Ming the Mechanic:
indieKarma
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 indieKarma2006-05-09 23:41
11 comments
by Flemming Funch

A micropayment system for blogs, indieKarma
Support your favorite independent blogs & websites - give a penny for their thoughts

How does this work? Easy. Join the indieKarma network and add one dollar to your account (for the first 5000 accounts, this dollar is free).

Each time you visit a website or blog on the indieKarma network, your account is seamlessly debited just one cent. It's the smallest of micro-payments, directly supporting the blog or website you're enjoying.

At the bottom of each page on any blog or website on the indieKarma network, you'll see a small "dock", with a message from the site. If you're browser is logged in, this will thank you for your support and quickly fade out for the rest of your visit. If your browser is not logged in, it will encourage your support at each page reload.

One cent may be an inconsequential sum to you, but it can make a world of difference to content creators running the independent blogs and websites you enjoy.
A fine idea. So, if I have 1500 visitors per day, that would net me $15, I suppose. If they all were members of indieKarma, which is a huge IF, of course. Here's what Jason Kottke says about it. Mostly very positive, but some concerns about the pop-up thing at the bottom being too intrusive, and whether it will gain critical mass. Anyway, I'm gonna give it a shot, since I think it is a basically good idea.


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11 comments

10 May 2006 @ 04:31 by Ge Zi @24.127.146.37 : the first ...
so - - - was I the first paying you a penny?  

10 May 2006 @ 11:53 by ming : Penny
Yes, indeed. Congratulations, it is an honor! I've now made a total of two pennies. And I've spent three, so I'm only one penny in the red.  

10 May 2006 @ 12:13 by rayon : If this is the price
for no advertisements PLUS benefit to colleagues, it is heaven a step closer! Pleased to add my pennyworth to Ming. However, for me, there were probs with Paypal - there was not time enough to sort which was the genuine paypal email, so instructed them verbally to cancel account. If there is someone who will volunteer to guide me through such rocks, and advise best practice, I will sign up with whichever is best.  

10 May 2006 @ 13:04 by swanny : 4 pennys
4 pennys....
I was just contemplating the number of "middle men"
mind boogling aye....
spend $37 dollars a month to make a penny
well its a start and I signed me up to
so you can get paid for visiting your own site?
My site is http://www.earoon.net and I added the
indiekarma script on the page... it works

yes it is a start I suppose and automated at that....

ah the middle men of life.....

oh nraye... yes paypal is somewhat problematic...
as is much and as to the genuine emails....
hmmmm not sure how to advise....
except to say perhaps it would be wise simply to have
a "separate" real bank account for the internet bank account access
that keeps say only a balance of $100 per month
that way you can manage the loss and such to a degree.

ed  

10 May 2006 @ 13:21 by swanny : Royalties
I'm just attempting to "frame" the concept here and what it seems to amount
to is a system of "automated royalities" or real credit which like you say is a fine idea.
I'm sure though the middlemen are at work somewhere vying for a cut.
Like taxes?
And then again maybe it's a "new take" on the old "honor system"
but an "automated honor system". Yea I like that.
ed  

10 May 2006 @ 19:21 by ming : IndieKarma
When I signed up yesterday, I was, I think, around number 200 of websites, and number 400 for website visitors. And the first 5000 get a free dollar. So I couldn't even find the paypal section where I could pay something into it.

For paypal, well, yes, it is attached to a certain e-mail address. I have three paypal accounts, in three different countries, because it normally needs to be attached to a bank account in the right country. And because this is actually one of the easier and faster ways of moving money around internationally.  

10 May 2006 @ 19:29 by ming : Royalties
This is how the internet maybe could have worked altogether, if somebody had made a pervasive system like that early on. See, there's the inherent unfairness that whoever has the most visitors, the biggest audience, have to pay for the bandwidth and server resources they use. The more popular you are, the more it costs. Which is ok if you have something to sell, but not very good if you offer something for free, like your writing. It is ok if the traffic is small, like just a few hundred or thousands of visitors. But if you have millions of visitors, you've got an expensive problem if the site isn't funded somehow. So, it would be very fair if each visitor paid a very small amount of money. If attention equated income. For that to work, it should be a very small amount, like that 1 cent there. Nobody's going to lose any sleep over 1 cent. It is "nothing". And the amount it would add up to per month for the surfer would be quite acceptable. But for a very popular website, it would be a very real amount, that actually would pay for the costs connected with the site.

It could even have been a variable amount. So, if some people think it is worth $1 to look at their site, they're free to do so, but visitors would be free to stay away, because they would somehow know in advance what it costs. So, the free market would decide. If you're a record company, and the webpage that plays some tune costs $1, or whatever you want, you might find that you'll do most of your business that way, or you might find that the market doesn't want it. And of course the market would have a higher demand for free or 1 cent webpages.  

10 May 2006 @ 21:35 by swanny : ISP support or contribution
Actually truth be told the ones that seem to be benefiting the most from the internet are the ISPs so they should kick back some dough to Indiekarma for content usage. When I started with dial up I was paying only $15.00 a month for pretty much unlimited time and service. High speeds gone now from $25.00 to $37.00 per month with not much difference in much except price.

And yet I have put loads of my own original uploads (images, text, pdfs, mp3s) on the web and haven't seen more than maybe a $1.00 in total for them in the last 7 years. I think Google should get a piece of the action too on this as if people ponyied $0.01 up for there Google site usage well.... Wouldn't though be much demand for Google or ISPs though if there were no "content"... good bad or ugly.... or ???? so I don't think such a system would have worked right off the get go.

Now what would be a fair or reasonable % of your monthly ISP bill to go to the Indiekarma fund? Well even if it were only a penny a month it would be something, not necessarily fair or ethical but something.
And if each penny from each ISP user per month went to Indiekarma at least then some equity would happen. Now as far as the uploads of pirated stuff and such well thats a messy matter beyond the scope of such. I'm just talking about the little guys at least getting a little
"gas" money.

And anything that helps cut down on the need for the "junky" advertizing would be a bonus. I mean if you had to choose between flashy ads or a microroyalities, I think most would choose the royalty aspect, as we've got enough ads everywhere thankyou very much.

And then also it would make a little more sense to buy and "KEEP" a domain as now you're only renting them and theres not much point to them as its just another money grab with no real benefit. As indiekarmas fine print says though you have to have a "registered" DOMAIN to use the system then a domain, if with the incentive of possible future "microroyalties" would be worth investing or ? Keeping.... and could actually be worth something.

Microroyalty Link = h t t p : // w
w w .thestandard.com/article/0,1902,7872,00.html

ed  

12 May 2006 @ 11:01 by rayon : Thanks for the words
Taken note, can't stay. yes I wondered too about the being paid to visit one's own site, but thought it was not too clever to think it.  

12 Jun 2006 @ 13:20 by johan @203.206.46.126 : fair fee for service
this is a service ,an outlet that relievs stress ,an ear and eye
i say we should pay ,but also be paid each time our words are read ,
maybe by a rating system by the reader
ming should get paid first
the ip providers get good value and in the time will pay some thing
the ads others use could reward ming and his tribe of artists
now i for one appriciate the ad free space ,but
if a choice to keep ming on screen means wading through a few ads
i say stay ,do what you can but do it gently.
im working for love
and loving it  

30 Apr 2016 @ 01:18 by Tracy @188.143.232.32 : JDhuRTRkqyNGWweqlpT
Re: Home router emergency override.Is there such an emergency override system on cell towers? Surely that would make more sense first.Not only that, shlu;dn'ot emergency services be able to declare a regional crisis, and not only let their own data and phone systems leapfrog any carrier's network, it should also allow civilian cell phones to use any carrier's towers in the affected region. Survivors being able to call for help, not a small thing.  

Other stories in
2012-01-24 00:50: Intellectual Property
2011-11-03 16:51: Seeing the world through the Internet
2009-06-11 18:53: Blogging/Microblogging and work
2008-02-23 17:19: Web 1, 2, 3 and 4
2008-02-22 11:07: Illusion
2008-01-09 22:45: A Communication Model
2007-12-02 20:41: Give One Get One
2007-10-25 21:47: Static or dynamic web metaphors
2007-09-18 22:54: Rethinking blogs
2007-07-04 23:59: Scrutiny of Information


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