ScratchBack – Tip The Blogger, Get a Link Back

Back at the beginning of October after I read a TechCrunch article about it, I had put up a widget on my side back called Scratchback. Since at the time I was preparing for my Cozumel trip, I had completely forgotten to write up a post about it. Better late than never I guess eh?

What is Scratchback?

Its an online tipping system that gives back to the tippers by allowing a publisher to “give back” links or images in return.

Isn’t selling links bad? Won’t I get penalized by Google?

Notably, the system has been approved by Google (they checked) as every link is “nofollow” and the widgets are built in javascript; this is a product that provides an alternative advertising model that won’t see publishers punished in future Google crackdowns.

What kind of templates are available?

There are quite a few different colors, but it seems like you can’t customize them fully by setting your own bgcolor.

Does it cost me anything to sign-up?

No it doesn’t, and you can actually make some money if someone gives you a tip.

Do I have to let someones link on my site if I don’t like the contents?

You are under no obligation to show or approve any listing you find questionable for ANY reason. There are no refunds either. Your readers are tipping you for your efforts.

How Do I Get Paid?

Payments for earnings are ONLY paid through PayPal. If you don’t have a valid, working PayPal account, you shouldn’t use Scratchback as a publisher because you won’t ever get paid. In the future we may add alternative payment methods so stayed tuned. Payments are made at the end of a thirty-day cycle. It can take up to 15 days to remit payment to your PayPal account at the end of each cycle. Publishers must earn at least $25 to initiate payment.
Note: Current payout is set at $10 according to this updated post.

How Much Do I Charge For My Top Spot?

Totally up to you (minimum $1.00). We suggest you set your pricing for tips based on your own perceived value of your website or blog. Mine is currently set at a bargain price of $1 until it fills up. I’ll raise the price after the 10 slots are filled.

Does ScratchBack charge a fee or commission?

Yes, after Paypal fees they collect 10%, and give you 90% of the tip now. This is a lot better than the 50% they first opened up the program. The change was noted here in this post.

Okay I signed up for Scratchback how can I let people know I have the widget?

There is a blog post here that you can comment on. There is also a Scratchback user directory which has free listing.

I hope that takes care of any questions regarding Scratchback. Did I do a good job? You could always Scratch my back. =) Like I said earlier, for a limited time I will put tip cost at $1.00 until it fills up, after that I’ll think about raising the tip jar.

Popularity: 1% [?]

My CashCrate Check Arrived – And My Camera Broke

It seems like lately every time I have good news, I also have bad news to share. I should rename my blog the yin/yang effect or something. Anyways my first check from CashCrate has just arrived so I WAS going to take a picture of it. Until I found out that my camera no longer works. So I’m sending a picture that I took from my camera phone, which btw is also on its last leg.

I’ll just be borrowing the camera from work to take a full size picture of the check next time. The total check amount was for 20.25, which was about the same as the total on my September Earnings. I guess this will going towards my buying another @%!% camera fund. Anyways if your new to CashCrate, you can check out my other CashCrate review posts.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Whypark Page Rank Update – PR3 In 2 Months

Go figure, I post an update about my Whypark site, and Google decides to update page ranks today as well. The Whypark test site I’m using made PR3, and comparison my blog only hit PR2. I personally don’t care either way, but many ad networks only work with sites with a minimum page rank value still so have a parked domain with page rank just means more revenue options.

In my previous post I also mentioned that I was only getting about 1 visitor a month to the Whypark site. This just goes to show you that page rank value has no value or connection to actual website traffic.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Whypark Review Day 45 – Sluggish Month So Far

Today is about a month and a half after Google indexed my Whypark site. Here’s easy links to the previous posts:

Whypark Review & Trial Day 1
Whypark Review Day 15
Whypark Review Day 19
Whypark Review Day 30

According to Google’s Webmaster tools I have about 1500 pages indexed. Traffic to the site this month has been relatively slow, about 1 visitor/day at the moment. Overall from the site itself I’ve made a little less than $5.00 so far from Adsense. It did help a little bit that I added an Adsense Video as part of a Business news video page. It makes having the plain article site have a little more color, esp. I’ve been thinking instead of just the video page link, that none of the visitors seem to notice, I should just add the video unit to all article pages. I have a lot to learn about ad placement still.

Lately there seems to be more, and more templates that are similar to Whypark. However the downside to them is that you have to have a host company which usually incurs a monthly fee. Whypark hosts your domain for you for free.

I plan on continuing this Whypark trial for a full year, so visit back if you are having doubts about paying the $100 one time charge for the service. While $100 dollars is a lot of money, you have to realize that it is for 100 domains that is hosted for free. Also if you notice, I’ve already made roughly $5.00 in 45 days from just one domain that is less than 3 months old. If you have many domains that get little to no traffic now you should try out Whypark(disclosure: affiliate link).

Popularity: 1% [?]

Cashcrate Revisited – Getting Paid Again

About a month ago I wrote up a review on CashCrate, and followed it up with a payout report a few days later. Well I’m pleased to announce that I was finally able to reach payout again this month. Due to soo many people going on vacation at my full time job, I’ve had to scale back the time for doing alot of these offers so when CashCrate sends me a check next month it won’t be as large. This month will only be about $10.60 so far, bring my CashCrate total to $30.65 so far.

I have to be honest though I wasn’t intending on completing any offers this month due to work load, but as I had received an e-mail from CashCrate notifying me that one of my referrals had reached payout. Thus entitling me to a $3.00 bonus, along with earning 20% of their earnings. So when I logged into my account I already had $5.00+ sitting there without me doing a thing($3.00 bonus + 20% of $10 = $5.00). Well this made it really easy to do a few offers to get that extra $5.00, and whammo here I am with another payout post.

How does CashCrate’s referrals work?
The program has a 2 tier approach meaning you can refer/invite someone, and if your referral receives a referral of their own, you still get paid.

How much do I get paid for each referral?
You earn an additional 20% off of each of your referral’s non-pending earnings.
You also receive an additional 10% of your second level referral’s earnings as well.
You receive $3.00 when your referral reaches $10 (payout).

Is there a limit to referrals?
No, I’ve seen people who report to make over $1000/month from Cashcrate with referrals alone. I unfortunately am not one of those yet. (I can be optimistic right?)

Alright I’ve joined Cashcrate, how can I better chances of offers going through?
If you’ve already joined CashCrate, and you’re looking for good tips on how to get offers to go through I recommend reading Amy Bass’s writeup here. In addition to the tips she posted, I strongly recommend going to the CashCrate forum where other members post about which offers confirmed for earnings. You have a much better chance of earning money quickly if you watch this thread, and look for those exact offers by name.

Note: Now being realistic here, while I enjoy making money online. I don’t want to make money as a result of someone else’s hardship. (this is one reason why you don’t see me pushing Survey Scout or similar programs on my blog). While reading through the CashCrate forums there are many people who complain of getting billed for Trial Offers. This is why I don’t recommend doing the trial offers or products on Cashcrate, unless you fully read the terms & conditions of each offer carefully. For example one of their offers requires a cell phone number that you need to reply back with a pin to activate. If you don’t read the offer carefully a month later you will get billed for a $10 subscription later on if you don’t cancel it. Please be careful when signing up for each of the offers. I personally stick with the 100% free offers which only send spam e-mail to my newly created free Hotmail accounts.

My thanks goes out to the readers who signed up under me, and made money online for both of us! Good Luck & Happy earnings to everyone! If you’re interested in signing up for a free CashCrate account join by clicking on the banner below.