New Way To Monetize Your Site Or Blog That I Really Like
Jim Kukral has just opened up his new Scratchback system to beta users. You may remember that I wondered what it was going to be all about a couple of months ago. Now we know, and I gotta say that this looks extremely cool from every perspective.
Look to the right. See the widget that says Are You In My Top Spots? Of course, you do, how could you miss it? 
That is the Scratchback widget. It essentially functions like a tip jar or donate button, but in return for tipping someone, the person receives an advertisement. That in itself is really cool. But as they say OnTV, wait there’s more.
There are several options for how the process works, but here’s the default one and it’s the way I have it set up. Every time someone tips me (I’ve got the tip set up to be $1.00), their link gets placed in the #1 spot, bumping the #5 spot off and everyone else down. With this autobump method, the spots could stay for a while, or get bumped quickly. You can, however, set the options to not auto-bump, and instead let listings stay for 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days.
Ok, is this going to upset Google? No, that’s the next cool thing. This is Google-friendly, with text links no-followed. So no penalties to worry about with this.
There’s all kinds of other cool things about this, but I want to test it out before commenting any further. So far I like the concept A WHOLE LOT, but it is in beta, so time will tell.
That’s it for now. This system officially opens up to everyone tomorrow, October 31 - Halloween! I think it’s got big, big potential.
If you want to understand a little more about it, you can visit my advertise page.
Thank you for visiting, consider subscribing to my full-text feed, and remember:
You'll never shine if you don't glow.
(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge
. Interscope Records, 1999.)
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Making Money Online
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe by Email
I would understand why people would pay for a link on our blogs, but with a “nofollow” link? I’m confused
1. First off, you should think of it as a tip.
2. Second, you’re getting a link for CHEAP. $1.00 in this case. Sure it’s nofollowed, but it’s a buck. That’s traffic for a buck, and since it’s really just a tip, that you’re getting something in return for…
I definitely get the tip idea. It’s funny because I had a task to donate this coming month (November).
I can see how a lot of micropayments make sense for a blog or even some of our craft projects.
If, say, a thousand people look at a project of ours or a post of yours and get some benefit, then do 2% throw in a buck? You’re right — it’s a tip and a really interesting experiment.
The reason I did is that once a week, reading one of your blogs makes me sit back and think about an issue. Linking had nothing to do with it.
George
OK thanks for clarifying that a tip is a tip
I’ll most probably try it out 
90% payouts on tips during beta, breaking news!
http://www.scratchback.com/blo.....ring-beta/
Interesting news. We had a “discussion” about it internally and the keeper of All Things Brand is dead against this for now, even in testing, but I still like the concept for sites with content designed to help people. Donna’s blog is a great example. So is a place like Lifehacker, where someone might read only 3 of the posts a week, but they get real value from one of them. Is a buck every so often a big deal for 50 good ideas a year? C’mon.
BTW, I love Donna’s subscribe to comments feature and wish more people would use it. Actually, I wish Donna would open a forum (hint) but that’s another day…
George, I’m curious. When you say, “keeper of All Things Brand is dead against this for now”, do you mean from a publisher or advertiser perspective? In other words, does the Keeper not want the widget on your site, or the Keeper does not want to advertise on other sites via this method? And does the Keeper feel that doing so (whichever way that question is answered) would tarnish your brand, and if so, why?
It’s a good question and fair. Definitely from a publisher perspective. I suggested the concept on several non-sales pages and was promptly shot down, even on our hobbyist sites.
The argument back is contrary to what I think is strong about the micropayment. I think a dollar via PayPal is a great concept. She worries that we devalue the content (even though AdSense is running on top and down a skyscraper)
I think I will prevail because we’ll test it, but I wanted to test sitewide across multiple sites and now have to do a contained test!
@George,
I can certainly see that argument from your team. SB is not for everyone, however… I do think the ability to customize it (price, # of spots, text links or images) makes it a viable solution, not just a fancy tip jar.
Especially now that we’re paying 90% of tips to publishers. The alternative is of course setting up something like Openads.com and using that, which is a great idea and I encourage everyone to do so. But 99.9% of site publishers and bloggers don’t want, or have the skills to use Openads.
On the $1.00 tip topic. We’re finding that the more publishers ask for a tip, the more tips they’re getting. Sounds wrong, but it’s true to us so far.
Anything over $5.00 and under $25 seem to generate the most tips. Go figure. I think many people see “$1.00″ and figure, why bother? Not sure yet, gotta test more!