Comments on: Micropayments and the power of free http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/ Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:43:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: jepblog » Blog Archive » GASTBLOG: Paid Content - Mein Déjà-vu-Erlebnis http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-30702 jepblog » Blog Archive » GASTBLOG: Paid Content - Mein Déjà-vu-Erlebnis Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:51:11 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-30702 [...] mobilen Welt der iPhone-Applikationen existieren, wie das Nieman Journalism Lab in seinem Beitrag “Micropayments and the Power of Free” beispielhaft [...]

[...] mobilen Welt der iPhone-Applikationen existieren, wie das Nieman Journalism Lab in seinem Beitrag “Micropayments and the Power of Free” beispielhaft [...]

]]> By: What I learned from making The Sandinista Project free for a day « Jimmy Guterman’s Jewels and Binoculars http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29908 What I learned from making The Sandinista Project free for a day « Jimmy Guterman’s Jewels and Binoculars Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:57:52 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29908 [...] Anderson’s contention that there is an enormous difference between almost free and free, even as Joshua Benton has noted if anyone who can afford an iPhone or an iPod Touch likely can risk 99 cents on an app without [...]

[...] Anderson’s contention that there is an enormous difference between almost free and free, even as Joshua Benton has noted if anyone who can afford an iPhone or an iPod Touch likely can risk 99 cents on an app without [...]

]]> By: Philip Haine http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29904 Philip Haine Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:39:15 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29904 The trick with making micropayments work is to separate the desire to acquire from the pain of payment. Credit cards, FasTrak passes, Skype, Amazon 1-Click, SMS messaging all do this to fantastic effect. People buy without thinking and absorb price increases more easily. Here is a more complete description of how, if it IS possible to transition online newspaper readers to customers, it might be done: http://bit.ly/1E0Scn Best regards, Philip Haine productvision.com The trick with making micropayments work is to separate the desire to acquire from the pain of payment.

Credit cards, FasTrak passes, Skype, Amazon 1-Click, SMS messaging all do this to fantastic effect. People buy without thinking and absorb price increases more easily.

Here is a more complete description of how, if it IS possible to transition online newspaper readers to customers, it might be done:
http://bit.ly/1E0Scn

Best regards,
Philip Haine
productvision.com

]]> By: Howard Weaver http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29795 Howard Weaver Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:39:24 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29795 We definitely agree on paywalling. I know that. I just can't seem to shake off that editor's habit of bemoaning sloppy thinking or construction. Most plainly: apps ≠ stories. I am a licensed user of Writeroom and tried Scrivener. I find the thousand other features distractions I don't need. In fact, I do almost all my writing nowadays on a minimalist, free Mac word processor named Bean. I recently got new Mac and haven't even reinstalled MS Office. We definitely agree on paywalling. I know that. I just can’t seem to shake off that editor’s habit of bemoaning sloppy thinking or construction. Most plainly: apps ≠ stories.

I am a licensed user of Writeroom and tried Scrivener. I find the thousand other features distractions I don’t need.

In fact, I do almost all my writing nowadays on a minimalist, free Mac word processor named Bean. I recently got new Mac and haven’t even reinstalled MS Office.

]]> By: Elasticity City : Core Economics http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29792 Elasticity City : Core Economics Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:32:39 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29792 [...] Nieman] Here is some data for the iPhone app, [...]

[...] Nieman] Here is some data for the iPhone app, [...]

]]> By: Kurt Huang http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29730 Kurt Huang Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:07:44 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29730 Based on my experience as co-founder of BitPass, a now-defunct micropayment system for digital content, we learned that micropayments for music downloads work well at places like iTunes, whether on the Mac or on the iPhone because the content is branded, i.e. people already know what they're going to get from having heard it several times on the radio. iPhone apps are like unbranded music downloads. Without a good preview option, people don't know what they're getting. WriteRoom would likely benefit from a free Lite version and paid full version, where the Lite version contains a time-limited preview of the full version. Based on my experience as co-founder of BitPass, a now-defunct micropayment system for digital content, we learned that micropayments for music downloads work well at places like iTunes, whether on the Mac or on the iPhone because the content is branded, i.e. people already know what they’re going to get from having heard it several times on the radio. iPhone apps are like unbranded music downloads. Without a good preview option, people don’t know what they’re getting. WriteRoom would likely benefit from a free Lite version and paid full version, where the Lite version contains a time-limited preview of the full version.

]]> By: Joshua Benton http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29728 Joshua Benton Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:03:06 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29728 Hi Howard: I think they're more analogous than you do (obviously!). They're both areas in which a large sea of free products compete with a smaller number of paid ones. They're both undergoing a market shift in which individual producers are losing their traditional pricing power as a result of that new free competition. The App Store has reduced the transactional friction of spending small amounts of money about as much as anyone has, a huge goal of the various news micropayment planners. You're certainly right that iPhone apps have the potential for longer life than an average news story. But (a) iPhone apps actually have a much shorter useful life than you might think, as David Sanger's link points out, and (b) that fact strengthens my argument that micropayments are likely to be ineffective, not weakens it. If the introduction of a very small price so radically reduces people's interest even in a good with a long potential lifespan, it'll do much more to dampen interest in a transient news story. P.S. If you're paying $25 for WriteRoom, you might as well pay the $39 for Scrivener, which has all the full-screen anti-distraction elements of WriteRoom along with a thousand other useful elements for reporters and writers. Hi Howard: I think they’re more analogous than you do (obviously!). They’re both areas in which a large sea of free products compete with a smaller number of paid ones. They’re both undergoing a market shift in which individual producers are losing their traditional pricing power as a result of that new free competition. The App Store has reduced the transactional friction of spending small amounts of money about as much as anyone has, a huge goal of the various news micropayment planners.

You’re certainly right that iPhone apps have the potential for longer life than an average news story. But (a) iPhone apps actually have a much shorter useful life than you might think, as David Sanger’s link points out, and (b) that fact strengthens my argument that micropayments are likely to be ineffective, not weakens it. If the introduction of a very small price so radically reduces people’s interest even in a good with a long potential lifespan, it’ll do much more to dampen interest in a transient news story.

P.S. If you’re paying $25 for WriteRoom, you might as well pay the $39 for Scrivener, which has all the full-screen anti-distraction elements of WriteRoom along with a thousand other useful elements for reporters and writers.

]]> By: Howard Weaver http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29727 Howard Weaver Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:50:52 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29727 P.S. WriteRoom for Mac is a good and useful tool for long-form writing. P.S. WriteRoom for Mac is a good and useful tool for long-form writing.

]]> By: Howard Weaver http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29726 Howard Weaver Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:49:57 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29726 Don't you think the phrase "selling iPhone apps isn’t precisely analogous to selling individual news stories" would be much more accurate if you said "selling iPhone apps isn’t remotely analogous to selling individual news stories"? Like music purchased online, the iPhone app is something you cabn keep and use over and over again. That is almost never true for a news story. There are some lessons to note from the WriteRoom experiment – perhaps the most important being that news sites need to experiment and play around with variable pricing (for ads) and promotional models. Equating app sales and news sale, however, is simply misleading. Don’t you think the phrase “selling iPhone apps isn’t precisely analogous to selling individual news stories” would be much more accurate if you said “selling iPhone apps isn’t remotely analogous to selling individual news stories”?

Like music purchased online, the iPhone app is something you cabn keep and use over and over again. That is almost never true for a news story.

There are some lessons to note from the WriteRoom experiment – perhaps the most important being that news sites need to experiment and play around with variable pricing (for ads) and promotional models.

Equating app sales and news sale, however, is simply misleading.

]]> By: david sanger http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29708 david sanger Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:00:14 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29708 Those who bought the iPhone app and those who downloaded it for free are two very different groups of people. If an app is free many will download it out of curiosity only, and then never use it. Similarly many pdfs downloaded from websites and even mp3 and videos are never looked at. see <a href="http://news.cnet.com/most-iphone-applications-gathering-dust/" rel="nofollow">cnet story on iPhone apps</a> Those who bought the iPhone app and those who downloaded it for free are two very different groups of people. If an app is free many will download it out of curiosity only, and then never use it. Similarly many pdfs downloaded from websites and even mp3 and videos are never looked at.

see cnet story on iPhone apps

]]> By: Paul Balcerak http://niemanlab.upstatement.com/2009/08/micropayments-and-the-power-of-free/comment-page-1/#comment-29707 Paul Balcerak Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:58:17 +0000 http://www.niemanlab.org/?p=7694#comment-29707 It may take a little research (re: money), but if you could figure out which of your audience members were willing to pay for Web content, you may also be able to figure out a few other commonalities among them and create a niche product you could charge for. OK, that's easier said than done, but it's better than just killing off all your traffic by putting up a paywall around your entire site. It may take a little research (re: money), but if you could figure out which of your audience members were willing to pay for Web content, you may also be able to figure out a few other commonalities among them and create a niche product you could charge for. OK, that’s easier said than done, but it’s better than just killing off all your traffic by putting up a paywall around your entire site.

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