Re:Ask YC: Your thoughts on this micropayments idea?
by AlexeyMK on Sunday October 12, 2008 @01:37AM
(#330130)
Actually, how about this:
Integrate with AdBlockPlus. If you pay, there are no ads ANYWHERE. Then, collect donations for EVERYONE. As a blogger, I don't need to have signed up to you, the money is being collected just the same.
Then, begin contacting bloggers and letting them know that they have X in an account with you, and they'd probably want to collect it. That would work. That would work and it would be best done by the AdBlockPlus people.
Edit: AdBlockPlus is (from what I gather on their website) OpenSource and currently lacking a business model. You could probably start working from there on, like AdBlockPlus, Good Samaritan Edition or something
To subscribe, browsers have to go out of their way (interrupt their normal browsing experience) and join in. There's a better user experience by simple installing AdBlockPlus. And if you ARE willing to go out of your way, just use TipJoy or a similar service to donate to the site - PayPal would be better, actually, given the number of people who already have PayPal accounts.
The parallel is with music, I'd think: You're looking to launch a subscription service when most people will just download the content for free or buy what they want to support off of iTunes. Only, your case is even worse: Napster/Rhapsody are doing moderately well with subscription models, and to get the rights to those subscription models, they have deals in place with the 4 major labels. The blogging (even the A-list blogging) community is much less consolidated - you'd have to strike an incredible amount of agreements to make your service universal.
But you're thinking in the right direction.