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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
PayCheckr: Let ’Em Pay! Any Way They Like  even starve their users into paying for content they have been getting free for years. Why not try coming at the problem from another angle, suggests magazine veteran Allan Hoving. “We have customized everything else [online], why not let us choose how to pay for it?” Hoving says.Hoving and his partners are shopping around to publishers and backers the PayCheckr system, which lets users and publishers construct their own fair exchange of value at a site. The button sits on a site and pops up a custom set of options that might include a direct credit card payment, a visit to an affiliate, use of PayPal, a donation or filling out registration or a survey. In other words, through a single button a content provider could offer the user a number of ways to “pay” for access, from cash to an exchange of information. “A lot of people are searching for an answer to monetization,” Hoving says. “The beauty of this is that it uses the Web to let the crowd give you the answer.” Currently in a rudimentary demo version at a handful of blog sites like Amy Wu Aquatics and Baseball Guru, the button is designed to aggregate the monetization opportunities a site already uses and let the visitor decide how they want to remunerate the owner. “We are trying to focus attention on the monetization of the site,” says Hoving. “When it is dispersed there are appeals to donate or appeals for products, and it is not as focused. Ultimately, a site could require some sort of transaction or exchange of value with the user in exchange for access to the content.” Call it a kind of de-commoditization of digital content. By establishing a range of ways users can earn entry to a site, the publisher is helping to create a value for what he or she is doing. It may also help widen the scope of perceived value exchanges. Conceivably, a site could change its exchange proposition according to its current mission. A new community or blog hoping to create buzz and involvement could trade access to a user commenting on a post or uploading some of their own content. In another stage, after a site achieves some scale and can sell advertising, the exchange could be for filling out a survey or getting registration that would make the audience all the more valuable to a marketer. PayCheckr’s exact business models or level of involvement in the exchange process are being developed while the effort gathers partners. “We may be the delightful, easy-to-use interface between the publisher and the reader,” Hoving says. “We make the introduction and then get out of the way. Another way is to get more involved in transactions and perhaps fulfillments.” At the very least, PayCheckr could be a clearinghouse and analytics engine for monetization opportunities. If a ubiquitous scheme like this had visibility across multiple sites, PayCheckr could see the processes that are and aren’t working for sites and introduce new payment and affiliation ideas to publishers. Hoving concedes that the rush to monetize has opened up everyone to speculation and testing. “We don’t know if the button will work or not, but we need to try.” Hoving has worked in a variety of magazine positions over the years at New York, Rolling Stone and Thomson Financial. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
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