In the infant internet, there were many useful sites with no ads at all. Sites were funded out of pocket as labors of love; at worst you’d see a “donate here” button to keep the site alive, and people would chip in $5 or $10 once in a while as they saw fit. If a site dared put a banner advertisement up, they were branded as sellouts and spammers.
Eventually the internet public got over that and now banner advertising is ubiquitous and expected. It’s so commonplace that most people are completely blind to ads on websites.
The problem is: the internet is growing up. Readers expect more sophisticated experiences. They aren’t content with just reading someone else’s words and having the ability to comment back. They want social sharing tools, rewards, tie-ins with other authentication systems, and expect everything to have a slick fit and finish. Internet users are savvy, and they expect polish.
Of course, polish and shine aren’t free. A site such as Icrontic has taken thousands of man hours to achieve. Time is money.
The simple answer used to be “Put more ads on the site!” Then targeted and context-sensitive advertising came along. We use them here at Icrontic. They help, but we’re certainly not making very much money, despite the enormous numbers of pageviews we can deliver every month to our advertisers.
If you think Icrontic has it bad, imagine the quandary that a site the size of Reddit faces. Reddit delivers a whopping 280 million pageviews a month—and tonight, they announced financial problems.
Reddit can afford to pay their hosting bill every month, but clearly they need more big iron. Reddit is down quite often, and most of the time runs incredibly slow under all the load they experience. With big iron, you need more help. They can afford to pay four full-time engineers right now, and that’s it. They need more.
Reddit proposed a subscription system, but they have no details. In fact, they’re asking the community: What do you guys think we should do? What should we charge? What should people get for that money?
These are big, important questions. The problem is, the internet’s content has been free for so long that an entire generation of people have grown up with it not costing anything. They’re not used to paying for content. Yet, the content is not free to produce. What do site owners do?
Icrontic is in the same boat. We’ve tossed around the idea of a subscription system, but there are many problems involved with that: What do people get for their money? A badge? Members-only content? How do I decide what content is free and what people pay for? How many people, realistically, will subscribe?
There will need to be another culture shift on the internet soon, as people realize all the sites they visit need to make money to stay afloat, and the money has to come from somewhere. If a site as big as Reddit can’t afford to do the things they need to do to survive, imagine how much harder it is for a small site.
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