Why Tip Jars and Squidoo don’t Mix
There’s a lot of talk going on today about adding ‘tip jars’ to lenses. The mechanics behind it are basically adding a link to your paypal account asking for donations.
From a technical standpoint, adding some kind of personal donation or ‘tip jar’ to your lenses is definitely possible. However, from a ‘money making’ view, they are a terrible idea.
1) Brand Destruction - Any lenses you are building to build up any kind of personal branding or authority is automatically cheapened with the addition of something like a tip jar on a site that is free to use. If you are trying to establish yourself as an expert or authority in a topic, begging for charity doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in you.
2) Free Platform - Some blogs out there have ‘tip jars’ instead of advertising on their sites to ask their readers to help pay for hosting, etc. In that environment, I can see the point, especially if they don’t want to carry advertising for some personal reason. however, squidoo lenses DO have advertising and the DON’T have a cost associated with them.
3) Trying to make more money? - There are a TON of ways to make money using squidoo, I usually find a new one about every week. By definition, if you provide value to visitors, you will be able to earn a return on providing that value. I don’t see how tip jars can be seen as anything but a destroyer of value when used within the context of a Squidoo lens or any other free publishing platform out there. If you are at a loss of ways to make money with lenses, stop by the chat room or SquidU or read the old posts on this blog. There are a ton of ideas out there that you can adapt to your own goals, skills, and needs.
Sure, a ‘tip jar’ may sound easy, but if you think about it a bit, the negatives far outweigh the positives that can be had.
What do you think? Tip jar or no tip jar?
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Comments
I must agree with you on this one Captain. Tip jars work best on sites that provide the visitor value, yet are not monetized in other ways.
You’ve made some good points, Cap’n. I had a funny feeling when I put a tip jar on my lens. Just didn’t feel right. I’ll take it off. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/ads-are-the-new.html
I would rather leave a 25 cent tip ( better than8 cents) on a excellent lens that I felt was useful than click on a stupid MLM ad.
No tip jar. Looks unprofessional on a page that already has a lot of advertising. There’s a place for tipjars certainly, for specific things at specific times, on a professional blog where it’s written into the content, anywhere that has explanatory text but not on a lens.
That said, I have a blog (an unprofessional blog)with ‘buy me a cup of coffee’ plugin which reads ‘Can you spare a dime for an old dame?’. Strangely, people do spare a dime, or at least a couple of dollars.
But I wouldn’t put it on a lens even if it were possible
I totally agree. For one thing: the likelihood of people appreciating your work SO MUCH they want to give donations isn’t all that big if all you do online is make squidoo lenses.
From my personal experience - even with thousands of daily visitors to my website, I get less than a 100 dollars a month in tips (that’s WITH adsense on the site). Of course I don’t actually have a link to my tip jar on every page on my website (though I do on my blog) either - content and visitors first, money last, has always been my motto.
On lenses… wow. I hadn’t even noticed people were putting up tip jars. I think you’d have to have a very substantial fanclub (I mean outside squidoo) for that to not jar on most people’s eyes. But in that case: start your own website or blog already.
Squidutils is a totally different story: that’s self hosted and the tools there are unique (and likely mean higher hosting costs than your average blog). The Fluffanutta totally deserves donations.
I agree that generally a tip jar is not good. The only exception I know of is for the site where the person provides you a service. For example, on Janusz’s FREE Logos for the Squidoo Community, even though he is offering a free service,I think it is totally appropriate for him to have a tip jar so if he creates a banner for you, you can tip him.
I just checked Janusz’s lens and it no longer has a tip jar. Too bad. I think he deserves to get something for his work.
@jeffryv
How many extremely useful lenses have you found with MLM ads on them ? 
Obviously, i can’t stop people from using tip jars, and Spirituality and Susanna both provide great examples of what I was trying to illustrate by appropriate tip jar locations.
No to tip jars in general on Squidoo. Now as for “tips”, I welcome them. Contact me and offer me a tip for my lenses to make them better!
I agree - No tip jars. If people want to give they will find a way. Whether it be to a Squidoo charity or just clicking on an affiliate link… they’ll find it if they feel the information they’ve been given is worth it. (and they’re in the mood to give!!)
Totally agreed, the whole tip jar seems kinda….tastless. If somebody privately contacts you though, different story
I agree, no tip jars on lenses (or other sites) unless something of significant value (logos, scripts, etc.) is provided, not just for the lensmasters thoughts.
Best,
FunWithTrains
Tip Jars are just like begging. There is so much free stuff on the Internet so why should anyone leave a payment - unless, that is, you provide something of exceptional value or a very special freebie.
There are much better ways to build an income.
Mike.
I don’t mind tip jars on other people’s lenses - everyone should do whatever feels right for them. I wouldn’t put one on any of my lenses, though.
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After much thought on this, I have to agree with you on this topic. I think donations are useful to help defray the cost of a service. Squidutils is a great example of this. But Squidoo is free. I think that is my main objection.