Former CNN CEO
Walter Isaacson used yesterday's annual Hays-Press Enterprise Lecture to
float an idea that I sure like. "The key for attracting online revenue," he told the audience, "is coming up with an
iTunes-easy, quick micropayment method. We need something like digital coins or an
E-Z Pass digital wallet – a one-click system that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog, application, or video for a penny, nickel, dime, or whatever the creator chooses to charge."
I'm trying to earn $6,000 quarterly, mostly through sponsorships of $5 per reader, plus limited ad sales. Please use the "Donate" tool in the green sidebar, upper right. Or mail cash/checks payable to: Jim Hopkins, 584 Castro St. #823, San Francisco, Calif., 94114-2594.
Former CNN CEO Walter Isaacson used yesterday's annual Hays-Press Enterprise Lecture to float an idea that I sure like. "The key for attracting online revenue," he told the audience, "is coming up with an iTunes-easy, quick micropayment method. We need something like digital coins or an E-Z Pass digital wallet – a one-click system that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog, application, or video for a penny, nickel, dime, or whatever the creator chooses to charge."
I'm trying to earn $6,000 quarterly, mostly through sponsorships of $5 per reader, plus limited ad sales. Please use the "Donate" tool in the green sidebar, upper right. Or mail cash/checks payable to: Jim Hopkins, 584 Castro St. #823, San Francisco, Calif., 94114-2594.
Hmmm, but wouldn't it be an accounting and customer service nightmare to handle complaints from readers who say what they accessed was misrepresented at they site they linked from?
ReplyDeleteAnd, how could an average consumer make sure the charges were proper? I access hundreds of different sites every day. It's OK if I'm charged a penny each, for example, but it sure would be easy for a site to submit charges fraudulently. How could law enforcement police that? Who's going to find and charge a boilerroom operation misbilling a penny to 50,000 random web users every day?
1:35
ReplyDeleteyou bring up some valid points.
But PLEASE remember just because it is not cut and dry DOES NOT mean it shouldn't be tried.
It'd be like saying: "can't do open heart surgery---you'd have to cut the skin, break the rib cage...what if an artery was severed..what if the rib care pierced the lungs...what if...."
Just saying that if it was all easy and clean without concerns...well that's just a dream...
Ridiculous.
ReplyDeletePeople still don't understand the Internet.
Subscriptions/single copy sales haven't been paying for content, they've been paying for distribution (barely).
Online, the customer's paying for distribution by buying Internet access. The content is just as free in print as it is online. It's up to publishers to monetize eyeballs, just like with print.
Umm, it's called Paypal.
ReplyDeleteThe system would have to be practically brainless and extremely cheap. Unless you have an article that is only available on your website and not picked up by AP and the local TV stations, a "Please pay to see this article" window will detour readers. You could set up some sort of cookie, I suppose, that would automatically deduct whenever you click on a story, but that has risks too. (And what happens if you click the Back button? Do you have to pay to see it again?)
ReplyDeleteIn addition, consider the effect on both outside linking (say, from blogs) and news aggregators.
Jim, this is hardly a new idea. I've been saying it for years, and I'm sure I picked it up from somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is, would people be willing to pay for content? Or has the free Internet "ruined" them already?