
You gave $1000 through Tipjoy. Thanks. - ivankirigin
http://tipjoys2cents.blogspot.com/2008/02/you-gave-1000-through-tipjoy-thanks.html
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greendestiny
Is that a $1000 pledged or paid?

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ivankirigin
pledged.

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greendestiny
I'm really interested in what the conversion rate is, but I understand you
might not have that data yet or want to release it. I don't think a low rate
is an invalidation of tipjoy at all incidentally, as long as its not zero of
course.

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ivankirigin
The rates widely vary from 100% to 0%. It's hard to get an average from that.
It'll always be hard to get a single number, as they'll be content and site
dependent.

Soon we'll publish numbers that the average blogger can use.

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greendestiny
Actually I think it makes more sense if you don't report pledges as a monetary
amount (at least not directly). It feels a bit like a rip off when the real
amount is inevitably lower and any potential users is going to be trying to do
the conversion rates for any figure they see. A user report might say you got
100 pledges and $5 this week.

Already a lot of people are worried about people tipping and absconding - I
think you should redefine the way people think about your tips: its a way of
showing your appreciation which you can convert into real money at convenient
times. Don't fight the people who want to show appreciation and not pony up
the cash, and don't fight with bloggers to see the pledge amounts as real
dollar amounts when they won't be.

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rzwitserloot
At <https://tipit.to/> we don't normally count pledges. We do display them,
but in gray. Right now in our top charts I've turned on a little flag so that
pledges are included in the front page top charts algorithm, but that's just
for the launch. I'll turn that off sometime soon.

One of the main reasons we do this is because not counting pledges
automatically reduces on welching. When an unpaid tip is something only you
yourself can see, then there's absolutely no point in pledging a tip without
any intention of paying it. The only welching going on would be those that
honestly forgot. Either way, it doesn't drag down the validity and utility of
the statistics.

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greendestiny
Interesting. The other side of the coin is that encouraging people to click
that button is the first step in getting real money. I don't think I could
tell you which is a better idea without seeing stats for both, even then...

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amichail
Won't people tip themselves, thus turning this service into an advertising
one?

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ivankirigin
We'll be smart with the top tips page to try to make this harder. That is the
only page where this would be a problem, and lots of people will only pay
attention to what they've tipped, and and what their friends are tipping.

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alaskamiller
1000 in gift cards! yay!

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thingsilearned
sweet! Way to go guys.

