Posted by: Jim | February 10, 2008

tipsiness revisited

Long ago, I instigated a conversation about tipping servers in restaurants. This is also about tips, but of a different sort.

Tonight, TechCrunch is showing love for tipjoy, which styles itself a better way to do online tipping for your website.

I’m not considering adding a tip jar to my site, mostly because I just don’t feel like it but also because it would then obligate me to write stuff that’s actually, you know, worth reading.

Anyway, I know some of you have tipping mechanisms at your online cribs. How well do they work?

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Responses

Tipping someone on their blog? I’ve never heard of such a thing. On the Ultimate Collectors Forums (http://www.ucforums.com/index.php?), the guys that run that site have asked for donations to help pay for the server it’s on. That’s different from a blog which doesn’t cost it’s owner anything to have on the internet. I also know of a blogger that is collecting donations on her site for a charity run she’s going to do (or so she says). A person would have to have some really impressive original content (art quality photos or drawings) to warrant that in my opinion.

By: Ron Wilkes on February 11, 2008
at 6:46 am

Ron,

There are plenty of people who actually pay for the domains that house their blogs. Both of the people I linked to who have tip jars (Julie and Will) have their own domains that they fund out of their own pockets. It’s actually pretty common.

Speaking of impressive original art, photos, and drawings, you really should check out Julie’s place.

By: Jim on February 11, 2008
at 5:09 pm

Hi Folks,

I’m one of the people behind Tipjoy. If you have any suggestions for the service — or questions about where we’re going, let me know.

One of things I like about out service is that the payment amount is fixed but customizable. You can set it to 5 cents, and that’s the amount that gets tipped when you click on a tipjoy button on a site.

That is small enough so most people don’t think about it. At least for me, most blog posts I read are worth at least that much. It is my time that is most scarce.

Giving to charities is actually a big part of the service. Because the licensing to transfer money post 9-11 is ridiculous, we’ll need to secure a series A round of funding before we can afford the lawyers.

By: Ivan Kirigin on February 11, 2008
at 9:09 pm

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for chiming in. Though I wasn’t really looking for people to advertise on my blog, I’m going to leave your comment here because you thought it out and wrote it yourself and didn’t rely on a bot to automatically generate your message. Plus, it might give others something to comment on.

Next time though, you might try emailing me first before plugging your own service.

By: Jim on February 11, 2008
at 9:15 pm

In regards to Ivan’s remark, I feel he should’ve asked Jim first before he posted it. It’s not cool to just post a remark plugging your service. Jim is a good sport for leaving the remark.

Second, I disagree with him about most blogs being worth a nickel donation. I’ve seen a number of blogs that are junk. The people don’t post regularly or don’t ensure the accuracy of what they post. Some don’t state the sources of their information which makes their information suspect. Some have poor grammar which takes away from the blog.

The donation aspect in my opinion changes the nature of the blog. It turns it into something of a money making enterprise vice putting something out there that you hope people might find useful or interesting.

By: Ron Wilkes on February 12, 2008
at 7:45 am

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