Would You Pay A Penny Per Page?

nebby writes "How Stuff Works is running an article regarding the "penny per page" model for web site compensation. It sounds like a very viable solution, being simple to understand, transparent to use, and fair to the webmasters and users involved. The only downside to it is that it would require a massive effort on the part of web sites, standards bodies, and/or ISPs to switch over. I know that methods of online payment have been brought up before, but in searching on Google I found no information about any groups or companies looking seriously into moving to this model. I was wondering if any such groups or initiatives have been put together, and if not, why not? :) It doesn't take much to imagine the possibilities of what the web could become if this were put in place ..." Penny-per-page actually sounds like one of the better micropayment ideas I've heard, but is just as vaporous as any of the others so far.

Re:But would we...

[pagsz]

If you go to some kind of "pay-per-page" system, what's to stop web sites from pulling all kinds of dirty tricks to drive up the page views. Already sites use pop-up windows and other such things. They also have a tendancy to break down their articles into multiple pages, so you have to click through multiple times to drive up their banner-count.

From the article (Q & A section [howstuffworks.com]):

"

What would prevent a site from having a page that pops up 100 new pages when you land on it to ream the unsuspecting visitor out of a dollar?
The billing mechanism should track for and eliminate charges for that, as well as for pages that auto-refresh themselves, error and non-existant pages, pages arrived at by pressing the back button, duplicate pages and so on."

I would assume that the "penny-per-page" charge would only be incurred when a page is specifically requested by the viewer. Also, in reference to splitting content across pages, if sites chop things up too much, nobody will go to them, and they lose their cash flow. It's not a perfect system (what is), but it does present an intruiging idea. It could work.

Remember, I am an idiot, so I really don't have any idea what I'm talking about,

Re:But would we...

[fireweaver]

After having read all the commentary, I get the impression that many people did not bother to read the article. Some of the objections to penny per page websites were addressed in the article -- NEAR IT'S END -- where it appears our dear readers feared to tread.

The whole penny per page notion is based on the FIRST visit to a page.

Objections raised include, but not limited to:
[1] Autoreload pages: No extra charge.
[2] Popups: No charge.
[3] Charge accounting would most likely be done by uour ISP who -already- has your credit into.
[4] Hitting "back" button -- no charge.

So kiddies, go back and read the WHOLE article.

reality

[afidel]

The biggest problem is that the author is not living in the real world. The biggest problem with micropayments is that the cost of administering the system is more than the cash flowing through it. Every transaction on the visa network costs ~$.45 so any payment less than that the cost of the transaction is more than the transaction itself. While the visa network may not be the most efficient model possible, it is arguably a pretty damn good international financial network. There will be some more efficient system developed. This system it will still have a floor of how cheap a payment can be, and I can assure you it will be a lot higher than a penny. The other problem with micropayments is that most of the info on the net just isn't worth paying for directly.

Check out www.clickshare.com

[Shishak]

There is a company that does per-click billing. It can be either per page or per article. They have been refining the technology for several years. It works, is anonymous, you give them your credit card and the content provider bills through them. You don't need to give the content provider any credit information. In fact you don't need to give them any personal information just your clickshare ID.

Check it out www.clickshare.com [clickshare.com]

what's a proxy

[mydigitalself]

need i say more?

Actual cost of serving a page:

[seanadams.com]

Moderate size web page, included embedded objects: 100Kbytes, or 800Kbit

1Mbit bandwidth & shelf space: about $400/mo
Typical average daily throughput for a web site that serves 1Mbit at midday: 0.75 * 1Mbit == 750Kbps

So total pages served in a month:

750*60*60*24*30 / 800 = 2,430,000

At 1 cent per page, you'd gross $24,300 for the month.

Total cost of bandwidth per page:

400 / 2,430,000 = $0.000165


And you thought the dot-coms were out of hand before...

Subscription model is still better.

[Maul]

So many problems with the penny per page system. At first it sounds reasonable, but what if I get redirected to an incorrect link, or get redirected through several pages? Do pop up windows count as a page? What about loading images? 1 cent per HTTP request is going to be way too expensive.

The better solution is a subscription model, and only through web pages with valuable content. Just like a magazine, I should be able to view what I've paid for unlimited amount of times.

Not to say there aren't problems with this model either. It'd be a pain in the rear end to manage the database that says who paid for what. So it is either have a really complex database, or lock someone from all data when their subscription ends, regardless. Also, figuring out a fair price to pay is a bit tough. Should it be a yearly subscription, just like a magazine? Should there still be ads for those who subscribe? After all, I pay for magazine subscriptions - and those still have tons of crappy ads in them.

Unfortunately, the only way to find out what will work is by trying it... and that puts people who want to try it at risk of it not working.