Hey HN: Jeff here along with Bill (bill_rr) and Thor (th0rgall) from Readup. We're on a mission to create a viable alternative to the ad-based monetization strategy that plagues the web today. The Readup apps function like a browser with a built-in ad blocker that is optimized for reading articles. What's new about our approach is that we are also tracking all reading activity on the platform down to the individual word. This enables us to:

1. Compensate writers on a per-read basis. Readup takes a 5% cut of subscription revenue and distributes the rest to the writers (and in the future, publishers) that you read, in proportion to the time you've spent reading them.

2. Rank articles based on deep reading activity rather than knee-jerk upvotes or likes in response to a headline.

3. Only allow those who have actually read an article to rate it and participate in the comments on it.

We launched our subscription service in May and are closing in on $1K MRR with an average subscription price of $9.46. The average number of articles read in full per month per subscriber is 14 which yields a median pay rate of $0.82 per read. We're really excited about scaling a business model that rewards high-quality writing instead of clickbait and makes it fun to read and comment online again!

Some suggested reading:

- Our privacy policy. You're our customer, not our product: https://readup.com/privacy

- How the read tracking tech works: https://blog.readup.com/2020/11/02/how-readup-knows-whether-...

- How we distribute subscription revenue to writers: https://blog.readup.com/2021/06/08/how-readup-pays-writers-w...

- Our read tracking patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11082508B2

Relevant HN discussion:

- Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19147316