5 ms·

Somebody really needs to make a startup where, when you visit a page, you can either view ads, or opt out by paying a really teeny tiny amount of money. (And wh

by javert 14y ago

Somebody really needs to make a startup where, when you visit a page, you can either view ads, or opt out by paying a really teeny tiny amount of money. (And where you can set it to "always opt out and just pay for my damned content.") Problem? You can't really charge people tiny fractions of a cent effectively. Solution? Bit... wait for it... coin.

oinksoft 14y ago
Does that then make somebody with an ad blocker a thief? Because I don't like the sound of that at all.
- diminoten 14y ago
  Why not? It'd be even less thievery than stealing, say, a toothpick from a restaurant, but what's the effective difference?
- alttab 14y ago
  These days you could simply cover the right side of your monitor with a small piece of cardboard and never see ads again. OR - simply don't look. A part of me thinks non-adword based advertising is going to implode because we are creating a generation of internet users that have been trained through high-use to simply ignore ads.
  - kaybe 14y ago
    A solution (e.g. used in newspapers) is to make the ads like normal content (just saying "ad" above in fine print). (On the other hand, I have trouble reading the webpage of a big electronics store because their whole site looks like an obnoxious ad and is filtered by my brain.. )
- javert 14y ago
  Yes. I don't like it either, but you can't have your pie and eat it, too.
jacques_chester 14y ago
I'm working on something very much like that.
- javert 14y ago
  Bravo :D By the way, I think the sweet spot for this is online journalism, where there is a need for very high-quality content, but ads never have been sufficient and never will be. In other words, a way to save our beloved newspapers.
  - jacques_chester 14y ago
    My original source of inspiration was "how do I make money off the blog network I run, and give some money to my bloggers as well?" The model I have in mind will suit news media, sites like PA, discussion fora like HN and web applications as well. In my draft pitch I say that I am proposing to "reinvent the internet economy" and I feel that I'm only engaging in a modest amount of hyperbole.
    - javert 14y ago
      That is fabulous. I want to develop a site that shows statistics of a certain kind (won't get into that here), and it would be great if I could charge people a very very small fee to see them. I don't know if your product would suit that need as well. I was trying to think of helpful suggestions, but couldn't really think of any. The only thing I can think to tell you is that if the business involves bitcoin, you could probably get a lot of loyal early adopters and raise some decent seed funding at http://glbse.com http://glbse.com (however, it's a legally gray area right now).
      - jacques_chester 14y ago
        > I don't know if your product would suit that need as well. Somewhat. If you install my software on your server, you get a portion of money from my user's subscription. I call the model "microsubscription". As for bitcoin, I'm trying to be as currency-agnostic as possible (not least because I'm in Australia). However I probably couldn't support it right out of the gate because the inter-currency exchange market is not as well developed as it is for major currencies. For example, suppose I have website X, expecting to be paid in AUD and subscriber Y who wants to pay in bitcoin. At settlement time, it will be hard to find a buyer for bitcoin in AUD, so I will probably have to go through USD first. I'm not hugely keen on that because of the complexity and transaction costs.

by javert 14y ago

oinksoft 14y ago

Does that then make somebody with an ad blocker a thief? Because I don't like the sound of that at all.

diminoten 14y ago
Why not? It'd be even less thievery than stealing, say, a toothpick from a restaurant, but what's the effective difference?
alttab 14y ago
These days you could simply cover the right side of your monitor with a small piece of cardboard and never see ads again. OR - simply don't look. A part of me thinks non-adword based advertising is going to implode because we are creating a generation of internet users that have been trained through high-use to simply ignore ads.
- kaybe 14y ago
  A solution (e.g. used in newspapers) is to make the ads like normal content (just saying "ad" above in fine print). (On the other hand, I have trouble reading the webpage of a big electronics store because their whole site looks like an obnoxious ad and is filtered by my brain.. )
javert 14y ago
Yes. I don't like it either, but you can't have your pie and eat it, too.

jacques_chester 14y ago

I'm working on something very much like that.

javert 14y ago
Bravo :D By the way, I think the sweet spot for this is online journalism, where there is a need for very high-quality content, but ads never have been sufficient and never will be. In other words, a way to save our beloved newspapers.
- jacques_chester 14y ago
  My original source of inspiration was "how do I make money off the blog network I run, and give some money to my bloggers as well?" The model I have in mind will suit news media, sites like PA, discussion fora like HN and web applications as well. In my draft pitch I say that I am proposing to "reinvent the internet economy" and I feel that I'm only engaging in a modest amount of hyperbole.
  - javert 14y ago
    That is fabulous. I want to develop a site that shows statistics of a certain kind (won't get into that here), and it would be great if I could charge people a very very small fee to see them. I don't know if your product would suit that need as well. I was trying to think of helpful suggestions, but couldn't really think of any. The only thing I can think to tell you is that if the business involves bitcoin, you could probably get a lot of loyal early adopters and raise some decent seed funding at http://glbse.com http://glbse.com (however, it's a legally gray area right now).
    - jacques_chester 14y ago
      > I don't know if your product would suit that need as well. Somewhat. If you install my software on your server, you get a portion of money from my user's subscription. I call the model "microsubscription". As for bitcoin, I'm trying to be as currency-agnostic as possible (not least because I'm in Australia). However I probably couldn't support it right out of the gate because the inter-currency exchange market is not as well developed as it is for major currencies. For example, suppose I have website X, expecting to be paid in AUD and subscriber Y who wants to pay in bitcoin. At settlement time, it will be hard to find a buyer for bitcoin in AUD, so I will probably have to go through USD first. I'm not hugely keen on that because of the complexity and transaction costs.