Cosmetics.
Let’s offer paid cosmetics for users of your instance. Animated or custom banners, posts, new themes, etc.
It’s a model that works really well for Discord and League of Legends. Instances offering to sell aesthetic luxury to their user base could work for Mastodon too.
It’s non-invasive, it’s optional, it’s a great addition for some people, and it allows to raise funds to keep the hosted instances up and running.
Do you think it’s viable?
Donations is def not the way forward if you want to mainstream it.
It works because moderation on Mastodon is manual (by my understanding), so most good instances are closed, which means donations kind of work.
But donating to use a social media service is unheard of in India (and may I say most of Asia too). Most also consider this as a waste of time. There’s no way you can make Mastodon big in India without thinking of a way to monetise it.