BAD MONEY'S PIZZA/BLOG TIPPING RULE
Most blogs have a tip jar. But, as Cox & Forkum recently pointed out, most tip jars stay empty. The problem is that, although the readers enjoy the material on a blog, they have no idea what an "appropriate" contribution is.
I have a simple rule of thumb to solve this problem. If something you read on someone's blog makes you as happy as eating a large pepperoni pizza, you should tip the blogger the same amount that you'd tip the pizza delivery guy. Say about $2.
The beauty of this rule is that it can be scaled conveniently both up and down, consistent with your financial situation and level of enjoyment.
Say you've got $10.35 in PayPal and you read something mildly amusing somewhere. Drop in the $.35 and say, "that was as refreshing as a double espresso on exam day eve. Here's a little jingle for your jar."
Conversely, if you want to go high, you can always say, "that was as thrilling as that unnamed service recently provided to my by Trixie, the Times Square Wonder Hooker. Here's $50, and it was worth every penny."
Which raises the question of when to tip.
First, consider that blogging is generally more about ego than about making a living. The coin of the blogospheric realm is attention, generally given in 3 forms: comments/e-mail, temporary post links, and blogroll permalinks. Think of them as corresponding roughly to copper, silver, and gold, respectively. Once you've exhausted payments in the local currency, something green becomes more appropriate.
Gates & Buffet can afford to tip for every good entry on every blog they visit. I can't. But there are 3 times when I think some jar jingle makes sense:
1) Make me laugh out loud. If I just snarfed coffee all over the monitor & everyone at the bank is staring at me like I'm a lunatic, that's worth tipping.
2) Change my mind. If something is so persuasive or thought-provoking that I'm forced to re-open the closed book on one of my convictions, that's worth tipping.
3) Long-time daily read. If, in the absence of the first 2 criteria, I still find myself stopping at a site every day for at least 3 months, that's worth tipping.
Your criteria may differ based on your financial situation and laughter threshold.
So, now that you know how to do it, go forth and thank the nice bloggers who make your day so wonderful.
posted by Harvey at 10:13:34 PM permalink
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