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.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Advertising, Google, Halloween, Jim Kukral, monetization, Scratchback, tip jar, top spots
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