Tipjoy: The Latest Run at Micropayments

ScreenshotWhat web worker has not dreamed of making a living through micropayments. Use the internet to provide useful information, charge each visitor a penny, and rake in the aggregated cash. The only problem: so far, micropayments have been a big flop; too much overhead and not enough people bothering to get signed up to donate money. Startup Tipjoy things they have the answer to this problem by removing as much friction from the process as possible. You put a Tipjoy button on your site, visitors click it and leave their email to give you a dime. When you get up to five bucks, you can draw your money out in the form of an Amazon gift card.

The only problem I see with this theory is that they may have made it too easy to leave a tip: you don’t have to provide any payment info when you leave someone money. When you get up to five bucks in tips waiting for payment, they start emailing you to hand over the money; until the actual tips are in hand, the page owners get nothing but a warm feeling. If you’re optimistic enough to trust the long-term honesty and generosity of your readers, though, the buttons are unobtrusive and easy to use.

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