David Pogue has taken to Scientific American (of all outlets) to address adblockers and revenue for online content creators. Pogue recognizes that one of the reasons for the popularity of ad blockers is the slow load speeds and wasted bandwidth associated with the multiple ads that appear within some content. He also recognizes the growing “arms race” between ad blockers and services that block ad blockers.
Pogue proposes that it may be time to reexamine micropayments. The idea would be that those committing to a micropayments system would avoid ads by providing a small payment when viewing content. Micropayments are not new, but have not taken off. Pogue suggests that now may be the time,
You may participate in a micropayment system if you use Amazon and pay for an “all you can eat (read)” Kindle plan or if you read content as part of a Prime membership. At least I would describe these plans as a version of micropayment. In these plans, you pay a flat fee and read at no additional cost. The author(s) is compensated a small amount for each page you view. The amount works out to less than the author would receive for purchasing the book, but you also do not get to retain permanent access to the book.
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