Running a Bitcoin Faucet
If you are interested in taking part in running a Bitcoin faucet, there is a lot you need to know first. It is not the get rich scheme that a lot of people think it is, and there is a lot of time that has to be spent perfecting things and dealing with ongoing development in order to keep the site up and running. On top of this, you have to be willing to pay out some Bitcoins (even in fractions), regardless of their current value. This article is set up with the goal of helping to explain what all goes in to the faucets, and what you need to know before getting involved. You might be surprised!
My Qualifications
I think it is best to start this off by qualifying how I know as much as I do. If you are not already familiar with it, I run a popular BTC faucet rotator that allows people to easily skip from one faucet to another. I also keep a pruned list there, so as faucets run dry or new ones are added, I ensure that we keep people up and running. This keeps down the waste of time one would normally experience, plus the way the site is set up allows much faster rotations and it keeps up with the timers.
Basically, my qualification is that I deal with faucets on a regular basis. Whether it is people asking questions about theirs, there are faucets with issues, etc. I spend a lot of time helping out and getting better understanding as to what is happening in the faucet world. This has taught me an immense amount, and that is what I want to share with you here!
Common Faucet Myths
The best way to handle a lot of this is through a listing of myths. There are many misconceptions people have before they get involved in faucets, and then when they learn the truth it is a real eye opener. So here we go.
Faucets earn a lot of money. This is very false. The idea here is that through selling advertisement on a faucet, the costs of hosting and the cost of Bitcoins that are given out will make up for it. In the vast majority of cases, this is wrong. Advertising really does not pay that much, especially for faucets, because there is just no care from the visitors. People who go to faucets do not pay attention to the ads that show up, and spend most of their time trying to get past them. Because of this, the number of visits and visitors per day is pretty much meaningless to them.
Faucets drive a ton of traffic. There are some people who have used their faucets to try and drive traffic to their news site. While this is not a bad idea, and it does get people involved in visiting the faucet, it does not convert well. A great way to view this is to act like the faucet is the advertisement. The goal there is to get people to visit the faucet and then check out the latest posts while they are there. Well, this happens when it is planned out well, but in most cases it just ends up in a failure.
Faucets have to pay out a lot. This is another false thing, to a point. If the amount of money you are giving out is not enough, people will not visit. What some sites have done is alter the system a bit. For example, instead of giving out a flat rate payment for each view per hour a day, turning that in to a ticket for a raffle or other game. From here, some people will get almost nothing and others will earn quite a bit. For sites with a ton of traffic, this is a great way to negotiate between the amount that is given out and the funds that are incoming.
Payments have to be sent out manually. There are some people that choose to send out their payments manually so that they can ensure that they are crafted properly and that the payments make it to where they should be. Others will set up automatic systems that will pay out the funds on their own, without the site maintainer having to sit there and baby it. Either of these methods work, and which method a site owner chooses to use is up to them. There is no right or wrong way, as the funds will get through either way.
Making a faucet popular is easy. Faucets are just like any other site; you have to bring about something new and exciting if you want people to visit. When it comes to Bitcoin faucets, there are tons of them out there. Some are maintained and some are not. Some are still paying and some are not. Some are flooded with ads. If you can come up with an awesome faucet idea that goes above and beyond the address and captcha method, you can build up a great following. Past this, you are just throwing your site out in to the herd with all the rest. How far you will make it is all up to you!
