Remember Google’s wrath for sites that sell text links? Cesar Campos of Work at Home Enterprising informed me about one service that might just make us all forget about this issue - Jim Kukral’s ScratchBack.
ScratchBack is a tipping service that allows blog owners to make money through accepting as low as $1 from people who would like to send some money just for being kind or appreciating the blog’s value. It’s something like the PayPal donation button but a lot cooler for the following reasons:
- It allows the blog owner to thank the donor to get something in return by providing exposure for their own websites through links and/or images that the Scratchback widget displays.
- It has a wide array of web 2.0′ish designs that the blogger can choose from
(see one of the sample widgets design on the right). But if you don’t like any of those designs, you can create your own custom widget design and be send it to the ScratchBack staff so it can get approved for your use.
- It can be one fun way for your visitors to give back to you while you earn more because of the ScratchBack TopSpots widget’s mechanics - the most recent tippers’ links get bumped up.
The first feature I’ve mentioned sounds more of like the service offered by Text-Link-Ads, right? Its similarity to this service from MediaWhiz has something to do with ScratchBack’s not having problems with Google’s pagerank issue. According to TechCrunch, the links that will be displayed through the TopSpots widget will have the nofollow attribute and the widgets were built using javascript.
And now for the Make Money Online Quick part of the title of this post, ScratchBack is said be good for those who’d like to make money from their blogs faster since $1 per link is a reason for impulse buying. What’s your take on this.
I’ve tried using the widget on my blog but its size destroy my blog’s layout. So I sent an email to Scratchback’s support team and asked if the widgets can get resized. And I’m glad that the response is quite quick - they asked me what’s the size I need. I hope its customer service department maintains that quick response time.
So what’s the catch?
ScratchBack keeps 10% of what you earn from the TopSpots widget.
I’d like to read from those who are currently using the TopSpots widget. How’s it faring so far?
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I have it on my blog, and love love love the fact that it is google friendly. As now im afraid to death to sell links on the blog, just when i started to get some responses, too. Jeez!
Oh well, atleast this comes along and helps with making money and staying within the lines.
I have only sold one spot, and two others are affiliate links. That another cool thing about SB, one can add affiliate links, if one wants to.
Anything goes, because it is “no follow”. Yippee!
Adding affiliate links - that’s one good idea.
Thanks for this info, Missy!
It will be fun to see all the spots filled.
This is good discussion about scratchback. I’ve posted a couple blog posts about it and it’s nice to see others putting in their two cents about it.
I think the concept is brilliant and it has a lot of potential. It’s certainly popping up on blogs all over the place very quickly.
I’ve only had it on my blog for a few days and haven’t had anyone get a spot yet. But I’ve bought spots on a few blogs and had decent results. Definitely worth the $2.00 or so that I paid for the links.
I guess over the next month or two we will really get to see how it pans out.
Adding affiliate links IS a grand idea. One link on a high traffic blog, and you could have some nice cash coming in.
Thank you for the find - I’ve signed up and put a widget on my blog already. Think it’ll really fool Google?
@ Trent
I noticed that two of your TopSpots spots are now taken. Not bad, right?
@ Dave
SB follows Google’s nofollow rule so I think that’s good enough for Google.
@ Alfa
I figured as much. I posted about it on my blog and I’ve already sold 2 spots. Not bad at all - Thank you for this!
Yeah two of mine are taken now. Both sold the same day I posted my reply above. I’m happy. Hopefully now that it has a start others will buy some spots.
This sounds like a good idea. Think I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the information!
Scratchback is cool. You might be interested to know there is a similar widget available at http://www.bringabuddy.net. It allows for link sales as well as rewarding visitors for referrals…
Check it out..