
Ask HN: Can this way we support publishers and readers, and also get rid of ads? - techaddict009
People use  adblockers as they hate ads or don&#x27;t want to see it. But if this continues the day is not away when publishers will die due to this. So how can we solve this problem?<p>A browser plugin where people say pay monthly 10$ and can view 5000 articles. Now whichever site they visit their (who are partner with this program) will be given some revenue. Say 2$ for 1000 readers. This way they can earn money and also will not need to have any ads on their site.<p>And users also will not need to pay individual blogger or author.<p>What do you guys think about it?<p>Edit: Just found Google is working on similar approach: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;contributor&#x2F;welcome&#x2F;
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gradschool
I think this is a great idea and I agree with you that it eliminates the
problems mentioned in other comments. I like it even better than whatever
google is probably doing unless google is making it possible for people to use
theirs without signing up for a google account. (I haven't looked into it but
I'd be astonished if that were the case.) Contrary to another comment, paying
a lump sum in one place would seem clearly more convenient to me than paying
individual fees to every web site I visit, especially if I visit them
infrequently or just once. Furthermore, I don't think it needs a revolution to
get this going. You could start small by offering it to web publishers in
addition to their existing ad revenue streams. The only thing that would deter
me from using this plugin would be the privacy issue. Even though this would
be the simplest way to implement it, I don't want a cookie that uniquely
identifies me to every web site so that you the plugin developer know which
account to debit. Maybe some smart person could figure out a better solution.

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edwhitesell
For me, the problem isn't directly the ads. I started tuning them out long
ago, well before the time of ad blockers. I really don't care what the ads
look like.

The problems are: \- Some ads are very intrusive \- Some ads are malicious

Those are problems because the content owners are usually hands-off when it
comes to displaying ads. They say things like "I can plug in this javascript
from site x and I'll get paid!" Sure, you can, but if you're not curating the
ads in the same way you're curating your content, something isn't going to
align.

People will view content (and advertising) if it's valuable to them.
Interesting, engaging, technically relevant, etc. That should apply to
everything on your page, including ads.

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techaddict009
Yeah but dont you think solution I have suggested will solve that problem?

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edwhitesell
If I'm willing to pay for content, why wouldn't I just pay the content owner
directly? I already pay for WSJ, NYTimes and others.

There could be an opportunity to enable content owners to more easily accept
payments, but is the opportunity large enough (and the costs to the content
owner low enough) to justify it?

What's the model look like for that? Are there enough content owners/creators
that would pay (or revenue share) someone else to monitize their content in a
more meaningful way for users? Let's say "Blogger XYZ" decides to charge $1USD
per article (likely a VERY high number). Is he/she going to give up 30% to
someone else to handle the payment/settlement?

Don't companies like Wordpress already have plug-ins for PayPal or Stripe to
accept payments too?

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bobajeff
The problem isn't the ads themselves. It's what they do to the experience of
browsing. Increase loading times, reduce responsiveness, use up metered data
(important on mobile), spy on you, install malware.

There are too many bad actors out there using ads Networks for malicious
things or just don't care to pay attention to the user experience. So it just
makes good sense to by default turn off the features that are being misused
rather than give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

The solution of using micro transactions doesn't address the issue of bad
actors ruining the system for everyone else. So I think it might be killed
faster than ads.

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techaddict009
well using this plugin there will be no ads served. So dont you think this
will solve problems a lot?

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bobajeff
Only if the plugin blocks ads/trackers etc.

Otherwise users are not only seeing ads, getting spied on and running up their
data but also paying for the privilege. So in effect then users will have
another thing block or ignore.

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techaddict009
Just found google is testing something similar:
[https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/](https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/)

