[chmike]

Very interesting article. I had the same idea, but instead of completely eliminate ads for fans, I would sell the bandwidth at a high price or even with auction.

This ad bandiwdth has a high value for advertisers because of the occasional ad display, a campaing would have a higher visibility (no ad blindness effect). The fan's interests are well identified so that the ad can be focused. It will also make more sense for the fans and eventually be useful to them.

One can always trade member fee with add display, but one should keep the auction effect so that advertisers that pay a high fee still get through. The user could also increase its fee to make the ad barrier higher. This yields a competition.

I designed this business model for a startup using crowd sourcing, where fans contributing to the site would get back their fair share of ad revenue. They could use part of this revenue to increase the ad barrier. The idea was to create a vertuous circle that motivate users and advertisers to increase contribution.

I gave up because funding was too short and I was alone without much time to invest on it. And also because I wasn't sure it would work. So I'm glad to see the base idea is already practiced.

People should understand that flooding the web with ads is diluting its value. So one need ways to increase focus in the benefit of users and advertisers.