The survival of quality content...

by Edge88
5 replies
For a while people questioned on the ability of free quality content sites to survive, especially if adsense turned out not to be so effective, or if the site's bills were just too large to be suppoted by adsense clicks.

The Economist even published an article about it, I think it was called something like The End of Free Lunch.

Well during that time a friend of mine brought up a really interesting internet business idea to my attention, I really liked the idea and encouraged him to pursue it, but he didn't. So nearly a year later I found that someone is actually starting a company based on the idea, and I'm pretty excited to see if they succeed.

this is the idea: A tipping service that people can create an account on and then add say 5 bucks to it. then the user can "tip" websites they really like. These tips could be minimum. Think tipping 10 cents on an article you really like, not bad right? I would tip 10 cents here and there. 10 cent tip here and there probably owuld generate more money from me than adsense does.

This service could also be offered as a mandatory payment as opposed to a tip. So say the Economist has an article you really want to read, they could easily charge you 25 cents for it, instead of having you sign up for their monthly membership. I don't sign up for a monthly membership just because I want 1 article, but I would dispense a small fee in the cents somewhere.

Webmasters would only have to include some type of "tip jar" on their sites.

So, sounds like a cool idea? I thought so. I don't want this to sound like an ad. and I have nothing to do with this company, but there's a company that is pretty much trying to do what I just described. its called www.Kachingle.com . I hope to see them become successful, it could be useful to a lot of content creators.
#content #quality #survival
  • Profile picture of the author Tyler Pratt
    What is the difference between tipping and donations?

    I feel its a good thought, but the problem I usually see is the way to pay for this.

    Its something that needs to be paid fast and quickly. And as of 2010 we are stuck with Industrial Paper Money. Meaning we have to get out the credit card, or log into our paypal account. These steps take to long for a $.25 charge.

    As soon as we go to a 100% digital cyber economy then $.25 tipping will be hurt by this. There needs to be one button click, your account is reduced and the payment is sent to the article owner, or website.
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    • Profile picture of the author Edge88
      Originally Posted by Tyler Pratt View Post

      What is the difference between tipping and donations?

      I feel its a good thought, but the problem I usually see is the way to pay for this....
      That's the difference, the way we pay for it. I'm calling it tipping, that website is calling it something else, but basically they would be making it easy to do a 1 click micro donation (tip). Like you said, you wouldn't pull out your credit card to donate a few pennies, but if it could be done in one click more people would... I would donate to wikipedia all the time for example.

      I think the success will depend on whether they can make it that easy, and can get popular and reputable sites to try it out, that way it'll get exposure to users as well.

      It is a good thought, it'd be cool if it succeeds.
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  • Profile picture of the author Home Easy Earn
    With so much that is free on the internet I have to be honest and say I do not think I would tip even if I read a really good article. I may tip if it meant I could use parts of it on my own blog or website, but even then are you going to set different tipping levels for longer or more in depth articles?
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  • Profile picture of the author digigo
    interesting.. to be honest i had the same idea 8 years ago.. i had all thought out.. but i did not pursue it because it would be very very difficult to have enough people signed up for the account and enough publishers to use the service.. it has to be 100,000s for this to work..i did not enough money to gamble with...

    it is a whole industry... search "micropayment"... some companies tried and failed.. it is the critical mass problem that killed them.. or "chicken and eggs" problem..it did not surprise me.. who knows.. it may work in year 2010 as newspaper has problem competing with free online content and quality content has trouble monetize and it is hard to justify the cost of premium content if you can not recoup your expense..
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    • Profile picture of the author Edge88
      Originally Posted by digigo View Post

      interesting....
      ... search "micropayment"... some companies tried and failed.. it is the critical mass problem that killed them.. or "chicken and eggs" problem..it did not surprise me.. who knows.. it may work in year 2010 ...
      digigo,

      Yeah first thing I did when the idea was presented to me was research, and yeah this is not a new idea, and some companies tried it out and failed. But the main reason most people will tell you why they failed is b/c they were not needed at all, especially with ALL the money that "ad revenue" was expected to bring in. Everyone overestimated the power of ad, revenue, so they paid little attention for micro payment.

      I agree with what you said, it may work in 2010, things are economically different now, the .com bubble burst once, now we are far from a bubble again but many .com's are finding it hard to monetize.
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