[chewxy]

Ever thought of advertorials? Advertorials + rev share would be a good idea had you not listed "moral flexibility" in your list of constraints.

I noticed you host John Quiggin. I used to read him a lot. This is how he would use his blog to make money: sell his books to his blog audience. Tyler Cowen, the guy behind Marginal Revolution used to have this trick where he would give you access to his private cooking blog if you bought his book. Some form of managed affiliate system would be my best guess.

Also, mesothelioma is soooo 2005. :P

[jacques_chester]

When I wrote my honours project (which was the first version of the tech I developed) I mentioned merchandising; it's pretty hit-driven though.

I personally make money on affiliate links to Amazon. By which I mean "I get a minute subsidy on my book habit".

Some of the bloggers make a few dollars on advertising, but the amount has steadily fallen because they aren't sufficiently narrowly focused to be worth finding a niche advertiser. And they aren't sufficiently widely read that a more general A/B brand-awareness advertiser would pay much over open-market CPM.

[chewxy]

You seem to have found the problem by yourself. IMO this would be the trough of sorrow[0] for any startup with advertising as a monetization plan - the growth but no growth phase.

In my blog post I mentioned that here there are basically two paths to go - both of which you have identified. If you want to stick with advertising, choose one?

[0]http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/03/the-startup-curve.html

[jacques_chester]

I am choosing to invent a new model, actually :)

[chewxy]

pray share (microsubscription has been done before as you said). How would you do it?

[jacques_chester]

Email me.

Edit: "invent a new model" is hubristic code for "independently invent a new model that actually can be analogised to some pre-internet models".