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February 10, 2008

TipJoy - A Better Tip Jar For Content

Michael Arrington

78 comments »

The idea of a “tip jar” on blogs and other content sites to help bring in a few extra dollars has been around for years. Donations and payouts are generally made through PayPal, and there are a number of plugins for various blogging platforms to make the process easier.

New Y Combinator startup TipJoy is designed to make it even easier to get people to click that tip button. Readers are not required to create an account or have a PayPal account to leave a tip, so there is little friction to them getting started. If they want to leave a tip they just click the button and type in their email address. I’ve added a tip button below to show how it works - any money we receive we’ll be distributing back to other bloggers who add the button, and/or donating to charity.

If you leave a tip as a new user, you start to build up an account debit. You can eventually pay that off via PayPal (TipJoy keeps 2%), although no one comes after you if you choose to skip out on the bill. You can also start to ask for tips on your own site, and anything people leave for you offsets what you’ve given to others.

The TipJoy site shows popular sites that have received a lot of tips, and you can also send any URL or email a tip directly as well. As a tipper, you can choose the amount you’d like to tip by default (starting at ten cents). Then, every time you click the tip button on a participating site, that amount is added to your bill.

If you want to cash out of your tips you can choose to either receive an Amazon gift card or donate the amount to charity. For now, you can’t receive cash since the company wants to avoid becoming a regulated money transfer service. In the FAQs they suggest they’ll be adding this functionality eventually.

I like the service because it creates a network around the idea of tipping for content. Users are both tippers and tippees, keeping a balance that they pay off eventually. I also like the fact that people don’t have to pay off that bill. It creates an interesting psychology where people find it very, very easy to leave the tip, and then may feel guilted into paying off the bill. At the very least, TipJoy is an interesting human psychology experiment.

The service has a number of options for integrating buttons and graphics on to the site. I imagine they’ll be adding plug-ins and other tools as well over time.

TipJoy was founded by Abigail Kirigin and Ivan Kirigin. The company blog is here.

CrunchBase Information
Tipjoy
Y Combinator
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. tipsiness revisited « serotoninrain

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

  2. A Rare Link Round-Up

    February 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am

  3. unitedBIT’s RoundUp » Blog Archive » Tipjoy: A better tip jar for content

    March 16th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

  4. Terbaik.Net » Blog Archive » Y Combinator Demo Day Roundup for Spring 2008

    March 17th, 2008 at 4:35 am

Comments

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  1. Search◆ Engines Web

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    Ironically, with all the controversy on Google about penalizing paid blog links - this could be the answer those cash strapped Bloggers were looking for :-)


    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/.....ent-117690

  2. Michael Arrington

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Josh, if a tip jar at starbucks causes you this kind of anxiety, you need a little more self confidence.

  3. Jamie

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    @Josh You sound like an asshole. Are you suggesting we don’t tip anyone because “its their job”?

  4. Alex

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    Josh,

    Dude, maybe next time you order a coffee at SBUX you should stick to non-decaf:)

  5. anjte wilsch

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    Tip jars can be annoying - like at the take out counter at Chili’s where I’d pick up my salads to go. Even the dry cleaners in my town had one…

    I can see this being useful as a tool for donations to help sites or list servs who don’t rake in money from advertising, or non-profits - that’s all good (like Jim’s Jobs, he’s been running that job group for years for no compensation). Normal news or sites using them for good causes - that’s good too. I hope not every site starts having these though.

  6. Andy Gongea

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Sorry to announce you Jamie - he is right.
    Why do I have to pay you extra for doing your job.
    Its not like I’m your boss or something. Ask him for extra money.

    It is simple marketing. Every person pays for good service. It is your job if you want to pay more. But do not make somebody an asshole just because you don’t agree with that person.

    PS: I’m a graphic designer and I do my job quite well. I’m not seeing my boss chasing me with money from the satisfied customer. Why ? Because it was my JOB to do it right.

  7. Michael Arrington

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    Andy - my guess is you are making a little more money than the average cafe worker.

  8. Andy Gongea

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    Oh, and now regarding the service - nice. Also nice article.

  9. Andy Gongea

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    Michael, it is his choice to get a better job or stick to customers tips.

  10. DannyT

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    Suppose I leave you a $50 tip now, then because nobody comes after me, I don’t pay it. Can you still donate that to charity/amazon gift voucher it up? There’s an untied end here…

  11. DannyT

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    Ah, in the FAQ’s:

    If they are a tipjoy user, the money is automatically transferred into their account as soon as you pay your tip bill. If they are not a tipjoy user, we keep track of all the money they’ve earned (by associating it with the URL/email address submitted), and once it reaches a certain amount, we will contact them and help them get signed up with tipjoy so that they can claim their earnings.

    So you don’t actually get it until it is paid by the tipper.

  12. Zack

    February 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

    If you feel guilty about consuming good content for free, then perhaps it’s your mind telling you to do something about it! You don’t have to use Tipjoy, just like you don’t have to click the “please donate” buttons that many good services provide. And if you do decide to tip, it doesn’t have to be a large amount. The point is, Tipjoy makes it possible for appreciative consumers to easily show their gratitude for a blogger’s effort and content.

  13. Brian Parks

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    I have to agree with Andy I stared giving that speech long before Mr Pink.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcjPxkv7vA

    As I get older and softer I do tip, why not be kind when you have the chance?
    Still guilt or automatic custom is not a good reason.

  14. Brian Fioca

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    This is awesome. I hate having to click on adsense ads on people’s sites that I like to make sure they get money for their work. I’d much rather drop ‘em a quarter and not have to see an ad. Best of luck to the TipJoy’ers.

  15. Yvette

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Let’s not forget that tips are optional. Wether in brick and mortar locations or on the web, no one is forcing you to tip or trying to induce guilt. If you don’t want to or can’t afford to tip, then don’t do it. There’s no reason to be angry at businesses or employees for it!

  16. Tim

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    To Andy:

    Do you really think everyone working in coffee shops specifically chose that profession?

    Or do you think perhaps not everyone has the same skills and opportunities available to them?

    I’m willing to be alot of people in professions utilising tip jars probably aren’t in that job because they just love making coffee. Of course you don’t HAVE to tip people, and I’m sure people won’t frown upon you for not tipping. Generally I think you’ll find people are happy enough for others to be polite and treat them with respect.

    You know I think I might go to town and tip some coffee shop staff.
    Perhaps order a muffin.
    I do wish I liked coffee.

    Anyway I digress. As for TipJoy, I like the sound of it, but I can imagine that by the time one comes to paying the tips, enthusiasm may have waned somewhat for less visited sites.

  17. Rajeev

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    My question is this. Regardless of what I think about TipJoy….how do they make a business plan for this and get funded by Ycombinator and the likes?. As I speak this I am trying to write up a exec summary to raise a small amount of capital for my company (a small angel round to complete our next version) and we are way ahead in terms of user base and generate some revenue too (enough to pay for a small office, data center etc)

    I’m starting to get a bit jealous some folks have it so easy ?? I guess “connections” is what I lack :-(

  18. Cobra Commander

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    Is it against Google’s TOS to have a donation link (to say a Paypal page) whilst running adsense on the same page?

  19. yongfook

    February 10th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

    This would be like walking into Starbucks, ordering a coffee and shoving an IOU note in the tip jar. It’s not a tip - there is no monetary transaction until the tipper physically pays their tip bill. How that is achieved is they key - if one can automate payments according to a billing cycle or price ceiling then it might be a useful service. Then again I could set a price ceiling of $100 (not unreasonable considering the transaction fees - it’s hardly worth it to consider a lower ceiling) which means I’d have to make 1000 tips until they all actually get paid…that’s potentially a very long time; we’re talking years for a casual user.

    The other reason I think this is different to the tips jar in a public location such as on the Starbucks counter is that, whilst we will all pretend it is, tipping in these situations is not a completely philanthropical act. You’re doing it to get a smile from the staff, perhaps even to get an approving glance from the hot chick standing behind you in line, or perhaps it’s just because you have a lot of change in your pocket and you want to get rid of some. Not all the time, but that can certainly factors like these can be a motivator. And that is lost under this system - it feels a lot more anonymous. There’s no reward to the user other than some self-satisfaction and call me cynical but I think we need more than that.

    Perhaps if they introduced a widget (instead of the current, static banners) that had a tip button AND displayed the top 5 tippers and the amounts they tipped? That might help things to be a bit more social and also give a little thanks back to the people who are tipping.

  20. Michael Arrington

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    yongfook - good point in your second paragraph

  21. Fabian Schonholz

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    Regarding tips …

    If I get standard service I leave 10%. It is not required because it IS INDEED their job, but it is a courtesy to do it.

    If I get bad service I will NOT LEAVE any tip. Heck no .. no way. It is their job to provide a satisfactory service and I am paying money for not only the goods, but the service.

    If the service is ULTRA SUPER SUPPER than I will leave more of a tip than 10%. It goes beyond courtesy it goes to the hart of capitalism. You are paying for services and goods and you want to be the MAN so-to-speak.

    So what they are doing their job. It is not required for you to leave a tip, but it is good KARMA!!

  22. Yoyobay

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    I noticed a very tiny bug, which the makers might want to make note of.
    In Firefox, when beginning to enter my email address and tapping down, a dropdown appears with my email address(es) in it. However — and I haven’t noticed this before on any other sites — when I scroll down to use my previously-typed email, and select it, for some reason your hyper-active autopopulator refills the input box with the promotional slogan (something about 10c) again. Again, a very minor bug but one that may be trivial to fix?

  23. allen stern

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    yongfook - the widget thing is out there now - i think its called “top links” or something similar… seems to be big on the money making sites and the search sites.

    maybe people will finally come around to my feed for a buck idea :)
    http://www.centernetworks.com/feed-for-a-buck

  24. GeraldZ

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    No thanks. I’ll stick to inline advertising.

    http://www.RSSLiveTV.com

  25. lawrence

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    in spite of this ‘ease’ of donating widget tool - it makes no difference to me…i still don’t/won’t tip

    i’m even surprised this tool made the Y-combinator pool

  26. WTF?

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

    I don’t tip…ever. Must be an American/U.K thing. The concept of tipping is none Existence in most countries I have been too. Not in China, Taiwan, Japan or most asian countries….. Not sure about Europe, haven’t been there yet.

    Here a tip for ya: GET a better JOB.

  27. Liz Strauss

    February 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    The idea gets awfully complicated in practice. If I like every article here, do I tip every one of them? and every one at every great blog I read? No thanks.

  28. AW

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    I always tip for exemplary service — when someone does more than what’s required by their job. 50-cents here or a dollar there doesn’t affect me that much, and it’s good way to encourage people to be all they can be. =D

  29. dave

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    How is this better than the PayPal Donate button again?

  30. AW

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    @24: This is called ‘ScratchBack’

  31. yongfook

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    @ #26

    nah, you can see why. the pitch sounds great on paper - it’s an “alternative” to the banner ad in terms of earning revenue for small site owners, and it involves a transactional fee for the company running it. In principle it’s an interesting idea, certainly one worth investing a few thousand dollars in if you are Y Combinator; who I’m sure receive many pitches without as clear a revenue model as this.

    The idea just needs honing, that’s all. I don’t think it’s an outright flop. Currently it provides no incentive for the donator, it just makes the process potentially simpler than clicking a paypal button. Really if I am engaged enough in a site to want to donate I’ve already been sold on the idea and whether it’s a paypal button or a tipjoy button is irrelevant. The real key to this project’s success is going to be providing the incentive to a completely new group of donators to want to donate. And that requires a whole other level of analytical thinking, far beyond simply having the ability to solve a problem or provide a process with some code and graphics - which is where I think a lot of these young, relatively inexperienced teams at Y Combinator fall short of the mark.

    We’ll see though.

  32. Cedric

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    It’s true that tipping is a cultural thing… very common in US for just about anything, but not in many other countries. Taken out of the normal context, without the social pressure, I could see this giving very disappointing results.

    But it’s certainly worth trying.. I’m looking forward reading about their progress.

  33. rcourtna

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Currently, it appears you must receive a bill via snail-mail to pay your balance. Either that or I’m missing something.

    I’m curious about the donation to charity piece. How does this look/work. Do they integrate with an existing donation service for the charity search / eft, etc

  34. Josh

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    #3 and #4 and #5

    I dont like the idea of paying for a service, then being expected to pay more for doing that service. I have an 8-5 job, and I get a paycheck. I dont have a tipjar sitting on my desk.

    #4. Exactly. If they go above and beyond, then sure. If not, then no.

  35. i am under age

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    i would never use it.

  36. Darren Stuart

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    I think the term tip is better than make a donation and will work ok but I can’t help but think this business is not a business that it will not last long. YC seem to have backed a rubbish ideas recently and this is not the worst that I have heard off thats still not been released to the public yet. Ok I know they back teams but I can see the pitch for this going on about there are billions of blogs and freesoftware out there and we can help. I hate to pan a startup but this one just seems plain wrong.

  37. SutroStyle

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

    Another failed micropayments attempt. DOA.

  38. i am under age

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    btw, why ppl need funding to do such things? you can get a server and do it in a wk.

  39. So Many Spammers on TechCrunch

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    DOA kind of like nearly every YCombinator start-up. Most people only tip out of guilt/socialiazed behavior. There is no social norm for tipping for good content. The social norm is to pay for good content.

  40. Ryan

    February 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    This is a great start towards solving the micropayments problem. I can’t wait to see what else TipJoy comes out with!

  41. Wes

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    I’m sure you all know this, but there are some professions where tips are part of the person’s wages. Granted, as some of you have pointed out, it’s their choice to stay there or move to a job where your paycheck is guaranteed. Of course if everyone did that, we wouldn’t have restaurants, pizza deliveries or exotic dancers. Some of you need to lighten up a little bit. If your one of those people that don’t feel like they should have to tip for anything, then don’t. Just don’t be surprised if people in these said professions start to remember you and give you horrible service.

    As for you 8 to 5 people, do none of you get bonuses above and beyond your paycheck for a job well done? Why should YOU get extra money for doing your job?

    Anyway, I think it’s a good business model, but I’ll be interested to see if it takes off. Like someone else said, you typically tip in non-traditional scenarios when you can be recognized for it, which this appears to lack. Still, there are those few who give anonymously simply because they can and ask for nothing in return, including recognition.

  42. Matthew

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    We just added it to our URL shrinking site– thanks!

    http://ri.ms

  43. EH

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:23 pm

    It’s painfully obvious from this thread that there are a lot of people who don’t know that tipping is not common in large parts of the world. Maybe once they graduate college they can travel outside of their native country and learn about other cultures.

  44. meanguy

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    @yongfook @arrington: Ze Frank’s “Gimme Some Candy” system solved the problem of making the “tip jar” visible. Ask a Ninja, Jonathan Coulton and others are using it today with varying amounts of success. Ze pulled in $5,000+ from it *per post* some days…

  45. AW

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    @44:

    I don’t know what’s funnier, us being stereotypical self-absorbed Americans or you being a stereotypical douche-bag foreigner.

  46. Eric Locken

    February 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    Here’s 10c for you Michael … Good job

    Michael, it is showing you as having $30.14 in tips so far (not bad). Can you update us in a month or so to let us know how much actually gets paid.

  47. Jerry Yang aka The Azn Sensation

    February 10th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    We will be implementing this on all Yahoo properties to unlock the untapped value that we are sitting on. We anticipate that tips alone will justify a $75 billion offer from Microsoft.

  48. Larry Larrikin

    February 10th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    So no one wants to tip? Maybe we can do like the non-tipping countries do and include the “service” in the bill. Since there is no bill for websites, we can lobby the government to pass an internet tax to be collected by ISPs and distributed pro rata to every website based on traffic numbers from Alexa.

    Or maybe we can just click the tip button and feel good about supporting content we like.

  49. zach

    February 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    Doesn’t seem to verify if the site you tip actually exists. :)

  50. Yvette

    February 10th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

    I tip sometimes when I have the funds for good service because I enjoy the service and want the people to stay in business! Recognition never even crossed my mind! Same thing with websites. If I like a website and want it to stay around then I will donate to it if I have the funds!

  51. Tom

    February 10th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    I wouldn’t tip news sites like TechCrunch (like they need my tips…) but I could definitely see myself tipping the occasional blogger who writes a particularly interesting or helpful post.

  52. Dave

    February 10th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Several times a day I find a site that saves my butt during some configuration or figuring out a new library i need to use in my code.

    These resources are far more valuable to me than the $40 orielly books I purchase and I would love to give them some of my money instead. At 10cents an article, that $40 will instead buy me 400 pages that were particularly interesting to me and hopefully my donations*1000 other people will go a significant way into helping those bloggers continue making their content and to make it better.

    To me this is a way of slicing up a book and paying for the pages instead of buying the whole book. Especially if they involve a tip before seeing ability. In that way they would be doing to books what itunes did to music.

  53. sumit gupta

    February 10th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    what can be annoying is if someone leaves a tip and enters my email address. That can mushroom into annoyance..

  54. Markus Thomson

    February 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    You can learn a lot about a person’s character watching how they interact with waiters and other service workers. Including if, and how well they tip. It’s pretty much bulletproof. Same as the being able to tell a lot about the character of people who say they don’t tip at all for “moral reasons”.

    Remember, the fact that tipping exists in North America is factored into minimum wage legislation. If you removed tips from our system then prices for many things would instantly rise (to compensate for increased compensation the employer would have to provide the employee).

    So basically any douchebag who says he doesn’t tip as a rule, is getting lower prices on the backs of those of us who do tip (you’re welcome assholes). The fact that they try and masquerade their cheapness as some sort of moral righteousness only serves to amplify their level of douchebaggery.

    Get a life scumbags.

  55. Abby

    February 11th, 2008 at 12:01 am

    This is Abby from Tipjoy. Thanks to everyone for your comments.

    One exciting aspect of tipjoy is that the ranking is determined by the amount of PAID tips something has received. Right now nothing’s yet been paid (except for a little bit we’ve put in ourselves), so the top tip list has begun to get a bit of spam in it. However, as people begin to pay for their tips (by hitting the ‘pay’ button in the upper right corner of tipjoy.com when signed in), the most popular tip list will start to evolve to reflect what’s really worth money to people.

    tim (comment 17): As we’ve just explained, one benefit to paying your tips is that you will be able to affect the tipjoy rank. However we expect that there will be some average amount of tips per piece of content which are never paid. As we collect more data, we’ll be able to tell content creators what percent of their total tips earned they can actually expect to collect. Since it’s free digital content, we think that a collection rate of less than 100% shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

    yongfook (comment 20): We like your ideas about different ways to expand the tipjoy widget, thanks. Very good point about the differences between tipping in real life and tipping online. This is something we’ve thought a lot about. We feel that through blogs, you tube, and other self-publishing platforms, content creators are becoming more directly connected to their fans than ever before. Readers/viewers really hear the ‘voice’ of the person behind the content, and the interaction between the two parties is becoming more and more like a typical store counter interaction. In fact, these sorts of sites may even provide more of a ‘human connection’ than the typical Starbucks interaction - as you return frequently to a site you love, you begin to develop a relationship with it. We built Tipjoy to give people a meaningful way to expand on and validate that relationship.

    Liz (comment 28) and dave (comment 30): Tipping is meant to be very simple - a tip transaction is completed with only one single click. The amount given is always the same, it’s very tiny, and there’s no checkout process, so the users don’t have to leave the page they’re viewing to complete the transaction. This is very different than current donation experiences, which take users away from the page they’re viewing, ask them to decide how much they want to leave, and take them through a checkout process.

  56. Abby

    February 11th, 2008 at 12:03 am

    By the way, we’ll be presenting a lightning demo tomorrow night at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference in NYC. Please stop by if you’d like to chat!

  57. Darren Stuart

    February 11th, 2008 at 2:09 am

    I’ll be honest the reason I hate it is I don’t think of using the web like I do going out for a bite to eat. I tip big because I used to be a chef, I suppose if this gets big enough and I see it on everysite and I get an account I would use it but I just don’t see it.

    I also think if someone is tipping a small amount then they are never going to have to payout.

  58. Ross Parker

    February 11th, 2008 at 2:16 am

    Tip jars are about as far as socialism has got in America

  59. Mosley

    February 11th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    @46

    I love your comment! It made me spit out my coffee this morning. Thanks I needed that. hahaha!!!

    @59 Did you for get about welfare?

  60. Tipping Valentine's

    February 11th, 2008 at 7:51 am

    Well, it looks like an interesting idea however, another means of pressuring people to tip will undoubtedly get on some peoples nerves.

  61. Larry Larrikin

    February 11th, 2008 at 8:34 am

    @59 Actually you’re wrong. As other people have pointed out, tips in America are not about socialism, welfare, charity, or gift giving, they are about paying the salaries of the people serving you. A NYC waiter might only make around $3/hour salary but it is expected that s/he will be tipped enough to provide them with a decent wage. As silly and illogical as it is, this is the way the system has developed. Most of the rest of the world includes the “service” in the bill which is inline with pretty much every other industry in America (except ticket companies which love to add extra fees above the marked price.)

  62. maya

    February 11th, 2008 at 9:11 am

    It is a great idea. Giving to others is fun and it is optional. If you like something
    give a small token of your appreciation!

  63. Ivan

    February 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    tipping sucks. Greedy economies lead to over tipping.

  64. Eric Elkins

    February 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    The weakness here is that you don’t actually get any money from your tips– not even funds in your PayPal account– I don’t want to settle for an Amazon gift card when someone tips me– I want to use those tips for martinis at the local bar.

  65. pwb

    February 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    This is an interesting approach to monetizing in small amounts. TipJoy took some ideas from PayPal, mainly that users need to be registered to begin using the service. By using email addresses and domains as account ID proxies, they provide universal acceptance from Day 1. And since it’s tips, they can be looser with the payer registration as well. Simply make a bunch of “promises-to-pay” that are linked to an email account which can then be settled later.

    Very clever.

  66. pwb

    February 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Correction: “users need *not* to be registered to begin using the service”

  67. hexodus

    February 11th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Go Abby! Go Ivan!

  68. Ivan Kirigin

    February 11th, 2008 at 6:28 pm

    @65 Eric Elkins > I want to use those tips for martinis at the local bar.

    Go Martinis! I’m right with yah. If it was up to us , that’s the way it would be.

    However, it’s not that simple. Here is what we say on our site to explain why, for the time being, you can only cash out via charity donations and amazon gift cards:

    If we allow our users to withdraw money from their account, then we are technically a money transfer service, which requires registration with all 50 states and with the Federal government (in compliance with the Patriot Act). All of that registration requires a very, very large amount of money which we don’t yet have.

    So please, help us grow! Use tipjoy, tell people about it, tell us what you want to see to make it even better. The more popular tipjoy becomes, the easier it will be for us to convince investors to give us the funding we need so that we can afford the required paperwork.

  69. Michael Long

    February 12th, 2008 at 12:25 am

    Like most services of this type I think it suffers from Free Rider issues.

    Further, I have to finally go somewhere to pay for my tips, which requires additonal action/registration/payment on the part of the user. And I could see many people arriving and seeing, “$45.56?” How did I… ah…. hmmm. Maybe I’ll pay it later.”

    Or never.

  70. Chris Campbell

    February 12th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

    Finally a micro-payments service that could make sense in the long run. I am hoping we will be able to customize buttons and use a future API for even more robust ventures.

    In the meantime we are using it to have some fun!

    Cheers!

  71. Ivan Kirigin

    February 12th, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    @70, Michael: Maybe I’ll pay it later. Or never.

    There is a big free rider phenomenon right now. It’s called the web. We figure that payment rates might be low, but they will be something. Time will tell what the “tip through rates” and payment rates are. I don’t think anyone has a good model for that yet. <100% is pretty much guaranteed though.

    @71, Chris: Customize & API

    Yes, Yes, Yes! The API is coming soon. The Platform API will allow sites with user generated content or many authors to split tips between the platform owners and the content creators. That will be awesome.

    Custom buttons are also on the way. The list of things we can do with this is very long.

    Thanks for your comments, all!

  72. André

    February 14th, 2008 at 5:39 am

    Those greedy bastards have already raised their share to 3% (see http://tipjoy.com/faq/4/#q14).

    And yes, sadly, they come after you if you skip the bill: “This email will be sent once a month until the bill is paid or the account is closed.” (http://tipjoy.com/faq/4/#q16)

    I was kinda hoping to get a second chance after I tipped everybody and everything, since they make spending money so easy…

  73. Frank

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    My friend David @ the KnightKnetwork has created a TipJoy plugin.

  74. Alper

    February 20th, 2008 at 9:36 am

    We are building a tipping service called Tipit.to (http://tipit.to) which is free of charge and which you can actually get money paid out of as a tipjar owner.

    When people get money paid out, they can tip Tipit.to an optional percentage.

    We agree that putting a button on a website is not going to cause a lot of revenue in and of itself, tipping is a social phenomenon with its own rituals. We are trying to take those to the internet by making it easy to publish what you have tipped and who has tipped you (we offer badges for both).

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