I tried an experiment awhile back by switching my Scratchback widget from $5 per link to $25 for 1 month.  The experiment portion was that I only mentioned it via Twitter.

Well, Fail.  No one took me up on the offer.  But, I think that might have been because my twitter followers and my blog readers aren’t necessarily the same people.  Which is understandable.

So I’m here to tell you, the actual blog readers, that you can advertise on TrishaLyn.com via text link in my Scratchback widget for $25 for 30 days.  There are 5 slots available and your link will not be bumped for 30 days.  As I mentioned yesterday, I’m back from a much needed vacation and ready to hit this full force again.  So, get it while it’s hot!

Yes that’s right – I have not abandoned the Free Toolsday feature.  Lots of things have come up, and I’ve been a bit uninspired, but like a flash it hit me what the best tool to feature today would be.  One that can make you money!

ScratchBack, a Jim Kukral project, is a great way for your readers and fellow bloggers to both show you some love and advertise their own blogs or websites.  It’s free to join and set up, with about 15 different stock designs for your widget.  You can also design your own using the guidelines from the website and they’ll hook it up with a nice custom one.  Obviously you can see over there ——> that I haven’t had the time or focus to do another custom design as I once had!

This is how it works: you put the widget on your site.  A reader comes by and decides that they want to tip you and get a link up all in one swoop.  So they click the widget, pay the tip to ScratchBack (YOU set how much of a tip you want!) and then ScratchBack pays you 90% of the tip (they have to keep the lights on, afterall).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="How it Works"][/caption]

You have the power to decide how much of a tip you want (the minimum is $5), how you want links to be bumped, if you want links auto approved, and more.  it’s one of the better widgets out there since it rewards you for your content while allowing other readers to promote their stuff as well.  It’s free to join if you just want to check it out and you’ll almost never get any emails from them – solicitation or otherwise. It’s also a great traffic source for you to go out there & reinvest – put your links on other blogs that employ ScratchBack!

I’m a big believer – so ask me if you have questions!

Just a quick recap of days negative 1 and 1 of Affiliate Summit East 2008 before I head off to the Share a Sale Under the Stars party that started an hour ago (give me a break, I’m fashionably late!).

Day  Negative 1 (a.k.a. Saturday)

1. The Affiliate Classroom Live event went well overall.  I feel like the people in most of my discussions were picking up what I was putting down.  I feel like I could have been better prepared, but that was really my own fault.  I hope that I’m asked back in the future of other events and can do a bang up job!  Also met some cool peeps.
2. AffSpot.com forum meet-up was fun – got to meet some new people like Angie & Roger from Snow Consulting, talked at length with the ever charming Lisa Picarille of Revenue Magazine, finally met the lovely penguin Jen Good of JGoode Designs, was thrown schwag by Sam Harrelson & Aunesty Janssen the admins of the Spot, and met Bill (Beachy), Ron (7daysRon), & some others that came & went.  As I was looking down reading something on my phone outside the bar I recognized Jim Kukral of Scratchback soley by his mandals with socks walking by!  Love it.
3. Speaking of Sam, he had to bail on the Affiliate Dinner last night so he graciously gave me his ticket!  I went and had a great meal, lots of laughs at the expense of the roastee Connie Berg of FlamingoWorld.com, and talked at great length with apparently my #1 fan Kim Rodgers from 4Checks.com.  It’s funny that I JUST ordered my new checks from them for the first time last week, so we had a great discussion!  The highlight just might have been Brian Littleton from Share-a-Sale dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow for Connie’s love of all things Johnny Depp.
4. Finally, while the concept of recording a live podcast for GeekCast live was a terrific idea, it ended up being a FAIL of epic proportions.  It was an insanely fun time talking and having fun with peeps but between the audience, topics, & Shawn’s BeerTender, it was too much of a party.  It was a blast though that kept me up until 3:45am.

Day 1 – Affiliate Summit Kicks Off

1. Registration was incredibly easy now that they’ve come up with self check in kiosks.  Love it!
2. Missed the PPC and Social Media tracks I wanted to attend thanks to a righteous headache this morning (no, I DON’T think it was a hangover!) but heard the social media was good.
3. Headed into the Meet Market and MAN was it packed!  Got my fare share of awesome schwag, bought myself an “I Gave Back!” button, and got some good info on some cool networks and programs.  It was a zoo in there so I had to bail, bu t it was good that I did since I’d lost track of time and was able to get to the NY tax laws session.
4. The day isn’t over!  I’m shutting this bad boy down in lieu of blogging about the other session I attended today and I’m heading over to the ShareASale party on the Odyssey Cruise yacht… can’t promise how long I’ll stay but it should be a blast!