Why exactly $1?
It keeps the requested action small, concrete and comparable. Tips above $1 are reported separately from the primary result.
ONE QUESTION · TEN MILLION STRANGERS
Would you give a stranger $1?
I’m going to ask 10,000,000 strangers that exact question — and publish what actually happens.
No product. No prize. No investment. Not charity. Nothing is promised in return. The $1 is a voluntary tip, the money is mine to keep, and some may fund the experiment.
WHY THIS EXISTS
The $1 idea isn’t new.
The measurement is.
There are many “give me a dollar” pages. Most stop at the gimmick. This one treats the ask as a documented distribution experiment: what channels move it, where does it fail, and how many strangers actually say yes?
The useful result is the funnel: ask → visit → checkout → confirmed $1 → referral.
What happens to the money?
It becomes my money. Fees come out first; some of what remains may pay for the domain, email infrastructure, distribution tests and documentation.
What do you get?
No product, ownership, return, raffle entry or private perk. The public output is the documented experiment and its aggregate results.
WHY TRUST THIS PAGE?
Trust should come from things you can verify.
Payment leaves this site
The primary button opens the project’s Ko-fi checkout and payment is handled through PayPal. This landing page never asks for card details.
The rules were locked first
Protocol v0.1 was fixed before broad distribution so the result is not rewritten after the fact.
The domain is authenticated
Amazon SES Easy DKIM completed for 1dollarexp.site. Public contact is hello@1dollarexp.site.
No manufactured momentum
No fake donors, testimonials, urgency or fabricated counters. Early supporter counts stay hidden specifically to avoid social-proof bias.
PROTOCOL v0.1 · LOCKED SEP 03, 2026
What exactly gets measured?
Exact-$1 conversion
Confirmed one-time Ko-fi tips of exactly $1.00 USD divided by best-effort first-seen browser visitors. Clearing storage, private browsing or switching devices can create another first-seen visit, so this is not claimed as perfect person-level deduplication.
Reach ≠ visitors
Impressions, delivered messages, visits, checkout clicks and confirmed payments are separate stages. Source attribution uses explicit source tags first, then the referrer hostname when available; privacy settings can remove referrer data.
Keep the baseline clean
Creator tests, refunds, subscriptions, other currencies and tips above the requested amount are separated from the primary result.
Aggregate results only
Supporter names, emails and payment details are not part of the public dataset.
BASELINE RULE
The first controlled cohort runs without a public supporter counter. A later A/B test may compare counter vs no-counter as a separate social-proof experiment.
Technical diagnostics
Not checked.
PUBLIC EXPERIMENT LOG
Receipts before results.
Protocol v0.1 locked
Measurement rules fixed before broad distribution.
1dollarexp.site went live
Custom domain registered and routed to the experiment.
Project email confirmed
hello@1dollarexp.site inbound forwarding works.
Ko-fi → PayPal connected
Known Ko-fi test webhooks are excluded from experiment payment counts.
Amazon SES DKIM: success
Easy DKIM completed in US East (N. Virginia).
SES sandbox recipient verified
Technical delivery testing can proceed without counting it as experiment traffic.
Final baseline v2 started
Preview and QA hostnames are excluded from telemetry. Earlier pre-launch aggregates remain preserved separately for audit.
FAQ
Everything awkward, answered directly.
Is this a charity?
No. It is a personal public internet experiment.
Why would I give a stranger money for nothing?
You may decide not to. That is part of the experiment. The premise intentionally removes any promised exchange.
Why can’t I see how many people already paid?
Visible progress can influence behavior. The baseline cohort deliberately hides that signal.
Will my name or email be published?
No. Public reporting is aggregate.
Was AI used to build this?
Yes. AI tools helped with research, coding and drafting. Project decisions and submissions are made by the creator. Payments, fees and reported results must come from real events; supporter identities are not published and no results are fabricated.