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Would You Pay A Penny Per Page?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-about-penny-per-annoying-popup-ad dept.

nebby writes "How Stuff Works is running an article regarding the "penny per page" model for web site compensation. It sounds like a very viable solution, being simple to understand, transparent to use, and fair to the webmasters and users involved. The only downside to it is that it would require a massive effort on the part of web sites, standards bodies, and/or ISPs to switch over. I know that methods of online payment have been brought up before, but in searching on Google I found no information about any groups or companies looking seriously into moving to this model. I was wondering if any such groups or initiatives have been put together, and if not, why not? :) It doesn't take much to imagine the possibilities of what the web could become if this were put in place ..." Penny-per-page actually sounds like one of the better micropayment ideas I've heard, but is just as vaporous as any of the others so far.

2 of 703 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But would we... by jayhawk88 · · Score: 3, Redundant

    This was my first thought as well (though not quite the same)...

    If you go to some kind of "pay-per-page" system, what's to stop web sites from pulling all kinds of dirty tricks to drive up the page views. Already sites use pop-up windows and other such things. They also have a tendancy to break down their articles into multiple pages, so you have to click through multiple times to drive up their banner-count.

    These are just little annoyances if the page content is free, but they become unacceptable if I'm paying.

  2. It's not whether you will pay a penny/page... by DragonPup · · Score: 2, Redundant

    It's whether you WANT to charge them a penny/page. Honestly, you think it's wise to charge someone's credit card 1 penny at a time? What about transaction fees with the cardholders' company? And think of the billing statement mess. "Honey, why are there 213 charges for a penny to something called 'OSDN'? Didn someone steal your card over the internet?" *Calls credit card company, who removes the 213 charges, slaps OSDN with the fraud fee for chargebacks*

    As for whether I pay, it's simple, I use the donate button on many pages I frequent often. SomethingAwful.com is a good example of a site I support.

    -Henry

    --
    "Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47