by Mike –
Every time you have bought a newspaper, a book, a magazine, gone to a movie, attended a concert, bought music (either a vinyl album, a CD or from iTunes) or paid your cable bill – you have been paying for content. We all do it otherwise the content creators would not exist.
A quote from Alex Kristofcak-
I want to pay for content.
I don’t want to just “like” or “recommend” articles. I want to tell the author that I value the product of their work so much that I want to pay them for it.
The same reason why I contribute to WNYC (my local NPR station) and the same reason I pay for my music (on iTunes and Spotify) is the same reason I want to pay for the content I read: it gives me something I value and I want to make sure it is sustainable. I want to be a small part of what allows the creator to create and what allows future creators to thrive.
This is why I pay for the New York Times, New Yorker, NSFWCorp, The Baffler, Longreads, The Dish and more.
Below is a photo of Giotto Bizzarrini and me this past April in Livorno, Italy.
Mike Gulett and Giotto Bizzarrini – April 2013*
Below is a photo of me during the early days of creating My Car Quest.
Mike Gulett in the early days of My Car Quest
Below is a photo of me before I started writing My Car Quest.
Mike Gulett before My Car Quest
Do you notice the trend?
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When you see the message in the box below in the middle of an article, it means you are trying to read a Premium Article and have not yet become a Member of My Car Quest.
Become a My Car Quest Member – click the Bizzarrini below and read it all.
*Photo of Giotto Bizzarrini and Mike Gulett by Gépház Zsolt.
You are right Mike, the reason for people pay is the VALUE of the product you offer them.
Regarding websites content, the real question is to estimate the VALUE of this content. In a world of “sharing” everything, the value of any info decreases each day. Look about cars : 15 years ago, each make or model had his club and guru. If you wanted info, you had to be member and request technical info to the guru etc …. since Internet, EVERYTHING about EACH car is free on the internet. There is no _technical_ value to be a club member, except for meetings. Looking for a 308 GTS factory manual ? You can find it on 3 or 4 Ferrari websites !
It is the same for info websites. You can choose to make your contents paid. You will not have readers, but you will have customers. But a customer does not want basic or standard info, but scoop or exclusive info. Things are not settled, but the trend is to have the totally free access to information. All Wiki Intiatives go in this direction … from Wikipedia to Wikileaks…
I agree with some of what you say, readers must see the value and they must want to support the content and the content creator.
You mention Wikipedia, which is actually not free it is supported by donations and the writers and editors work for free. I have made some small contributions to Wikipedia content because I wanted to see accurate content and I have contributed money because I like what they do.
I do not agree with your statement “the trend is to have the totally free access to information”.
The trend is just the opposite with the NY Times, the Atlantic and many other publications now charging for content. If there is a content site that does not charge their readers then they are supported by advertising. This mean that the reader is the product rather than the content.
The trend is toward paid for content on the Internet and to those of you who get something positive from My Car Quest I ask you to become a Member and help support something that you like. If you don’t like My Car Quest then you should not become a Member.
There is much of the content on My Car Quest that is free to all such as the Post today about the Bizzarrini race car and the Car Of The Day features where I spend hours looking for that one car for sale that I would like to own and then I write about it.