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Google benefits, the costs are negligible compared to the revenue they get. Its the entire business model. The problem for content creators is I can't think of

Google benefits, the costs are negligible compared to the revenue they get. Its the entire business model. The problem for content creators is I can't think of much written content that i'm willing to pay a subscription fee for. I doubt I am alone in this.

criddell 11y ago
> the costs are negligible The costs are not negligible. Tracking scripts use a lot of bandwidth and (on mobile) battery power.
- astazangasta 11y ago
  The costs are negligible for Google. See here: https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html The major stated revenue costs seem to be traffic acquisition costs (payouts for YouTube and the like, I imagine). Bandwidth is probably a minor issue - anyway they are making 60% profits on revenues of $66 billion a year.
- Spivak 11y ago
  Exactly, just because the cost is distributed doesn't mean it's not being paid in one form or another. If ad networks actually had to pay the cost, say $10/GB of traffic they served to mobile devices, ads would be lighter and far less spammy.
venomsnake 11y ago
I would pay 1c for reading Nytimes or rockpapershotgun article. There is no easy way to give 1c though.
criddell 11y ago
I think Google Contributor solves the I-don't-want-to-see-ads problem, but does nothing (AFAIK) for the I-don't-want-to-be-tracked problem.
vinceguidry 11y ago
Taking money directly from end users has never been a really good strategy for individual content creators. It effectively turns each piece of content into its own little product, each requiring a marketing strategy, distribution, payment. The overhead adds up too quickly.
- egypturnash 11y ago
  IMHO Patreon is probing otherwise. I now make more money per page drawing my weird comic about a robot lady with Philip K Dick problems than many people make drawing stuff for Marvel or DC. And I'm an obscure cartoonist with a tiny following.
  - Touche 11y ago
    Link? Sounds like something I'd want to purchase.
    - egypturnash 11y ago
      All online for free: http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/ http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/ Also there are links to the store where you can buy the first two printed volumes (kickstarter for the third and final one soon, I have two pages left to finish) and to the Patreon, which will get you PDFs.
stevenh 11y ago
Imagine if you didn't just have to pay UPS a small fee to deliver your package, but you also had to pay them the entire cost of the product itself, none of which went to the manufacturer. The manufacturer had to include a ton of ads in the package and hope that it would cover the cost of creating the product. That is the situation we have on the internet today, and it's not okay. Laws should be changed so that half of the portion of your monthly ISP bill that the company used to consider profit instead becomes the money used for this compensation of content creators. Evenly distribute the money based on the time the user spends interacting with a given site in the frontmost tab. Implement a new HTTP header the server can send to indicate where payment can be made. All major browser vendors should agree to respect this, and all ISPs should be legally required to go along with it rather than pocketing everything.
- criddell 11y ago
  I think that's a terrible idea. Should the people who sell trucks and airplanes to UPS also be entitled to some percentage of UPS' profit?
- marak830 11y ago
  Thats a horrible idea. Wouldnt that require enforced tracking? What about people who put up free blogs? I'm sprry but if your business model isnt working online, then you need a new business model. If its not working, asking for a new system wont save it.

criddell 11y ago

> the costs are negligible The costs are not negligible. Tracking scripts use a lot of bandwidth and (on mobile) battery power.

astazangasta 11y ago
The costs are negligible for Google. See here: https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html The major stated revenue costs seem to be traffic acquisition costs (payouts for YouTube and the like, I imagine). Bandwidth is probably a minor issue - anyway they are making 60% profits on revenues of $66 billion a year.
Spivak 11y ago
Exactly, just because the cost is distributed doesn't mean it's not being paid in one form or another. If ad networks actually had to pay the cost, say $10/GB of traffic they served to mobile devices, ads would be lighter and far less spammy.

venomsnake 11y ago

I would pay 1c for reading Nytimes or rockpapershotgun article. There is no easy way to give 1c though.

criddell 11y ago

I think Google Contributor solves the I-don't-want-to-see-ads problem, but does nothing (AFAIK) for the I-don't-want-to-be-tracked problem.

vinceguidry 11y ago

Taking money directly from end users has never been a really good strategy for individual content creators. It effectively turns each piece of content into its own little product, each requiring a marketing strategy, distribution, payment. The overhead adds up too quickly.

egypturnash 11y ago
IMHO Patreon is probing otherwise. I now make more money per page drawing my weird comic about a robot lady with Philip K Dick problems than many people make drawing stuff for Marvel or DC. And I'm an obscure cartoonist with a tiny following.
- Touche 11y ago
  Link? Sounds like something I'd want to purchase.
  - egypturnash 11y ago
    All online for free: http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/ http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/ Also there are links to the store where you can buy the first two printed volumes (kickstarter for the third and final one soon, I have two pages left to finish) and to the Patreon, which will get you PDFs.

stevenh 11y ago

Imagine if you didn't just have to pay UPS a small fee to deliver your package, but you also had to pay them the entire cost of the product itself, none of which went to the manufacturer. The manufacturer had to include a ton of ads in the package and hope that it would cover the cost of creating the product. That is the situation we have on the internet today, and it's not okay. Laws should be changed so that half of the portion of your monthly ISP bill that the company used to consider profit instead becomes the money used for this compensation of content creators. Evenly distribute the money based on the time the user spends interacting with a given site in the frontmost tab. Implement a new HTTP header the server can send to indicate where payment can be made. All major browser vendors should agree to respect this, and all ISPs should be legally required to go along with it rather than pocketing everything.

criddell 11y ago
I think that's a terrible idea. Should the people who sell trucks and airplanes to UPS also be entitled to some percentage of UPS' profit?
marak830 11y ago
Thats a horrible idea. Wouldnt that require enforced tracking? What about people who put up free blogs? I'm sprry but if your business model isnt working online, then you need a new business model. If its not working, asking for a new system wont save it.