Subscriptions are the New Black

Subscriptions have been 'the new black' and a mainstay of my income since 2000 or so, but subscriptions do not lend themselves to all kinds of content.<p>Advertising has always been a way to make otherwise losing propositions profitable, and as long as there are companies marketing products there will be advertising. It would be wasteful not to tap in to those dollars.<p>As Patio11 elsewhere already pointed out adsense is a form of micropayments, and micropayments are the 'pay-as-you-go' of subscriptions.<p>The only problem with that is that adsense is not transparent and it doesn't allow you to set your own price. In fact, you don't even know how much your inventory is really worth.<p>So if your site does not have a very tight coupling between the users and the sites, one that you expect to last for many months or years advertising is actually a very good solution, but adsense in particular may not be the best you can do.<p>Another problem with adsense is the fact that clickfraud benefits both google <i>and</i> the fraudsters, so for advertisers it is very difficult to track whether they're spending their money correctly or not.<p>I wished someone would start to give google some serious competition in this space.

I personally enjoyed the articles bombastic formatting and snarky tone, but I'm not sure the author says much of anything. The fact is, Dave's second assertion (that e-commerce/subscriptions is the new default startup business model) isn't based on more than speculation. He makes this second assertion with great conviction ("Get Dem Bitches to <i>PAY</i> You, G.") and I almost want to believe him--until I remember that most of both the media and content industries are still fumbling with whether or not selling subscriptions /digital content is a worthwhile business endeavor.<p>Also, the idea that a service's success hinges on a user's ability to remember a password is preposterous. Seems as if it could be somewhat of an obstacle when a service is first launched (Dave's early Paypal), but come on. Passwords have become commonplace, and for the most part--especially when money's involved--people don't seem to forget them. They may have when e-commerce was in its absolute infancy, but with the rise of ebay, Paypal, online banking services the password has garnered undeniable legitimacy among the majority of people. I have no data to back this up, but this isn't too outrageous a claim. Right?<p>Maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong angle.

McClure gets close to a good point but fails to convert.<p>Here's his solution to password friction: "Make a brain-dead simple, frequent-use product. If users login a lot, then they don't forget their password." He then lists the following examples that solve this better than PayPal: Social Networks, Email, IM, Games, Music, Entertainment.<p>I can't recall the last time I needed to use my password to login to Facebook, Skype, gmail, etc. The cookies are set to let me in. If I were a low-tech user, the password friction problem still exists as it always has. Amazon has me logged in; I can add books to my wish list without retyping my password. But to make a purchase, I have to type my password. The password friction problem does not go away.

People don't want to subscribe to stuff. They only do it when there is no other choice. If your site only offers subscriptions, I'll make a site with a one-time payment thing, store the users payment information and sell them new 'innovations' and 'features' that will be as easy as clicking a button to get, and that will bring me more money that your subscriptions.<p>If I have someone using my site all the time, it's easy to sell him something new.

I'm curious if the password problem is really as big as he says or if he's just biased because of his experience at PayPal. I don't always remember my password, but I've never encountered a site that didn't offer one of the following:<p><pre><code> 1) Password retrieval/reset by email 2) Password retrieval/reset by secret questions </code></pre> Also, don't most browsers these days ask you if you want it to save your password? Then there is password plugins. I thought most people use the same or an easy password anyway.

Making your site a frequently used one is not solving the password problem; it's sidestepping it.

It sure took the author a long time to get to his main points–I almost gave up.<p>Maybe reading Williams Zinsser should be the new black ...

I couldn't even get through that due to formatting issues. Good lord I've never seen a site more in need a little web typography restraint.<p>I'll just leave this here: <a href="http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/" rel="nofollow">http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/</a>

This jumped out at me: "Unless MSFT develops Xbox into a widespread payment system..."<p>After a couple years of being down on MSFT, I've gotta say that xbox360 is a pretty brilliant product. Xbox live Gold can be purchased as a 5.99/month subscription, or 45/year one time payment. (like itunes cards, you'll find these in places like target and walmart).

just to clarify: the post was trying to highlight both subscriptions <i>AND</i> transactions, not vs. each other... they aren't mutually exclusive.<p>in fact, most likely a common model would be: 1) free for most users 2) low-cost txn for first paid use 3) convert initial txn users into frequent use / regular subscription later, but continue txnl model as well.<p>perhaps in mid-rant I failed to explain this clearly; possibly due to lack of sleep, or the cocaine-heroin speedball I shot up before getting on the redeye to NYC.<p>then again, maybe you guys just need to read that little part where I say "AND" between subscriptions &#38; transactions, not just draw your conclusion from the headline... but I digress.

I would have preferred if he just worked on his presentation.

&#62; In 2015 the default login &#38; payment method(s) on the web will be facebook Connect, Google Gmail, or Apple iTunes.<p>Why not openid?