Welcome to Kachingle Help. Please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions below, which should quickly answer almost any question you might have about being a Kachingler, being a Site Owner, or managing your Kachingle account.
General Questions — Learn about Kachingle
Sites I Visit — Contributing to your favorite sites
Sites I Own — Having Kachinglers contribute to your site
Payments — How contributions are collected and distributed
If you don't find the answer you need in the FAQ, please feel free to...
Visit our Getting Started pages — for more on kachingling or adding a Kachingle Medallion to your site
Ask a Question — in our Community Forum staffed by the Kachingle Team
Email Customer Care — if your question requires privacy or you don't want to join the Community
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
General Questions
What is Kachingle?
Kachingle is an effortless way to support your favorite sites, online publications, and blogs just by visiting those sites after becoming a Kachingler.
Kachingle is also a way for Site Owners to monetize their online content without resorting to paywalls, per-story "tipping" or other cumbersome, easily-bypassed (and traffic-killing) methods of revenue collection.
As a Kachingler,
you choose the sites you want to support — your favorite blog or your local newspaper, for example.
Once a month, you make an automatic Pay-In to your Kachingle account. Kachingle counts the days you visit your chosen sites, and at the end of each month, divvies up your Pay-In among those sites based on the frequency of your visits.
Kachingle is also a social-networking system — a way to share the sites you love with colleagues, friends and family — building an online persona around your Kachingle contributions. Twitter and Facebook tools are coming soon, and in the mean time you can add a link to your
Sites I Visit — the Kachingle page showing the sites you support — in your email signature or your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.
Most importantly,
Kachingle is user-centric. You, the Kachingler, the consumer of online content, determine the sites you want to support.
How does Kachingle work?
[1] Join Kachingle. All you need is an email address, a user name, and a password.
[2] Deposits $5 in your Kachingle account through PayPal.
(This is part of the join process and takes just couple minutes. Other payment options will be available soon.)
[3] Surf the web as usual. When you see a
Kachingle Medallion on a site you'd like to support, just mouse-over the Medallion, and click the link provided to
"kachingle" that site. (In the example shown here, you'd be clicking
"Kachingle The Daily News.")
This turns Medallion coin from
purple to
green, and adds you to the count of Kachinglers supporting the site.
[4] Each time you return to that site, the Medallion will recognize you and automatically count your visit.
(You can also track your support through your own Sites I Visit page.)
[5] At the end of each month, your monthly deposit (called a "Pay-In") will be divvied up proportionally among those sites based on how many days you visited.
It's that simple!
For more details,
visit our Getting Started pages.
What does "Kachingle" mean?
The name was derived from the English words for these sounds:
Ka-ching! — the sound of an old cash register ringing up a sale:
Why should I voluntarily pay for content I get for free on the web? (Short answer)
Kachingle offers an effortless, one-click way to...
- Support online newspapers you rely upon to keep up with current events
- Support your favorite blogs
- Support sites that provide you a free service
- Share your support with colleauges, friends, and family (and soon Twitter followers and others), and turn them on to the sites you visit
- Build an online persona around your Kachingle contributions
- And do all this on your own terms, and without having to have to support each site though separate means
Why should I voluntarily pay for content I get for free on the web? (Long answer)
A quantum shift has taken place in journalism and other media. With more and more consumers getting their news online and their music for free, many of the sources on which you rely for information and entertainment are having a hard time paying for the content you need and enjoy.
The quality of news reporting is suffering as a result. Many newspapers are closing bureaus, cutting their ranks of reporters, or folding altogether. Others are considering blocking their sites to readers who don't pay for access.
Gaming, video, music and other web services also need more support from users to stay afloat.
Kachingling is a way to contribute to the sites you choose, with a single click on the Kachingle Medallion.
And for Site Owners, Kachingle is an easy, user-friendly alternative to paywalls, subscriptions and pay-per-page plans.
If you used to subscribe to a newspaper, for example, and now read that paper online instead, why not contribute a portion of your former subscription price to help support the online version?
Kachingle makes this easy. Instead of having to pay to access each site individually, kachingling those sites allows you to support them all with a single monthly Pay-In — and you control how the money is distributed by how often you visit each site.
Kachingle is also a way to support the "little guy" — like bloggers who take the time, talent, perseverance, and commitment to create and maintain a site you love.
By kachingling that blog, you're sending the message — and a financial incentive — to that blogger to keep up the good work.
What's more,
Kachingle is fun! You can build an online persona around sharing the sites you support with colleauges, friends, and family (and soon Twitter followers and others) through social networking.
To learn more about being a Kachingler, visit
Getting Started for Kachinglers.
To learn more about putting a Kachingle Medallion on your own site, visit
Getting Started for Site Owners.
How is Kachingle also a social networking site?
- How does a Kachingler get recognition for contributions?
- How do I see who else kachingles a Site I Visit?
- How do I see the sites they visit?
Kachinglers'
Sites I Visit pages are public profiles, and so are the profiles of the sites themselves.
On Kachingle,
you can share your own Sites I Visit and other information with anyone, and other Kachinglers can see who else is kachingling their own favorite sites. It's a great way to share and compare interests with others.
When you visit a site's Kachingle profile, you can see all its Kachinglers, find out what other sites they like by clicking on their
Display Names.
You can include the URL of your
Sites I Visit in email and forum signatures, on your Facebook or MySpace page, and soon you'll be able to share your kachingling automatically through Twitter and Facebook!
Does Kachingle work with web-enable phones and PDAs?
If your phone or PDA has a full HTML browser, absolutely.
For your mobile visits to be counted you'll need to login to the Kachingle.com site one time from your mobile device, which will turn on the ability of Medallions to recognize and remember you on that device.
You will likely not be able to turn kachingling on for any new sites from your phones or PDAs, as most do not have an on-screen pointer with which to "mouse-over" the Medallions, so the Medallions cannot "open" on these devices to click any of the links inside.
Can I be both a Kachingler and a Site Owner?
Absolutely. We encourage it!
If you're a Kachingler with a web site, you should place a Kachingle Medallion on your site, so you can be kachingled by your visitors. And every Site Owner should kachingle the sites they love too, just as they hope others will kachingle theirs.
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Sites I Visit — the basics
How does Kachingle count my visits to the sites I'm supporting?
- How does "Remember Me" work?
Once you've signed up as a Kachingler, whenever you visit a site that displays a
Kachingle Medallion, the Medallion will recognize you. If you're kachingling that site (if you're a contributor), the Medallion will count your visit (and display a
green coin, as shown here).
This is accomplished through the use of "cookies," small files all web sites store on your computer when you visit, so they can remember you when you return.
If you visit a site with a Medallion but you're not (yet) kachingling that site, Medallion coin will be
purple instead of green. If you want to begin kachingling the site, just mouse-over the Medallion and click
"Kachingle [site name]" (like,
"Kachingle The Daily News" shown here).
(If for any reason the Medallion doesn't recognize you, just mouse-over the Medallion and click "Already a Kachingler".)Must I login to the Kachingle.com site for Medallions to count visits to my chosen sites?
No. The Medallions can recognize you whether or not you're logged into the Kachingle.com site.
If for any reason a Medallion doesn't recognize you (the coin is gray), you can mouse-over it and click "Already a Kachingler?" to turn back on all Medallions' ability to remember you.
Does Kachingle track my web surfing?
No. When a Kachingler visits a site with a Medallion, the Medallion does recognize you, but only makes note of your visit if you're kachingling (contributing to) that site.
What happens if I delete or disable my browser cookies?
The
Kachingle Medallion relies on cookies to remember you and count your visits to the sites you kachingle. If you ever need to delete your browser cookies, to resume counting your visits to the sites you support, just click
"Already a Kachingler?" on any Kachingle Medallion to turn back on all Medallions' ability to remember you.
(Please note: Firefox and Opera browsers have separate settings for allowing "third-party cookies." Third-party cookies must be enabled for Kachingle Medallions to remember you. If you need more help, see How do I set my browser to accept third-party cookies? below.)How are my visits calculated and turned into payments?
At the end of each month you have been a Kachingler, we add up the number of days you visited each site that you kachingle, and distribute your monthly Pay-In proportionally.
Kachingle counts Daily Visits (rather than, say, pageviews) so that your kachingling is distributed based on how often you visit a site, rather than how much you use it when you're there.
Our calculation system may evolve as more Kachinglers and sites join our network. If you'd like to share your thoughts on distribution, you can
visit our forum on how visits become payments.
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
How do I follow my Kachingle contributions?
You can find statistics for all your kachingling on the Sites I Visit page of your Kachingle.com account.
Can I kachingle different sites under different names?
- Can I kachingle anonymously?
Yes, it's easy to kachingle under a different name (or anonymously) for any site.
If you want to kachingle a site under a name other than your Kachingle Display Name — or if you want to kachingle anonymously — click "Kachingle [site name] as..." when you mouse-over the Medallion. You'll be taken to your Preferences for that site, where you can customize (or anonymize) your name for that site.
You can change how you kachingle the sites you already support by logging into Kachingle.com, and in your Sites I Visit page, clicking Edit Preferences below the name of each site you want to change.
Can I make my kachingling private?
Kachingle is, in part, a social networking site, so there is a Public View of your Sites I Visit that is always visible. But if you don't want anyone to see the sites you're kachingling, you can choose to contribute anonymously to each site, which will make this Public View empty.
To kachingle anonymously, when you first mouse-over a site's Medallion, select "Kachingle [site name] as...", then choose the Anonymous option.
You can change how you kachingle the sites you already support by logging into Kachingle.com, and in your Sites I Visit page, clicking Edit Preferences below the name of each site you want to change.
I want to contribute to a site that doesn't have the Kachingle Medallion. What should I do?
Send us an email with the site's URL (and a contact email, if you have it). We'll let them know about Kachingle and tell them a Kachingler is interested in contributing.
Sites I Visit — help
How do I manage my kachingling?
- How do I start, stop or suspend contributions?
There are two ways to turn kachingling on and off for each site you visit:
[1] From any
Kachingle Medallion, you can control whether or not you kachingle that particular site by clicking
"Kachingle [site name]" to become a contributor or
"Stop kachingling [site name]" to end or suspend contributions.
[2] From your
Sites I Visit page on Kachingle.com you can click
"Edit Preferences" for any site you kachingle, and turn your contributions on and off.
NOTE: If you stop kachingling a site, it will remain listed in your Sites I Visit history, but will gradually move lower on the list when sorted by Last Visit (which is the default).
If you need to turn off the ability of Medallions to recognize and remember you (for example, if you're kachingling a public computer and don't want the next user to affect your kachingling), login to Kachingle.com and click
Settings at the top of the page. From there you can
"stop kachingling from all browsers on all computers and devices."
When you're next on a computer from which you want to resume kachingling, just find any Medallion and click
"Already a Kachingler?", which will take you to a screen where you can turn back on the Medallions' ability to remember you. (You can also do this from
Settings in your Kachingle.com account.)
What do I do if "Remember Me" is on, but Medallion don't recognize or remember me?
- How do I set my browser to accept third-party cookies?
If the
Kachingle Medallions seem to have a hard time recognizing or remembering you, the problem may be that your browser requires you to accept "third-party cookies," which the Medallion uses to count your visits to the sites you kachingle.
This is usually only the case in Firefox or Opera browsers. Here's how to find these settings:
In
Firefox for Windows: Tools > Options > Privacy > Accept third-party cookies
In
Firefox for Mac: Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > Accept third-party cookies
In
Opera for Windows: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Cookies > Accept cookies
In
Opera for Mac: Opera > Preferences > Advanced > Cookies > Accept cookies
If you need more help, Ask a Question in our Community Forum (staffed by the Kachingle Team) or Email Customer Care if your question requires privacy or you don't want to join the Community.
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
I surf the internet from more than one browser/computer. How do I make sure all my visits to the sites I support are counted?
To turn your kachingling on from any browser, just click
"Already a Kachingler?" on any
Kachingle Medallion and sign in to activate the Medallions' ability to recognize and remember you on. You only have to do this once from each browser you use to kachingle, and all your visits will be counted together under your Kachingle account.
(NOTE: On HTML-enabled phones and PDAs that cannot "mouse-over" the Medallion you will need to login to the Kachingle.com site one time to activate kachingling for that device.)
For more information, see How does Kachingle count my visits to the sites I'm supporting? in the section above this one.Can I kachingle from my web-enabled phone/PDA?
If your phone or PDA has a full HTML browser, absolutely.
For your mobile visits to be counted you'll need to login to the Kachingle.com site one time from your mobile device, which will turn on the ability of Medallions to recognize and remember you on that device.
You will likely not be able to turn kachingling on for any new sites from your phones or PDAs, as most do not have an on-screen pointer with which to "mouse-over" the Medallions, so the Medallions cannot "open" on these devices to click any of the links inside.
More than one Kachingler uses my computer. How can we make sure our Kachingling is counted separately?
If each of you logs into your computer itself under a separate user account, then your kachingling will be kept separate without taking any extra steps.
However, if...
[1] you share a user account on one computer, and...
[2] you both use the same browser, and...
[3] each of you has a separate Kachingle account
Then you will need to login to your account on the Kachingle.com site each time you start browsing. This will turn on the ability of Medallions to recognize and remember you instead the other user who had previously been using the same browser.
I was kachingling from another computer and I no longer have access to it. How do make any Medallions seen on that computer not think someone else is me?
- Why would I stop kachingling from all browsers on all computers and devices?
If you ever need to turn off the ability of Medallions to recognize and remember you on another computer, just log into Kachingle.com, click on Settings at the top of any page, then click "Stop kachingling from all browsers on all computers and devices."
Once you've done so, you can make the Medallions recognize and remember you again for whichever computer or browser you choose by clicking "Already a Kachingler?" on any Medallion you see.
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Sites I Own
What is a Kachingle Medallion? How does it work?
The
Medallion is a small widget created by javascript code, which you place on the pages of your site. To see a live Medallion in action, visit the
Kachingle Corporate Blog.
Through the Medallion, Kachinglers can become ongoing contributors to your site with a single click, and the Medallion will recognize them when they come back, and count their visits.
Visitors to your site who are not yet Kachinglers can sign up through the Medallion as well, and the Medallion also links to a list of all of your site's Kachinglers.
For a more details, visit
Getting Started for Site Owners.
How do I add a Medallion to my site?
- Where should I place the Medallion on my pages?
When on your
Sites I Own page, click the
"Add Site" button, which will take you through an easy, quick, step-by-step process for creating and placing a Medallion on your site.
Placement of the Medallion is up to you, but Kachingle recommends it be placed high on each page ("above the fold") in a conspicuous spot to draw Kachinglers' attention.
For a more details, visit
Getting Started for Site Owners.
Can I put the Medallion on any type of site I control?
The Medallion should work on just about any kind of site, made using any kind of software, with the following known exceptions:
Sites that don't allow external widgets on personal pages:
- Facebook
- MySpace
- WordPress.com
(If you host your own WordPress.org blog the Medallion will work)
Software with known compatibility issues:
- iWeb
(Medallion does display properly in some templates - solutions are being tested)
Not yet tested:
- Webs.com
- Ning
(This list will be updated as we do more testing and create more Medallion styles.)
If you need help with other sites or platforms, please Ask a Question in our Community Forum (staffed by the Kachingle Team) or Email Customer Care if your question requires privacy or you don't want to join the Community.
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
How many Medallion designs does Kachingle offer?
- What are the specs of the Kachingle Medallions?
There are currently two Medallion designs:
Medallion A is 234x60 in its closed state
| Medallion B is 160x60 in its closed state
|
When moused-over, both expand into an open state that layers atop existing content, so you don't need to accommodate for this expansion in your layout.
Additional Medallion designs and options are under development.
The Kachingle font is EF Litera, and the Medallion colors are:
| Background | E3F1F1 |
| Kachingle Logo Orange | F26722 |
| Kachingle Tagline | 749B9B |
| Kachingle Coin Green | 81C441 |
| Kachingle Coin Purple | 8E43E0 |
| Kachingle Coin Red | DB6D3C |
| Kachingle Links | 66BBEE |
Can I create separate Medallions for different sections of my site?
Yes, you can create as many Medallions as you like and put them anywhere you choose on your site.
You might, for example, have separate Medallions for different blogs within the same site because they have different readerships.
Keep in mind that if you use separate Medallions in separate areas, readers would have to kachingle each Medallion separately. A Kachingler contributing to one area of your site will not have their visits counted when they surf to a different area of the site, unless they've clicked that Medallion separately to become a Kachingler in both areas.
For easy instructions and advice on the pros and cons of using multiple Medallions, visit
Getting Started for Site Owners.
How should I publicize my Medallion to encourage readers to join Kachingle and contribute?
How are Kachingler's visits calculated and turned into Payments to my sites?
After a Kachingler starts contributing to your site, each day they visit is automatically counted by your
Medallion, and Kachingle adds that day toward your site's Total Daily Visits.
At the end of a 30-day month, if a Kachingler has been to your site every day, Kachingle logs 30 Daily Visits.
Let's say this Kachingler is contributing to four sites, and they visited...
- Your Site on 30 different days
- Site B on 25 different days
- Site C on 25 different days
- Site D on 20 different days
This adds up to a total of 100 Daily Visits, which means:
- Your Site will receive 30% of their contribution
- Site B will receive 25% of their contribution
- Site C will receive 25% of their contribution
- Site D will receive 20% of their contribution
(after transaction costs)
Click here for more information about how Kachinglers' contributions are distributed.Why does Kachingle count a Kachingler's daily visits rather than total visits or pageviews?
Kachingle counts Daily Visits (rather than pageviews or uniques) so that contributions are distributed based on how often a Kachingler visit each site, rather than how much a site is used during each visit.
Our calculation system may evolve as more Kachinglers and sites join our network. If you'd like to share your thoughts on distribution of Payments, you can
visit our forum on how Kachinglers' visits become payments to Site Owners.
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
How can I track my Kachinglers, contributions and payments?
On your Sites I Own page, you will find links to...
- View Kachinglers
- View Pay-Out History
More statistical data, including charts and graphs, will be available soon in the same location.
When does each day start for the purpose of counting Daily Visits?
We're keeping things simple for Kachingle's first incarnation, and using Pacific Time to calculate Daily Visits day. We may explore different or additional options in the near future.
If a reader signs up for Kachingle so they can contribute to my site, aren't they going to end up kachingling elsewhere too, diminishing my percentage of their contribution?
That's likely. But because Kachingle is not just a crowdfunding system, but also social networking system, every reader who kachingles your site will — by design — bring your site to the attention of many more Kachinglers.
The concept behind Kachingle is to make contributing so easy that everyone starts kachingling. Without the burden (to the user and to you) of paywalls, subscriptions, or paying-per-article "tipping," your readership and Kachingler contributions are likely to increase over time because of the shared nature of kachingling.
Plus, other sites are also signing up new Kachinglers every day, and just like your readers may kachingle their sites, their readers may end up kachingling yours.
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Payments
Why does Kachingle only take PayPal and not credit cards?
To keep things simple for Kachingle's first incarnation, we're only accept payments through PayPal for the time being. But you can use your credit card when you reach PayPal - just look for the link "Don't have a PayPal account? Use your credit card or bank account."
Kachingle will be expanding its own payment options in the future.
Why only $5 a month? I want to kachingle more!
When does Kachingle charge my monthly Pay-In?
Your monthly Pay-In is charged each month on the day of the month you'd originally signed up for Kachingle.
Can I have multiple Kachingle accounts billing to one PayPal account?
Yes. You can bill as many Kachingle accounts as you like to any PayPal account.
What currencies does Kachingle accept for payment from Kachinglers?
Kachingle accepts payments in the following currencies when paid through PayPal:
US Dollars
Canadian Dollars
Euros
British Pounds
Yen
Australian Dollars
New Zealand Dollars
Swiss Francs
Hong Kong Dollars
Singapore Dollars
Swedish Kroner
Danish Kroner
Polish Zloty
Norwegian Kroner
Hungarian Forints
Czech Koruny
Israeli Shekels
Mexican Pesos
Kachingle Pay-Outs to Site Owners are paid in US dollars only at this time, and the recipient of the funds is responsible for any conversion fees.
If I don't visit any of the sites I support this month, what happens to my monthly Pay-In?
If you have no kachingling activity on your account in a given month, your Pay-In will be distributed based on the previous month's activity. If you have not yet kachingled any sites at all, any accumulated Pay-In will be distributed based on your first month of kachingle activity.
What's the difference between a Pay-In, a Payment, and a Pay-Out?
A Pay-In is the amount amount charged each month to a Kachingler (currently set at $5, but additional options will be available in the future).
A Payment is when, at the end of the Kachingler's month, the Pay-In gets distributed proportionally among the sites the Kachingler supports, based on his or her visits to those sites.
A Pay-Out is when those funds are then desposited by Kachingle into the PayPal accounts of Site Owners.
Payments — site owners
Why does Kachingle only offer payments by PayPal?
- Why do I need a PayPal account?
PayPal is the simplest, fastest and most secure way for Kachingle to make collective payments of Kachingler contributions to Site Owners.
PayPal also makes it quick and easy for Site Owners to maintain payment records and transfer payments to their bank accounts.
We may be expanding payment options in the future. If you'd like to provide feedback on the subject, please
visit our Community Forum to discuss the issue with Customer Care and other Site Owners.
(Community Forums are hosted by GetSatisfaction.com and may require separate login)
When does Kachingle pay Site Owners?
Payments to Site Owners are processed on the first of each month, and the minimum balance for payout is $100.00 per Medallion.
If at the end of a given month, your Medallion hasn't reached the $100.00 threshold, the balance will roll to the next month until the threshold is reached.
What fees does Kachingle collect before my Pay-Out is processed?
Contributions from Kachinglers to your sites are paid less the following small fees:
- PayPal or other payment-provider fees charged to Kachingle for the distribution of your payments
- The cost of Kachingle's own processing and commission
Together these charges come to roughly 20 percent.
In what currencies does Kachingle pay Site Owners?
Kachingle payments to Site Owners are in US dollars only at this time, and the recipient of the funds is responsible for any conversion fees.
Can I have my Medallion revenue paid to a charity?
Sure. If you know the charity's or non-profit's preferred PayPal email address, just enter it in the appropriate field during the process of setting up a Medallion on your site.
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