

The End of My Paid Subscription Content Experiment - razin
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/11/the-end-of-my-paid-subscription-content-experiment.html

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FluidDjango
Interesting thoughts about the psychology of the writer - how s/he's affected
by the "payment" or "firewall" status of the site. Feld's reactions match what
I've sort of expected from myself if in a write-for-fee mode.

Most other discussions have been geared toward the _reader's_ reaction. I
think the impact on authors is equally significant (and might need to be
addressed differently?).

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robryan
I think you need to come at it more from the mindset that it's a small amount
of money that people don't mind losing if it doesn't turn out, then you can be
more natural and unfiltered about your thoughts. I think it also helps to
think of the small payments people are paying as allowing you a little more
freedom in having the experiences and thought which you are writing about.

I like this explanation of using letterly: <http://rosshill.com.au/letterly/>

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puredemo
I highlight text as I read and found the highlighter popup very distracting
and annoying.

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hartror
I do this too and stay off NYT for that reason.

Also my girlfriend doesn't watch me read for the same reason :)

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preek
The highlighter would have killed my interest if not for readability. It is
incredibly annoying to read any decent portion of consistent text with the
highlighter turned on.

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Supermighty
While I find it admirable that the author wants to charge for quality content
it really isn't his decision what is worthy of being paid for. It is his
audience who is the final arbitrator of what is worth their $1.99 a month.

There are after all a ton of shitty things being bought and sold for much
more.

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zackattack
i like the idea of paid content and wish it were more abundant on the web. for
example, i would pay Venkatesh Rao to hurry up with more posts in his Gervais
Principle series and i am glad to pay $5 per. actually, come to think of it,
$5 seems like a lot.. $2 for a bad one and $5 for a good one, all right.

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Dylanlacey
I think a lot of people balk because the nominal cost of content online is
"free", including content that is supposed to cost money, ala BT.

I don't have a problem with paid content but I'm never sure if it'll be worth
it, because I find testimonials honestly less then useless (I mistrust them)
and I can't check a physical 'thing' before I buy.

I do like the idea of variable pricing, perhaps a cost to enter then a fixed
variable cost for your "enthusiasm" for that content?

