Wikipedia, a user made encyclopedia, is the world’s 5th largest website. It does not run ads and appears to be on the verge of solvency. One can see more than 32,000 search results on fund raising necessities of it. The whole discussion is on whether it will run ads to support it or not.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is not in favor to introduce any advertising. In order to support the technical and philosophical mission of non-profit, a website with more than 400 million users all over the world undoubtedly raises enough funds. The basic question that arises is whether Wikipedia will keep going for another 10 years with the same business strategy or not.

An easy way out, to achieve the fund raising target of $16 million annually, is to introduce affiliate codes into appropriate links on Wikipedia, without even making any noticeable change in site. For example, while one is reading about some movie, link can be provided to buy movie at Amazon and as an Amazon Associate, Wikipedia will earn about 8.5% of any transaction. About 3.5% can be earned by hotel reservations and many links like so can be a source of funds for Wikipedia.

From U. S traffic only, Wikipedia generates 2.7 million page views monthly. Thus, taking revenue of 50 per 1000 page view will yield revenue more than $16 million.

For the bright future of Wikipedia, three steps need to taken. These are, Wikipedia should relax their policies on outside linking, it should select an Affiliate Marketing Partner and Participating Merchants should honor affiliated links on Wikipedia.