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There is neat, new service from Jim Kukral called ScratchBack, which features the TopSpot widget.
It’s basically an online tip jar where friends and fans of a blog or site can make a donation, and in addition to good karma, they get a text or image ad that appears in the widget.
The pricing varies depending on the person featuring the TopSpot widget on their site or blog - it can be anywhere from $1 and up per ad slot.
The ad period is determined by the site or blog owner and it can be 24 hours, 1 week or 30 days. And the number of ads in the widget can be 5, 10, 15 or 20.
It’s a cool way for somebody to show their appreciation for a blog they read, and you could use it to advertise an affiliate link, too.
Just pick an affiliate program with the same target audience as the site or blog with the TopSpot widget. It’s a quick, cheap and easy way to test, and you might come up with a big money maker.
One thing I’d love to see would be a list of sites on the ScratchBack site that are featuring the TopSpot widget, so I could search around for potential places to advertise easily, rather than just stumbling upon sites with the widget.
It would also be cool if there were like sites grouped together, so I could buy placements across 5-10 similar sites at once.
I’ve created a quick video of the process for ordering an ad - it takes maybe two minutes.
I’d suggest trying out ScratchBack if you’re an affiliate and you want to increasing your income by getting your audience to offer up some tips for your content.
And if you’re an affiliate that doesn’t want to display the widget yourself, just buy ads from other sites and run them through affiliate links. I’m sure there are some other creative ideas out there for monetizing it.
Mark from 45n5.com played around with ScratchBack and put up a video review.
Check out http://www.scratchback.com/ for more information.
10 responses so far ↓
1 ScratchBack Video Review : ScratchBack // Oct 27, 2007 at 11:04 pm
[...] like word is spreading from our soft launch of the beta. Shawn Collins from the Affiliate Tip blog posts up a nice blog review and video of ScratchBack in [...]
2 Hyder // Oct 28, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I’ve installed the widget on my blog. So far most people don’t seem to receptive to it. Let’s see how it goes once the buzz gets out.
You’re welcome to buy a “Top Spot” on my blog
3 Amen. ScratchBack in Beta » RevenueToday // Oct 29, 2007 at 11:35 am
[...] couple of other beta testers, including Sam Harrelson and Shawn Collins also liked the application and made a couple of nifty [...]
4 Shawn Collins // Oct 29, 2007 at 2:26 pm
@Hyder
Your comment about ScratchBack got me to check out your blog and I’ve purchased a spot with you.
5 Hyder // Oct 29, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Thanks for buying a spot Shawn
6 Scratchback TopSpot Widget Is Live » How To Start And Grow Your Internet Business // Dec 1, 2007 at 1:18 am
[...] Collins has blogged about affiliates using TopSpot as an ad buying tool and Mark Wielgus put up an initial video review [...]
7 Leave Shawn Collins a Tip and Get a Text Link | Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:23 pm
[...] to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.Jim Kukral started up ScratchBack, a widget where readers can tip a blog, and I put it up on the left side of my [...]
8 Jacqueline // Jun 3, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I thought for sure that somewhere I saw a list of blogs using TopSpot and the price of the link - but I can’t find it anywhere! Maybe I was dreaming, but I purchased a few inexpensive links using that resource and have no idea now where it was. If it exists, it should be easy to locate from the Scratchback home page!
9 Jim Kukral // Jun 3, 2008 at 12:31 pm
We don’t record who tipped from the tipper perspective so they can remain anonymous and not have to login to tip.
In the future we’ll have optional tracking.
10 Scott // Jun 5, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I love the idea of the topspots widget and I’ve added it to my site as well. I’ve seen websites who have had all of their spots taken and others with nothing. I figure give it time, it will come.
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