Dear all,
This post concerns a new Internet browser called Brave.
It has made me think about what that term ‘new content’ or perhaps better put,
‘original content’ is, and how that applies to personal or company websites as
opposed to sharing or re-sharing on social media platforms.
First, let me briefly explain Brave so as to preface my
thoughts. It is a browser that offers advanced protection and privacy with the
ability to manage advertisements, increase speed and security, and for the
benefit of this post, allow publisher payments. To be more exact, it has a beta
service that allows people to set up a cyrptocurrency micro-payments system,
designed to pay people (websites) based on the amount of times you are visited
and the amount of time spent. I in turn, as the browser user, can set up my
preferences to process micro-payments to the sites I visit.
You may be unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies and it’s not
an easy subject to summarise. Even though I’ve been interested in them for a
few years, I’m very much a laymen and I find it hard to explain the basics. All
I’ll say for now is that the original and most well known cryptocurrency is
called Bitcoin and there is an entire world of financial technology innovation
going on and although it is still early days I’m convinced it will become an
acknowledged world currency/asset in the years to come. At the time of posting
this blog the price of a single Bitcoin is $920 / £734. In terms of
micropayments we would only be sending a fraction of a Bitcoin, possibly as
little as a few cents/pence. The actual way in which Brave works I will let you
learn from their website as they obviously go into much more detail than I ever
could. Check it out here: https://brave.com
The idea behind micropayments is what I’m interested in.
What does the future hold for people who create original content? At present,
you may be earning income from website and social media advertising, referrals
and affiliate programs and other payments made from content publishers either
in fixed fees or royalty sharing and things like that. You may also be earning
income from your own sites if you have a subscription or membership program
i.e. you charge people to access your website content. Perhaps it may take the
form of a token system or Patreon type access.
Whichever way, it is possible to earn money and you may be very successful at sharing content on multiple platforms and all of that complicated digital stuff that I don’t really know much about… but as someone who is interested in writing, it is an nice thought that there may be a way to earn money simply by managing your own work on your own website without the need for membership or subscription fees or posting on multiple platforms.
This is purely abstract thinking here so it’s all pie-in-the-sky
for the time being, don’t think I’m trying to promote anything. I’m just
imagining an Internet of the future and what opportunities that may hold.
Say for instance everyone in the entire world has totally accepted cryptocurrency micropayments and it is as normal as contactless payments or checking your bank balance on your mobile phone. This is a world where we all have digital wallets and are set up to receive Bitcoin (or any other of the hundreds of digital currencies) based on visitor numbers/duration.
Why would a person visit your website?
What would draw repeating visitors?
I’m not talking about visiting your Facebook page or your YouTube channel or other content providers, or reading your articles that have been published in online magazines, or other dominant media networks. I’m talking about your individual website.
Is there enough original content, and enough new content,
for people to want to come back?
As someone interested in writing this makes me think
about a couple of things. Am I able to create enough content of a high enough
quality to make people’s visits worthwhile? Instead of blogging on Blogger or
Wordpress should I simply blog on my website? Should I write a monthly/quarterly
short story and publish it solely on my website? Instead of using a site such
as Wattpad, shoud I share chapters of a new book on my website? What other
media could I regularly produce that could sit on my website without being
shared elsewhere? That way I know that the only way people can access new
content by me, would be to visit my website and therefore justify
micropayments?
One question that strikes me is why would you set up a micropayment allowance to a website and not simply pay a subscription? If you know you will visit a site x number of times in a week or a month then why not just subscribe to them? First off, I didn’t even realise how adverse I am to subscriptions until I thought about it while writing this. Subscriptions tend to be a significant amount, perhaps £10 a month for instance, regardless of how many times you visit. If I pay £10 a month for all the sites I visit then I’ll be broke in no time. I already have stopped paying for newspaper subscriptions. As an example, when The Independent became an online subscription service only, I didn’t take it up even though I was buying their physical newspapers every week. The reason being is that I don’t like committing. That’s probably a new thing, I’m not sure. When I was growing up, it was all about memberships. Perhaps Netflix got it so right that there is no accepting anything less: Incredibly high level of quality and service with immediate cancellations and multiple platform access for £6 a month. That’s a balance that in my opinion favours the customer. Looking back, as a kid I would have to subscribe to magazines and pay a fortune for pretty rubbish content, with all the terms & conditions favouring the business I am using and having painful clauses and customer service. That goes for most things, gym membership, VHS/DVD rentals (screw you late fees), library membership, mobile contracts, and so on (remember how much postage and packaging used to cost!?!? Life before digital downloads… ) Life is changing and as we don’t seem to be as tied down to things anymore, we are much more fluid to change providers (still got a way to go of course) and it seems that online memberships may be heading that way too. I don’t want to tie myself into contracts if I don’t need to.
Although saying that, if prices go down then it will be
tempting. For instance, I’m not much of a gamer but I do know that there are
lots of online worlds that require subscriptions (off the top of my head, World
of Warcraft comes to mind) but they seem to be pretty reasonable, especially
when the initial cost of the game purchase isn’t too high. I’m not saying it’s
great, it’s still expensive of course, but it is much more of a choice if you
are paying £10 a month for 24/7 access to brand new content and multi-player
interaction. Take that one step further and make it so that you only actually
ever pay something when you are actually using a service, but that payment is
automated so you don’t have to do anything - and you know what limits you have
set so you never spend more than you budget - then we are nearing the world of
crypto micro-payments. If a person decides to go on holiday for two weeks then
subscription or membership money isn’t wasted because you aren’t paying, if you
change jobs or have a baby or move house or undertake any activity whereby you
need to save money for a while, then there is no going through the aggravation
of cancelling multiple subscriptions (or more likely, not bothering and feeling
mighty pissed that you frittering away money) and all the time that entails.
You simply don’t use their service and you therefore don’t pay, and when
the time comes you feel ready to use their services again, you just go back.
I’m not going to get into the debate about how long this
would take. And I have no idea that if this adoption takes place how long it
will be from then before there is any definitive evidence that sharing content
on your own site will earn anywhere near the amounts you may be used to.
And I’m also not saying that sites such as YouTube would ever lose their
position and make it viable for you to be found as an individual (what a tiny speck
in the digital universe we are in comparison). I have no idea about this side
of things. Search and discovery I am clueless on. All I know is that it gives
me a sense of purpose to consider a future in which I publish my own content
and I am rewarded for that content without having to sell advertising space or
use other income streams that have nothing to do with the actual content I
make. It makes me feel like I should be upping my game and that there are
possibilities. (and for the purposes of this blog I have taken sponsorship out
of the equation)
For a long time it’s been the way that for the latest
news you visit social media pages of an individual or an organisation rather
than their website, even if the website is great. (With the exception of huge
corporations such as the BBC) There’s nothing wrong with that and it makes
total sense to see a collection of your favourite sites in one place, but of
course you are seeing the layout and theme and branding of the content
distributor rather than the original author. It’s a shame in a way because I
enjoy seeing the individual design and creativity that goes into individual
websites.
That’s obviously not going to change for a long time
though and I’m not in anyway saying one is better than the other. It’s all
about habits, ease of use, ease of display, speed, connectivity and what makes
life easier for you. It’s also about taking control – do you want the power to
allow advertisements and sacrifice the positives that come from it in full
knowledge of the outcomes? I mean, it should be your choice shouldn’t it?
I think I ‘like’ around 2000 pages on Facebook and it
seems impossible an idea to have to surf through 2000 individual sites every
day but we don’t have to think in terms of all-or-nothing. Perhaps it could
work for your top ten individual authors. Your top ten individual artists. Your
top ten musicians. It could be a way of saying to your favourite independent
content providers, here’s my few pence for doing what you do, keep it up.
Perhaps paying people for content directly and seeing that as a genuine way of
reflecting your output is a way to go back to individuality and away from the
colossus juggernauts that rule us. That still doesn’t get away from the fact
that sometimes it’s nice to have everything in one place. If you want to scroll
through Facebook to see all the latest news from the hundreds of the sites your
follow in a quick two minute coffee break then fantastic, of course that’s
great, I don’t see that changing much. But again, why not have the best of both
worlds?
Going back to the beginning, it will never work unless
there is a reason for people to visit my website. So I need to think about
this. What could I put on there that I don’t share on Facebook or Twitter or
Pinterest or YouTube, etc? How will people find me? Sounds so needy when I put
it like that.
Something to think about for development over the next
few years.
Have a great weekend,
R.G Rankine