CNET Caroline McCarth reports that Salon.com has launched Open Salon, a social blogging site where bloggers can be tipped using a micropayments service. There is an intro post here by Open Salon director Kerry Lauerman about the site which has been running in beta for several months.

Open Salon is a social content site we hope to officially launch later this year. We’ve been hosting a lively private beta test for several months now, with about 1,300 or our closest friends. We’re now pleased to open the door for everyone else.



What, precisely, can you do here? After a rapid registration, you can start blogging immediately — and rating and commenting on other posts, messaging other members, and more. You can also invite other members into Open Salon from your own blog page.



The Open Salon home page functions like a real-time magazine cover. We spotlight the best content, but you can also see what other members are reading, rating and commenting on. A new issue goes up every evening at 8 p.m. ET; we update the cover every morning at 11 a.m. ET, and as necessary. In the near future, we’ll begin featuring the best Open Salon content on the cover of Salon.com. We’ll also be unveiling ways for you to earn money for your awesome work on Open. More to come.

The payment (or tipping) service that Open Salon uses is called