ensure that only things you want displayed are displayed:

There are plenty of different advertisers out there and some have really awesome programs. Look for what works best for you.

- Merchandise is another great way to create some extra funding, and is pretty easy to get set up. CafePress, the most popular I’ve seen,  offers the ability to put your logo on a t-shirt, coffee mug, or mousepad and sends you back a portion of the profit made from sales. http://www.cafepress.com/

- Sponsorship is a bit harder to accomplish, but you can often find a variety of companies that are willing to sponsor teams for a limited time and under certain conditions. Start by looking to your web and server hosts as they have what you want already, you can also explore the leagues and professional eSports arenas; they tend to offer prizes in the form of hosting.

Managing the income:

It is advisable to have a single person in charge of incoming money and in charge of paying needed hosting charges. Establishing a Treasury Officer is a good idea, but make sure that this person is capable of handling the teams bills and credits.

Final Thoughts:

I have seen some other methods that work but are not too common, things like time-shares with partner clans, providing help (web design, ect) to a just-starting-out host company, and recruiting members who offer to pay for hosting given a leadership role in the team. How you chose to fund your team is completely up to you and your members.

- Hedge

© 2009 tribehaven