The prospect of "micropayments" -- small amounts ranging anywhere from a fraction of a cent through to a dollar or so, has always been the holy grail of online publishers.

Unfortunately it remains nothing more than a great idea in search of a cost-effective implementation.

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But perhaps the real solution isn't in micropayments at all -- but macro payments.

Instead of individual publishers all trying to charge a cent here and a cent there for access to their online content, what about a centralised system where they all receive a regular monthly payment -- based on the number of page-views their site has received.

It strikes me that the best way to achieve this is through what is sometimes called a "gated community."

Microsoft are well on the way to creating this model within their own online properties, through the use of their "passport" system. Go to an MSN member homepage and you'll find you are barred access unless you sign up for your own "passport."

As usual, Microsoft are going overboard and (I believe) are cutting off their noses to spite their face. For example, someone sent me the URL of what purports to be a very interesting webpage created by an MSN user -- but I never bothered to go any further than the demand that I sign up for a passport. Quite frankly I don't want an MS passport and the content of a single web-page isn't enough of an attraction to make me sign up for one.

Readers Say (updated hourly) macro payments... - Dennis Ad-free content... - James pay for content... - John targeted advertising... - Tom macro payments... - bede user provided data... - Steven Dummy Profiles... - Tim Micropayments... - Jayne Have Your Say

However, if there were dozens of sites, all of which were going to give me a preview of their content so that I could ascertain whether it was worth the hassle to sign up, then (and only then) I might change my mind.

Now, back to NZ...

We have a very small Internet population -- something that makes it very difficult to turn a dollar from advertising.

No single NZ publication (as an examination of the original NBR website will confirm) has enough "pull" to attract any more than a handful of paying customers. However -- what if most of NZ's leading content sites (NZ Herald, NZoom, Stuff, NBR, Aardvark, IDG, etc, etc) were to group together and offer a single subscription or sign-up?

Would you pay a single (say $10 per month) subscription to gain ad-free access to all these publications?

Would you sign up for free if it meant that you'd only ever see properly targeted (and therefore - relevant) advertising on those sites instead of the mindless drivel that all too often fills the banner area?

Perhaps what's needed is an "access gateway" which allows any content provider to sign up and receive a percentage of a user's subscription fees based on the percentage of page-views that user obtains from their site.

For example -- if a user signs up and pays their $10 then gets 50% their pageviews from the NZ Herald, 30% from Stuff and 20% from NZoom, the money from their subscription would be apportioned as $5, $3 and $2 respectively. Of course the company running the access gateway would have to take a cut to cover their costs and profit -- but you get the picture.

Now, with current untargeted ad-rates running as low as $1 per thousand views, I think most sites would find that they'd earn more money per visitor from such a scheme than they would from advertising.

However, the success of such a venture is very much dependent on YOU -- the Net user. Please tell me what you think.

How much would you be prepared to pay for ad-free access to all of your favourite local content sites?

Alternatively, would you be prepared to hand over some personal details in order to significantly reduce the levels and increase the relevance of advertising on free sites?

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