

Charging for things on the web - jcsalterego
http://dcurtis.me/2011/10/06/charging-for-things-on-the-web/

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michaelchisari
A somewhat off-topic rant, because the site is down, but hear me out:

What I wouldn't give for a decent micropayments platform. One that would allow
me to pay $0.50 a month for an ad-free social network. Facebook currently
averages around $0.25 a month in ad revenue per user, so it'd double that
income. Let me pay $0.25 a month to subscribe to a blog. Let me pay $1.50 a
month to subscribe to the New York Times. Let me tip $0.10 for an article I
like, or pay $0.75 for lifetime access to a forum.

We've heard a lot about how "if you're not paying, then you are the product."
Well, give me the option to pay, and never have to see an ad, or have my data
mined and sold to advertisers. I would pay gladly.

I looked into different ways to do this, and the tech would not be hard. It's
really more of a business and legal issue than anything.

But I really think it would change the web, and for the better. Sometimes,
really cheap is better than free. As in beer, anyways.

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thirdhaf
It seems like one of the prerequisites for a workable micropayment system is
an overhaul of interbank payment processing system or establishment of a new
one. I have absolutely no knowledge of the current system but I'd be shocked
if the same system that manages $100k+ transactions and the risks associated
with that can cost effectively process transactions in the <10c range.

There was a comment on the same level as this one referring to flattr.com
which seems to be one attempt at a micropayment system. Does anyone have
experience with this service or failing that an idea why that comment got
absolutely buried under downvotes?

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michaelchisari
I have an idea on how to handle it in bulk payments, as opposed to
individualized transactions. But really, this is not the kind of space where a
startup could compete. You'd need someone with the legal and financial backing
the size of Google to make it happen.

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icebraining
Flattr does exactly that (bulk payments). It's just not well adapted for
payments since you don't pay a fixed amount to each website but a fraction of
a certain fixed amount divided by all the buttons you've clicked on that
month.

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jasonfried
Charging for things forces you to be better. That's the right kind of
pressure.

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pedalpete
I often struggle with this as well. It is just so much easier to give
something away than charge for it, and if you want your products to be used,
you try to limit the pay barrier.

Dustin is absolutely right that people will pay, but you have to make it easy
for them.

I always look at the success of iTunes as the prime example. There is no
shortage of free music (even if you don't include stealing), and yet people
have happily paid to buy their music because it doesn't ask very much of them
at all.

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notJim
This is a topic I'm quite interested in. I've had many product/project ideas
that I think have merit, and a few that I think could be a viable business,
but I simply cannot get behind the idea of giving something away for free for
the ad revenue. To me, when I build a product, my personal ethos (and this is
personal to me, not a moral judgment by any means) is that I want to build
something for my customers that they will love and pay for. If that means I
have fewer customers, then so be it, but dammit I want my customers to be my
customers, not _my product_.

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MatthewPhillips
My Chrome Web Store app has 4000 users, in a couple of months. The previous
pay version has about 15. Charging for stuff on the web works if you have a
massive reach that comes with things like being on TechCrunch.

This project also benefited from being a vanity purchase.

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mise
Stripe is cool. There are other quick ways without much programming. Slap up a
PayPal button, and connect it with E-Junkie, and you can be selling a download
product today.

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alexwolfe
Design is really well done. Over what period of time did it take you to
develop the site? I know you said 400-500 hours but was that over 3 months, 6
months, a year?

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revorad
That's really great. Over how many months, did you make that money?

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nicksergeant
Mirror?

