News: ScratchBack Pays 90% During Beta
Saturday
Nov 3, 2007
ScratchBack has been live a week or so, and we launched it intentionally with a “higher” cut for ourselves, just so we could see how our users reacted to it. That cut wasn’t publicized, but it was easy to figure out. It was 50/50 after PayPal fees. Much has been made about this cut and we’ve been told how unfair that is. Guess what? We agree.
So this week has been VERY interesting. We’ve seen hundreds of signups per day, and we’ve seen even more tips being given. In fact, a third of our users have already reached the $25 payout level. So things have been going well during this beta so far, and we’ve been grateful for the support and usage.
But if we’re going to really make this something special, we need to do something special, and here it is…
How long will the beta last? Could be a month, or could be two or more, not sure. But any ScratchBack user between now and then will get 90% of their tips to keep for themselves after PayPal fees.
Note: This means for every tip ever given, including those that were given before the date of the change.
Update: As of Saturday morning (Nov 3rd), our dev team has made the change to show 90% payouts instead of 50%. All of your tip earnings have automatically jumped 40% literally overnight and will stay so during the beta period.
Comments
Linky Love
November 6th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
After getting a tip of $10,
I am left with only $4.71 in my account.
Does this mean that Paypal is taking half of the profit?
ScratchBack Team
November 6th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
@linkylove,
That was the first beta payment structure. Now if you get a $10 tip, you get 90% of that tip after paypal fees. All earnings were updated to that structure over the weekend.
Linky Love
November 7th, 2007 at 12:59 am
@ScratchBack Team
Must be a bug then in the detailed earnings?
The $10 tips in detail becomes $4.71.
Now: when I add all my detailed earnings, I have less than my Total Earnings (come to think of it: I should have not told you this :-)… )
ScratchBack Team
November 7th, 2007 at 1:06 am
@linkylove,
Looks like a little hiccup. Your overall earnings should show the correct amount earned overall. But the detail page we think is not showing the updated cut to 90%/10%. Our team is on it!
Thanks.
ScratchBack Team
November 7th, 2007 at 7:10 am
This little bug is fixed and confirmed. Please let me know if you see an issue still.
Lori
November 13th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I just got my first $1 tip, however, it wasn’t very exciting to see .59 as my profit:(
Paypal takes out way too much! I have a business account with them so I get charged those fees.
Linky Love
November 14th, 2007 at 2:17 am
@ScratchBack Team
Seems ok on my side!
The detailed earnings now look much better
Yet PayPal is earning lots of money like this:
10$ tip should give me 9$ : after PayPal deduction the detailed report says: 8.47 = %6 earnings for PayPal!
0$ tip should give me 0.9$: after PayPal deduction the detailed report says: 0.59 = %34 earnings for PayPal!!! Might as well give the full dollar to Pay-Pal, or just call them Pay-LoanShark
brian
November 21st, 2007 at 3:44 pm
How is this helpful in anyway? Why don’t we just leave a paypal donation button? Instead of using a widget and where they take a 10 % cut along with paying for the fees ourself! Can anyone explain the logic to me? What service are you providing that paypal isn’t already doing for free?
ScratchBack Team
November 21st, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Hey Brian,
When you give someone a tip through Paypal direct, what do you get back in return? Nothing but good karma.
With ScratchBack, at least you get a little fun link or image (nofollow) on that person’s blog or website. You could advertise your blog, or a product, etc…
It’s an automated and fun ad system. But it’s tips, not ads.
brian
November 21st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
So is your percentage after the paypal fees or before?
Linky Love
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:56 am
@Brian
Above they say it’s 90% after PayPal takes their cut.
If I had the softwarewriters, I would put a button myself but with a 90% comission, I am happy Scratchback does the work for me
They even customize the widget if you ask nicely (hint, hint, I am nicely asking for our cancer website please, please, please!)
And if one day they become the next big thing on the Internet, people will be more likely to use Scratchback in stead of “using my button on my website”.
Linky Love
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:58 am
@Lori,
I don’t have a business account at Paypal and also only get 0.59$ for a $1 tip, which is ridiculous!
That’s why I increased the price to 10$, as such the cut in % is much less.
Robert MacEwan
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Well, it looks like all the cool kids are giving this a try & I’ve been using it to pay out to sites so now it’s my turn to give it a shot.
John W
December 5th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I just received my first $1 and my cut was only $0.59, both on the main screen and the detail page.
ScratchBack Team
December 5th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
@John W, PayPal takes $.33 out of a single dollar transaction.
Entrepreneur
December 26th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Paypal takes a lot! A bit much, right? Why such a high fee? I don’t mind it going to Scratchback- but is it because Scratchback belongs to Paypal anyway?
Also, I tipped Scratchback on the home page and never got to see my URL up. I asked a few minutes after I tipped, then afterwards I checked again and again. Now, still no reply from the team.
What’s up? So, really, we shouldn’t tip because we may never ever see our URL up there because too many people are tipping?!
ScratchBack Team
December 26th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Well, we’ve been on holiday here for usa Xmas. Just approved your link
Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Controversy Blog
January 18th, 2008 at 12:02 am
You should keep it at 90% forever. It’ll be the first time any marketer has ever really thought of what would greatly please those who participate. Your post pay-pal fee 10% should add up just fine volume-wise if you do that. Seriously, it’ll leave a good impression for a long time and you can funnel revenue into some other decent project that gobbles everyones cash in huge amounts but just leave this be the way it is…
Sam
Armaan
February 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Woow! Great……. 90% is excellent payout.
bloggista
February 13th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I installed this widget for a week now - but nobody has given me any tip yet. So no comments for now. LOL
Jauhari
February 14th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Just Perfect, I will use it right now!
SmartAssProducts
February 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I just signed up last night, and after looking around a bit I’m not seeing anything saying the 90% beta phase has ended. But my tips are displaying at $.60 on the dollar. So what’s the story?! BTW, I think ScratchBack is a great idea.
Lewis
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
You shouldn’t raise the %. Taking 50% of every tip is absolutely ridiculous. 20% is reasonable. 10% is FANTASTIC.
Keep it at 90% for us bloggers!
Anita
March 24th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I totally agree - I honestly believe if you keep it at 90% forever - you’ll be way ahead of the game in the long run
(Which I’m sure you’ve already figured this out by now, lol!)
Those of you that are complaining about Paypal, this is no new story. IMHO, Paypal is getting way too greedy and they’re going to start shooting themselves in the foot (hmm … sound a little like Ebay and their fees?)
That said, they seem to almost have the market covered. Paypal is very user-friendly and very well known which in turn makes the trust factor way high. And the trust factor when dealing with money is a HUGE deal.
I wish another company would come along and make their fees a little more competitive BUT, it’s going to take another company a very long time to build up the trust and become as well-known. In the meantime, this gives Paypal the ability to charge whatever their little heart desires.
Don’t get me wrong - I love what Paypal does and it gives me the opportunity to make all kinds of money on my site. But, greed will get you nowhere in the end
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough … my point here was, I personally prefer to be paid via paypal so I can’t complain there. And ScratchBack doesn’t have any control what-so-ever over Paypal’s fees. So, if you want ScratchBack … unfortunately, you have to deal with the Paypal fees.
Anita
March 24th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Oh and one more thing … any plans of incorporating a future affiliate program?
ScratchBack Team
March 24th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Anita, good question on the affiliate program. We’re not sure if we’re going to have one. Lots of issues. How do you pay, on what? What about fraud?
Anita
March 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Awesome! It’s good to hear that it’s at least been considered - which is mainly what I was wondering about.
Maybe just a referral program would be enough. I’m just throwing numbers out there (with no real consideration of “number puching”) but maybe $1 for every sign up by referral.
Like I said … just tossing some thoughts out there!
ScratchBack Team
March 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
How do you stop fraud signups Anita? Pay per lead is a risky program to run. Full of fraud.
Linky Love
March 24th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Use the “Bidvertiser” and “Smorty” referral ideas: we only get paid once our referral has made some real money.
And we get paid a % of what the referrals make (that’s going to cut into your 10% lol…)
ScratchBack Team
March 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Linky Love, so you want to make 10% of our 10%?
Seriously, the margin is low. We make sometimes pennies on a tip. Who wants to earn a few pennies on a transaction?
Leads seems like the only way to go, but the fraud issue is slowing that thinking down.
Or… some type of credits system.
Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Controversy Blog
March 28th, 2008 at 6:57 am
You need to think like the affiliate. There is still fallout from a period where early IM’ers convinced affiliates they could get rich by marketing the IM’ers products aggressively. Comparatively speaking, few believe that any more.
So, instead of offering money, offer advertising. One example is to make it so that one’s sponsor gets a free ad spot somewhere on their Scratchback widget for like a month or so.
You would have issues with checking to make sure the widget was displayed for the whole month to prevent petty people from trying to avoid having to advertise their sponsor the first month but I don’t see a lot of that happening anyways.
You can also combine this with Anita’s suggestion of $1 per signup. Although I think .50 will be sufficient. Keep in mind, if you go 2 levels on payouts - even without using paypal to process the affiliate payment, they will still find an excuse to kick your *** for even involving paypal anywhere NEAR a 2-tier program.
Here’s a fine example of what I mean.
Best wishes on this,
Sam
Linky Love
March 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
@Scratchback team
Actually I was thinking about making 90% out of your 10%
I rest my case as really the 90% we earn is the best deal on the web. Rather keep that 90% than adding an affiliate progam (Sam will most likely never speak to me again…)
Terrance Charles
April 18th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Everything went smooth on my side too. I know you guys are working hard to improve SB and it’s basically already good enough, great service. I blogged about it on my blog too, check it out…
http://terrancecharles.com/blog/2008/04/14/how-to-increase-your-blog-revenue-in-5-minutes/
Terrance Charles
Fyre Vortex
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 am
This is awesome! Now this service is the best so far that I ever seen…
Allison
March 10th, 2009 at 6:06 am
PayPal is the big winner with this one…as always. Transaction fee and % for every tip, even if it’s $1.
Mr.Choice
June 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I think this is entirely great. Will see if ScratchBack is the real deal.
Hugh Briss
September 1st, 2009 at 7:52 pm
What benefit does Scratchbacks offer that make it worth even 10%? We have to sell our own links and I don’t see any kind of promotional benefits, so why wouldn’t we just set up our own PayPal order form and keep 100%?