Can I get a quick overview of how it works?

• The whys
• Why is tipjoy better than the other methods earning money online?
• Why would I want to leave someone a tip?
• Getting started
• How much does clicking the tipjoy button cost me?
• How do I add the tipjoy button to my site?
• How can I check to see if someone's left me a tip?
• What sorts of emails will tipjoy send me?
• The way things work
• How does the person I tipped get what I left them?
• What happens to unclaimed funds?
• Can I cancel a tip I've given?
• How is the tipjoy rank calculated?
• Money, money, money
• Why would I want to put extra money into my account?
• How does Tipjoy make money?
• How is my total available amount for donation/gift cards calculated?
• How is my balance calculated?
• Why can't I withdraw cash from my tipjoy account?

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• Why is tipjoy better than the other methods earning money online?
• Because tipjoy makes it easy for people to leave you money. Here's how:
  1. Each click of the 'tip this' button is a fixed price, so your fans don't have to think about how much they want to give - they just get used to leaving tips wherever they see the button, without thinking twice.
  2. There's no checkout process, so the users aren't taken away from your site to complete the transaction, and they don't have to go through multiple steps to actually pay you. All those steps and new pages that many other donation sites have scare off many fans who would like to give you something as a sign of their appreciation, but don't want to bother with a complicated and annoying checkout.
  3. Your readers are more likely to thank you by leaving a tip than they are to click on an advertisement. Having tipjoy on your site will be yet another way for you to earn money - it will make it easy for your fans to connect with you and thank you.
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• Why would I want to leave someone a tip?
• Because tipjoy makes it easy and fun for you to tip stuff you love online. Here's how:
  1. There's no checkout process, so you don't have to go through an annoying checkout process to leave your tip. Just click the tip button and that's it - you're done!
  2. Each click of the 'tip this' button is a small fixed price (10 cents is the default), so you don't have to think too much about whether or not to leave a tip. If you liked it, tip it, and don't look back!
  3. Think about it - you're probably a big fan of one or two sites out there who really have made your life better, more fun, or taught you something. Now think about the guy on the other end, toiling away to make the stuff you love. Why not thank him by leaving a tip - let them know you care!
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• How much does clicking the tipjoy button cost me?
• The default value is 10 cents. You can change it to be 5 cents, 25 cents or 50 cents by going to your settings page.
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• How do I add the tipjoy button to my site?
• The instructions are in our tutorial.
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• How can I check to see if someone's left me a tip?
• Go to our site search page and enter your website's URL or your email address. If anyone's tipped you, follow the instructions to claim your tips.
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• What sorts of emails will tipjoy send me?

• When deciding whether to email you or not, we are going to err on the side of contacting you less often, rather than more.

  Currently, emails are automatically sent when you:

  1. create an account and need to activate it or confirm your email address
  2. if you modify your email address, we'll send you an email asking you to confirm the new address
  3. request us to email you a reset password link
  4. have racked up a tip bill of $5.00 or more. This email will be sent once a month until the bill is paid or the account is closed.

  We do not currently email you when people tip you. However some users have requested this feature, and in the future we may add a settings option where you can opt in to receive email summaries of your tip earnings.

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• How does the person I tipped get what I left them?
• If they are a tipjoy user, the money is automatically transferred into their account as soon as you pay your tip bill. If they are not a tipjoy user, we keep track of all the money they've earned (by associating it with the URL/email address submitted), and once it reaches a certain amount, we will contact them and help them get signed up with tipjoy so that they can claim their earnings.
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• What happens to unclaimed funds?
• We will contact the tip owners on a periodic basis (not so often as to become annoying, but every so often as a reminder) to let them know there's money waiting for them, and help them get signed up with Tipjoy. However, we cannot guarantee that a person you tip will sign up for Tipjoy and claim the money that's been left to them. Since tips are not refundable, as long as the money remains 'unclaimed' it will remain with us indefinitely. We encourage you to try and convince the people you've tipped to sign up with Tipjoy to claim their money.
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• Can I cancel a tip I've given?
• No, tipjoy tips are non-refundable.
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• How is the tipjoy rank calculated?
• The exact algorithm is median tip value times number of paid tips divided by age in hours + 1. In other words, content is ranked by dividing the total amount it has been paid by how old it is. This way, heavily tipped items which haven't been tipped for a while don't clog up the top tips page. It is important to note that although the total dollar amount shown next to each item contains both paid and unpaid tips, the rank is only affected by the amount of tips that have been paid. Therefore it is possible to see an item with a higher dollar value below one which has a smaller dollar value, if the one with the smaller dollar value has been entirely paid while the other one has not. Content that has only received unpaid tips is ranked chronologically after all the paid content.
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• Why would I want to put extra money into my account?
• There are a few benefits to having extra money in your tipjoy account:
  1. No email reminders to pay your bill.
  2. Your tips automatically count towards the content's rank on our top tips page.
  3. The people you leave tips for will love you.
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• How does tipjoy make money?
• Tipjoy charges a 3% transaction fee when users spend their earnings.
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• How is my total available amount for donation/gift cards calculated?
• We want it to be simple to pay, earn and give your tips. Therefore no matter how much you buy, your account will reflect that full amount. And when you earn money, we'll show you the total amount you've earned. However, there is overhead to putting money into a tipjoy account - credit card processing fees, mailing fees, 3rd party payment processing fees, etc. So, although you see the full amount in your account, each tip is actually worth a very slight bit less. When you go to spend your earnings, the amount available to use reflects these overhead fees, plus the 3% tipjoy transaction fee. All in all, you'll be able to actually use about 94% of the total amount you see in your balance.
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• How is my balance calculated?

• Your balance is how much money is in your tipjoy account. Whenever someone pays for a tip they've left you, this money is added into your tipjoy account. Each time you tip, your default tip amount (which can be changed in settings) is withdrawn from your tipjoy account. Anyone can go into the negative -- users are allowed to tip first and pay later. If someone with a negative balance leaves you a tip, we'll still track that tip in the 'You're earning money' sections of the site - however, that money will not appear in your tipjoy account until the tipper puts cash into their tipjoy account.

  So, it is possible that although you are seeing tips come into your account, you still may have a negative balance. There are two possible explanations for this: either people who have tipped you have not paid yet, or you've given more money in tips than you've earned.

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• Why can't I withdraw cash from my tipjoy account?

• Because if we allow our users to withdraw money from their account, then we are technically a money transfer service in the eyes of the US Government, which requires registration with all 50 states and with the Federal government (in compliance with the Patriot Act). All of that registration requires a very, very large amount of money which we don't yet have.

  So please, help us grow! Use tipjoy, tell people about it, tell us what you want to see to make it even better. The more popular tipjoy becomes, the easier it will be for us to convince investors to give us the funding we need so that we can afford the required paperwork.

  If you have a minimum of $5 in your account after removal of applicable fees, then you can do the following with your earnings:

  1. Donate to any official charity you'd like
  2. Purchase an Amazon gift card
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