Since I first installed the ScratchBack Top Spots widget earlier this month, it has received 20,137 views (according to the statistics in the ScratchBack dashboard). In that time I have received five tips. In other words, five people tipped me, and have had their links displayed on my Top Spot during which time over 20,000 have been exposed to their linky goodness. The widget is set to Auto Bump, which basically means (and I'll cut and paste from the ScratchBack site now):

Auto-bump means that every time somebody new tips you, that person moves to the top of the TopSpot list. Example: If you have 10 TopSpots available, and Reader A is in the #1 spot, and Reader B tips you after Reader A, then Reader B moves into the top spot, pushing Reader A one spot down. This also means that eventually, Reader A will be pushed off the list completely.

In effect that means that whoever buys one of the spots, stays on the list until at least five more people buy a spot after them. So you buy a spot, you could be there for an hour, or, as has happened on my site, you could be on there for weeks at a time. Originally I set a spot on my widget at $1, until I was advised that I was "too cheap". That hurt, so then I decided to set it to $10. Still no further activity. Now I've settled on the princely sum of $3.50. Why $3.50? Well, it seemed like as good a figure as any!

I've also installed it on a couple of other blogs. My little car news outlet, and my music recording labour of love. The prices on those two are a bit lower, but I'd say the music blog is a pretty nice deal right now.

Top Spots uses the "nofollow" attribute so it seems to be all above board in the eyes of the all seeing, all knowing, Google monster. Or in other words, use it for traffic and promotion, not for a page rank boost. In summary, Top Spots, I like it, but I'd like to see more activity on my widget!