To the bloggers, newsletter authors, and other content creators why don't you sell content for X cents apiece?

Micropayments for content do exist, that's what ads and affiliations are. That's how Youtubers get paid for instance.

I guess you're talking about direct micropayments between consumers and creators. Honestly, I think the big reason why we haven't seen more adoption is that nobody has made a proper system that is easy to use and fair for everyone involved.

The Brave browser has a payment system integrated but it's not very popular and will probably not work because it cannot be used with other browsers:

https://publishers.basicattentiontoken.org/

https://creators.brave.com/sign-up

Obviously the Medium model doesn't work. We don't have any problem paying a Netflix subscription because we get good valuable content in exchange. But Medium doesn't care about the content. There is no editorial line, zero assurance on quality unlike, say, the NYT.

I think for the micropayment thing to work it should be a solution that is super easy for the consumer to use and can be implemented in any blog. I'm thinking something like you buy $10 in credit, and then there is a button mid article that allows you to pay $0.10 or something to keep reading. This way you only pay for what you want, and mid article you have a pretty good idea if you want to keep reading.

Something like this wouldn't be too difficult to develop. The problem is the business model. Would it be ethical to get 10% every time someone buys credit? What if creators instead paid a small monthly fee to be able to receive micropayments since they are using a service and not getting a business partner that eats a chunk of their revenue?

As a content creator, I don't use micropayments because I don't want to impose cognitive transaction costs on my readers: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/micropayments-and-mental-transaction-costs.pdf

I started a newsletter because I don't have the time capacity right now to create a course.

By creating a newsletter I will be creating content that I could potentially use for a course, if I choose to. But at the end of the day, creating a newsletter creates an audience, which helps me connect with my people and create relevant content.

Courses are well known to have very low completion rates too, this always plays into my consideration. Sure I want to make money, but I don't feel comfortable making money if people aren't getting value.

I've seen a few implement this. The option should be for both. Micropayments are attractive if the content is inviting. However, the more choices you offer, the more difficult it is to sell them all.

So best answer I've seen comes down to this:

You don't know what you're buying until after you buy it

The micropayment model has worked incredibly well in video games recently, but a user knows exactly what they're buying when they buy it. E.g. they see the character skin in the store then pay to use it in the game. With blogs, newsletters, and other written content if you see what you're buying before you buy it then it's free. Hiding things behind a paywall just means there's a chance the customer will be dissapointed.

So why do people pay subscriptions to newsletters/blogs then? The same problem still exists?

• Free trials work - a user will trust content after that
• You're joining a community and there is trust in a community
• You can't know the content, but you can know the author - creator <- consumer relationship

Thanks for reading!