stickK: Contract Yourself

I’ve been using stickK for a week now (via Freakonomics), and I think it’s pretty interesting. So what does it do? Here is a short excerpt from their FAQ section:

stickK helps you achieve your personal goals through “Commitment Contracts.”

After signing up with stickK, you will be able to create a contract obliging you to achieve a specific goal within a particular time-frame. By creating a contract to meet one of your goals, you´re actually testing yourself and saying, “Hey, I can do this”. Not only are you challenging yourself, you´re also putting your reputation at stake.

Every week I’m asked to report if I’ve achieved my goals. It’s working great for me so far, because I constantly remind myself to keep up with it.

Right now my daily goals are:
1. Exercise (anything)
2. Spend at least 30 minutes on writing

I wonder how effective money stakes actually are, because people can simply lie to get out without paying. Would the incentive be any different without money stake?