[HuginnMuninn]

Has anyone attempted to quantify a rough cost for me to just pay for the http request I'm making and get rid of the middlemen?

I look at some of my spur of the moment purchases in shame, yet paying say $0.001 to browse a page somehow is the unthinkable?

Most don't like ads, as others have said they add latency and are easily subject to fraudulent clicks for the advertiser.

I get the feeling that content-creators and end-users are on the same side here and those in the middle are in the wrong. Not saying get rid of all ads, but it's amazing in 2017 there's no easy pay-to-play on the internet.

[brad0]

I quite like this idea. I run a basic http server with a nodejs backend. It gets ~3000 hits a month. It costs around $6 on AWS. It costs around 0.2c per request.

It would be simple to build a system that charges per use - most SaaS companies do this.

The problem is that someone is willing to pay for that content and repost it on the "free web". 99% of people will read the free version (see freemium mobile games).

While content creators agree that they would prefer to charge directly for their content, we live in the attention economy. This means if you don't make yourself hyper accessible then people will go to other places to get their dopamine hit.

[nextlevelwizard]

I would never be willing to pay per page view. I could pay some specified price on yearly basis, but per page is way out of the question.

I'm fine with web sites that use adblocker-blockers. I just don't read their content. Imo that is the way of the future. Obviously these "publications" will lose readers, but maybe we also get rid of most of the junk that's floating around.

[HuginnMuninn]

My problem is advertently blocking the small sites just to get at the big sites. It's not fair, and some really good content gets screwed over inadvertently by it. I am certainly guilty of this.

Adblocking is the hammer that thinks everything is a nail

[HuginnMuninn]

Excellent points. Seems I was oversimplifying a single part of a bigger problem.

I want to pay, but never feel satisfied with time-based subscription models, especially for news, would be so happy to pay upfront for 1000 articles, no time limit, yet to see that offered.

[lern_too_spel]

https://contributor.google.com/v/beta

Alternatively, you could set up a bidder that bids for inventory that has paying customers' cookies and doesn't show an ad when it wins an auction.

[HuginnMuninn]

Thanks, this is cool, for a fiver I'm in.

Not many sites, but it's enough, will see how it goes. My main business news website is listed there, which is nice.

Edit: ok hang on was very confusing at first, hopefully someone at google has a look at the layout, really comes across as though you can only use the $5 for one website, but you have to add other sites you want.

Also unsure about recurring payments, that should be opt-in.

Just bought 500 articles. Awesome. What a ride!

Contributor page gave me a 404 trying to go to direct to the website I added.

Restarted browser, no ublock origin, the ads are still there. Ahh the folly of beta testing.

Good game. Will try later.