Tipstrs Archive

Today I’ve been playing with a startup that launched earlier this year called tipstrs (it’s Web 2.0 cuz of the name!). The basic idea of the site is that each of us holds special talents internally and we can share them on tipstrs and get help from others when we need it. They also run a weekly $15 giveaway for those who submit tips.

It’s similar to Squidoo. Anyone can submit a tip and there is a registration for additional benefits. There are around 1,000 tips submitted so far. You can rate a tip as positive or negative and the ratings help the tip to be moved into the most popular category. Because it’s so quick in and out, I could see the site gaining good traction if they promote it well. They offer a Mac desktop widget – why not create more Web-based widgets? Everyone wants to share their knowledge with others.

Monetization comes from Google AdSense currently. They might look at affiliate deals as well. For example, when a tip refers to the Wii, link the term to Amazon for purchase. They offer a general RSS feed but I’d suggest offering a feed per tag/category for additional user satisfaction. 

The most important part of tipstrs is going to be spam control. Making sure that spam links don’t make it into the directory is key for continued growth. In my tests I didn’t see any spam,