That’s good information; thanks for passing it on.

I can just imagine how many scams that PayPal has to watch out for and it would be easy to get caught in a scenario you describe.

After months of testing tip jars, both PayPal and others, on various sites, I’ve decided they are completely ineffective for what I’m doing and I’m removing them from the sites as I make updates.

I’ve already removed the PayPal tip jar from this site.

Act on your dream!

JD

I once had a donate button on a really old page on a site I had. After Katrina PayPal sent an email that if I didn’t prove I was a non-profit or respond by their deadline that they’d do something – probably close my account.

Fortunately I did call them. The link I had was long before Katrina and I had never actually used it. It had to do with a project I had considered and did not pursue. But PayPal was very serious about my removing it.

Apparently there were too many scammers taking “donations” for Katrina that weren’t. Just wanted you to know just in case.

Internet Strategist´s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy

I always welcome your comments and feedback – and the service you provide via SquidUtils.com.

The more I learn about tip jars, the more I’m beginning to think they are likely to be ineffective for most sites.

If there’s a service that I use regularly that I know helps my business, I’d be more likely to pay a monthly fee rather than donating to a tip jar.

I don’t have any experience with TipIt, but I did go read their FAQ page. It looks to me like they’re mostly a middleman between the domain owner and PayPal. Once again, you have to have at least $25.00 in your account before you get paid, but with a PayPal donate button, you get paid almost immediately. (TipIt’s minimum amount for payout is 15 pounds, 20 Euros, or 25 US Dollars.)

Now, for something like SquidUtils, I’d be willing to pay a monthly fee for the services you provide.

I haven’t had the time or energy to really do much with Squidoo over the last three months or so, but it will play a big part in my plans for 2009. What I like about Squidoo is they pay me to use their service, in return for content I provide and visitors I attract to their site. I like that model, but it certainly won’t work for most sites.

SquidUtils adds some real functionality that I like, and I just learned about your RSS feeds for SquidCasts. This is something I’ll be using in the future.

I know you have expenses related to servers and bandwidth. Have you considered setting up a monthly subscription fee for lensmasters who use your service a lot?

Back to TipIt. I don’t see much that I dislike (on first glance), except for the minimum amounts before payout. In my case, I think I’d be more inclined to click a PayPal donate button than TipIt, because I have a lot of history with PayPal and trust their service.

Does anyone else have any thoughts about TipIt?

Act on your dream!

JD

I’m considering trying out TipIt instead – this makes it super easy for visitors to tip small amounts, and for donations less than $10 it works out cheaper than PayPal. They have a nice bit of Javascript you can put on your site, which might attract more ‘tips’ than a PayPal button would.

Still undecided though – have a look and see what you think.

thefluffanutta

In regards to the conversation between Mitch and Dennis, I believe Mitch was referring to having a “Buy me a coffee” link and not a tipping jar widget. In regards to that I use a plugin which I have found works quite well, and instead of a coffee people buy me a beer. I was thinking of changing it to a scotch but that might be asking too much.

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Dennis, I don’t know why I keep forgetting Garry’s name; I guess he’s not quite a part of my lexicon just yet. For me, I’m not signing up for any more newsletters for awhile, because I have so much stuff already. Still, there is a paid model that he’s created. However, I’m thinking more along the lines at this point of having something on the side instead. I’m going through some minor rearranging of stuff right now, along with my new series.

Mitchs last blog post..New Series – Writing And Marketing A Book

Garry is a bad example – he will get signups non-sop because of who he is; one of the most straight shootin’ MMO guys in the business…if either of us tried the $1 thing we’d be sunk….more on that later.

As for the blog with no name…you don’t see a link, do ya? Will it be monetized AT ALL? That will be talked about within the first couple posts, but as I envision it right now…I don’t see very much at all, no.

It’s not the monetization approach that affects “me” either…I’m just talkin’ about general perception. Unless things have changed big time, if you were to poll quite a few more places, the answer would come back the same.

Dennis Edells last blog post..A Monkey Can Do Your Job!

It’s always good to examine the alternatives, do a basic pro vs. con comparison, and then test to see if our expectations match the actual results.

(I did it! I always knew I could write a short comment eventually.)

Mitchs last blog post..New Series – Writing And Marketing A Book

Some people do it for a hobby. Some to socialize. Others have a burning passion for a cause. Some do it to inform, others to disrupt.

Many of these people dislike advertising, some abhor it. They’re not blogging to earn a living.

I do it to earn a living and because I like it.

All my blogs (and other sites, too) are monetized in some way, either via Adsense ads, affiliate links, or – now – a tip jar.

So far, the tip jar is really a non-issue in terms of revenue. I earn far more from Adsense and affiliate links than I’ll ever earn from donations and I think that’s proper for what I’m doing.

I only added the tip jar at someone’s request.

In fact, I’ve only received one donation in my tip jar. (Thanks. You know who you are.)

So, why am I spending so much time thinking and writing about tip jars? Because it caught my attention and I wanted to learn something about it.

Thanks to all the comments in this and the previous thread, I know much more about tip jars than I ever did before. Now, I think I can make an informed decision on the subject.

Honestly, I don’t think a tip jar, a buy me a beer, a give me an Amazon certificate, or anything else similar to those would have any effect on how I view the blog.

In Mitch’s case, I learn something from almost all of his posts, so a tip jar here or there would have no effect on whether I visited or not.

Unfortunately for those of us doing this to earn a living, the majority of people who read a lot of blogs are blind to ads, anyway. Most of us rarely click on ads. I think we’re more likely to click on links for more information than on something that helps our friends earn a living, too. (That’s just a personal opinion with no facts to back it up.)

We are likely, however, to click on something that may help us earn more money when we see one of our friends using it.

Still using I’m Just Sharing as an example, I’m going to continue reading it on a regular basis, regardless of the number and types of monetization approaches Mitch decides to use.

On the other hand, if he changed the way he writes and started posting one or two paragraph articles trying to sell everything that comes down the road – as I’ve seen others do – then I’d be out of there.

It’s not the monetization approach that affects me, it’s the value of the information and the quality of the opinions.

I recognize that I’m atypical and how I would respond probably isn’t a good way to judge how someone else would.

I’ve finally come to the conclusion – for me – that I think there is some minor value in tip jars and don’t see any reason to oppose them.

I’m enjoying this discussion.

Act on your dream!

JD

I’m certainly not being contrary, but I just don’t understand why people would unsubscribe for that reason. If one was writing one or two paragraph posts, or not really doing anything except selling, I might understand a bit more. But if a site is actually writing real articles most of the time, and you’ve seen the length of some of my posts, having that at the end doesn’t seem like it should be the death of readers or subscribers. Just asking, but wouldn’t you personally be more apt to unsubscribe from a blog where the writer said you couldn’t read the entire article for free unless you subscribed to the newsletter than someone who hopes people are getting some kind of value from the posts they’re writing?

In a way, it’s almost the argument some have about whether to monetize or not, as I notice you’ve mentioned that, for your “unnamed blog” (sure, promise me to secrecy, then reveal it yourself! lol), you’re not having any paid advertising. Does that mean you’re not monetizing the blog at all?

I still haven’t decided, by the way, which is why I’m engaging in the conversation. I’m just wondering which blogs you’ve seen where someone has asked for what I’m thinking about doing and suddenly showed a major decrease in subscribers. I’d like to write some of those folks.

Mitchs last blog post..9 Instant Tips On How To Leverage The Power Of Squidoo – Guest Post

Take my blog about to launch, that you’re not supposed to know about yet. LOL

You probably noticed the sidebar headline calling for “free ad swaps”…I will most likely also have a donation thingy; maybe even after every post!

What? Huh? The reason being, considering the nature of the blog, my plans are to have NO PAID ADVERTISING WHATSOEVER.

Make sense?

Dennis Edells last blog post..A Monkey Can Do Your Job!

I agree with John on the Lynn thing, in fact I mentioned her and Alice Seba above…INDIVIDUALLY they have a ton more traffic then we do COMBINED lol.

Donations – I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear.

“I personally” think they are a no-no in any location on any blog that also pimps other things for sale, especially if one is crazy into affiliate marketing.

So basically I don’t agree with it at all on blog/site that also sells. If one wishes to test it in a very non-blatant way somewhere in a sidebar, then I say good luck.

That said, yes it is a DEFINITE subscriber KILLER to have it at the end of every post.

Dennis Edells last blog post..A Monkey Can Do Your Job!

Mitchs last blog post..“Legitimizing” Spam?

Welcome! Thanks for the comments.

Mitch,

I agree about not putting a tip jar at the end of every post, but that doesn’t mean it would not be the right thing to do on your blog.

As we know, the art of marketing is testing and eliminating things that don’t work and emphasizing what does work.

Your example is perfect. Lynn Terry’s TopSpots widget is a little cash cow for her and she’d be nuts to delete it. Plus, (possibly) it sends traffic to the people who advertise on it.

The difference between her blog and mine is that she has much, much more traffic and she’s spent years building loyalty with her readers. I may not agree with everything she says, but I respect her advice and integrity. That’s why I bought a link on her widget in the first place.

So, while it didn’t work on my site, it may be a perfect fit for yours. Or not.

Only testing will give the answer.

The same thing is true about using a PayPal tip jar on your site.

Test it in the sidebar (where it’s practically invisible for most people) for awhile, and then test at the end of every post, or vice versa.

Keep what works best on YOUR site.

See if your readers complain or if your traffic stats decrease or increase. Those are important factors, too.

Every site, every business, and every person is different. My solution may work for me, but not for anyone else.

But, I’m betting you already know this. (grin)

Act on your dream!

JD