14 thoughts on “Would You Pay A Subscription Fee To Have Access To Your Favorite Blog?”
There is a really big world outside of entertainment and industries where people DO pony up cash for insider details from bloggers. The stock market is just one example. A blog is simply a communication vehicle like a newsletter or forum. And one tool among many for subscription services.
Why do people pay ? To be ahead of the game or just to upgrade their skills.
But we’re not discussing PPV or PPC advertising. The discussion is about paying to access someone’s blog.
If I pay for a PPV showing of a Cricket Test between two teams, or subscribe to NHK to watch a Sumo Basho that is happening right now, that is unique content. Otherwise I can wait and access it later (sometimes much later). But the point is…it’s unique.
Some random person’s thoughts on the war in Iraq, Obama’s relationship with Rev. Wright or Jenna Bush’s upcoming wedding isn’t unique. Nor would the PPC ad on that blog directing me to a wedding gown or wedding planner website.
Give me unique, and I’ll consider paying. Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps. Sean Hannity? No way. Thomas Sowell or George Will? Perhaps. Susan Estridge (sp?)? Maybe. Daily Kos? No. Slate? No.
@TimW
If you were right, Pay Per View and Pay Per Cick would be dead by now.
But they are alive and thriving. In fact, there aren’t enough PPC and PPV options.
Everything can’t be free people…
Some details are worth a lot of money. No one will blog about some topics for Adsense pennies or CPM income. Member only websites/blogs can fill that void. I am not saying all membership sites are worth it though.
Marcel, so you are correct…everything cannot be free….but why would anyone pay for something they can get elsewhere, unless there was something unique about what they were paying for?
Look at TV news…if ABC started charging for their televised evening news, while NBC and CBS were free (cable TV subscription fees aside), why would anyone pay ABC, unless they were specifically accessing it for a particular viewpoint or on-air news reader (aka Anchorperson)? They wouldn’t.
While I won’t pay for a blog subscription unless the writer/owner/publisher had something unique, bloggers, by all means, charge for it. If you get subscribers, great. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be. Free Market and all that.
All great points. Try putting a donate button out there. I would guess, unless you said the site was going down, you wouldn’t much.
Enough resources are available in the internet to find out what you want.
I would never charge readers to read what I write and I would not pay to read what others write. If you are blogging then you intend it to be read by all. If its private keep a pen and diary at hand and leave blogging to those of us who want everyone to read what we think.
Unless a LOT of top bloggers start doing this, I think it would be a VERY bold and rather dangerous move. After all, is there any one blog that can offer something NO-ONE else can or would for free????
I would pay – and have paid – for premium content. In fact, I used to subscribe to two SEO sites’ premium content, and Teaching Sells, and have previously contemplated subscribing to some of the well-known advertising/ marketing sites. Some of these provide access to “blog” content for X days, then after that it’s only available to subscribers.
But as for paying to access a blog’s content, it’d have to be pretty special. I have several “favorites” and it’s quite tough to pick just one – if I had to.
I have 50 blogs in my reader, and there is no one of them, that I can’t live without. I’d miss some of them, but not enough to pay.
I’m always being asked why I don’t offer a subscription at Freelance WRiting Jobs, but the truth is, I know I’d lose most of my traffic over it. Hardly anyone would pay. And really why should they when you consider this type of information can be found anywhere if you look hard enough?
Great points. I agree.
The level of competition in the blogoverse is such that I don’t think a blog could justify paid subscription. There are always other resources out there, and no blog is indispensable.
Given the amount of good content out there that’s free, I can’t see any real motivation to continue to monitor a particular blog if you had to pay for it. And I think even if that blog was a major player, its genre of content would quickly be taken up by free alternatives.
14 thoughts on “Would You Pay A Subscription Fee To Have Access To Your Favorite Blog?”
There is a really big world outside of entertainment and industries where people DO pony up cash for insider details from bloggers. The stock market is just one example. A blog is simply a communication vehicle like a newsletter or forum. And one tool among many for subscription services.
Why do people pay ? To be ahead of the game or just to upgrade their skills.
But we’re not discussing PPV or PPC advertising. The discussion is about paying to access someone’s blog.
If I pay for a PPV showing of a Cricket Test between two teams, or subscribe to NHK to watch a Sumo Basho that is happening right now, that is unique content. Otherwise I can wait and access it later (sometimes much later). But the point is…it’s unique.
Some random person’s thoughts on the war in Iraq, Obama’s relationship with Rev. Wright or Jenna Bush’s upcoming wedding isn’t unique. Nor would the PPC ad on that blog directing me to a wedding gown or wedding planner website.
Give me unique, and I’ll consider paying. Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps. Sean Hannity? No way. Thomas Sowell or George Will? Perhaps. Susan Estridge (sp?)? Maybe. Daily Kos? No. Slate? No.
@TimW
If you were right, Pay Per View and Pay Per Cick would be dead by now.
But they are alive and thriving. In fact, there aren’t enough PPC and PPV options.
Everything can’t be free people…
Some details are worth a lot of money. No one will blog about some topics for Adsense pennies or CPM income. Member only websites/blogs can fill that void. I am not saying all membership sites are worth it though.
Marcel, so you are correct…everything cannot be free….but why would anyone pay for something they can get elsewhere, unless there was something unique about what they were paying for?
Look at TV news…if ABC started charging for their televised evening news, while NBC and CBS were free (cable TV subscription fees aside), why would anyone pay ABC, unless they were specifically accessing it for a particular viewpoint or on-air news reader (aka Anchorperson)? They wouldn’t.
While I won’t pay for a blog subscription unless the writer/owner/publisher had something unique, bloggers, by all means, charge for it. If you get subscribers, great. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be. Free Market and all that.
All great points. Try putting a donate button out there. I would guess, unless you said the site was going down, you wouldn’t much.
Enough resources are available in the internet to find out what you want.
I would never charge readers to read what I write and I would not pay to read what others write. If you are blogging then you intend it to be read by all. If its private keep a pen and diary at hand and leave blogging to those of us who want everyone to read what we think.
Unless a LOT of top bloggers start doing this, I think it would be a VERY bold and rather dangerous move. After all, is there any one blog that can offer something NO-ONE else can or would for free????
I would pay – and have paid – for premium content. In fact, I used to subscribe to two SEO sites’ premium content, and Teaching Sells, and have previously contemplated subscribing to some of the well-known advertising/ marketing sites. Some of these provide access to “blog” content for X days, then after that it’s only available to subscribers.
But as for paying to access a blog’s content, it’d have to be pretty special. I have several “favorites” and it’s quite tough to pick just one – if I had to.
I have 50 blogs in my reader, and there is no one of them, that I can’t live without. I’d miss some of them, but not enough to pay.
I’m always being asked why I don’t offer a subscription at Freelance WRiting Jobs, but the truth is, I know I’d lose most of my traffic over it. Hardly anyone would pay. And really why should they when you consider this type of information can be found anywhere if you look hard enough?
Great points. I agree.
The level of competition in the blogoverse is such that I don’t think a blog could justify paid subscription. There are always other resources out there, and no blog is indispensable.
Given the amount of good content out there that’s free, I can’t see any real motivation to continue to monitor a particular blog if you had to pay for it. And I think even if that blog was a major player, its genre of content would quickly be taken up by free alternatives.
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