BitPass Micropayments. Is it time?

There has been a lot of debate about the viability of micropayments. See this article by Shirky about why micropayments will never work, and then read this one by Scott McCloud about why they will and do.

Shirky is a theorist. And I have nothing against theorists, but their theories mean absolutely nothing until backed up by experimental evidence. I am a scientist, specifically an experimental solid-state physicist. So I know about data and verifying theory. And I’ve done some experiments with BitPass and I’ve looked at the data others have gathered. Here’s the skinny: The time is now for micropayments!

Here is one good example from Jason Cain:

I am not sure which is more important to talk about: the FACT that you can make money with micropayments (despite what the anti-capitalist professors say) — or how much people are loving the special reports.

$280 in two-days is NOT a lot of money. But what if you were to sell 56 reports in a month? That will pay the monthly payment for your custom Harley…

Jason has been selling simple, short reports for between $5-$10 and he does quite well.

But what Jason does is not technically “micropayments” in the real sense of the word. (Though I believe he is currently working on a project that will utilize actual micropayments.) So let’s look at some other data. Here’s a great article.

A micropayment is usually a payment of, say, less than $1 for some piece of content. A good example is what I have begun to implement on my physics site ilovephysics.com. Look at this page. Netizines can purchase the solutions to common problems assigned in introductory physics classes for $0.50 each. This is a micropayment.

Does it work? I began offering the limited number of problems I currently have only 3 days ago. In 3 days, I have sold 3 solutions (1 per day). That will buy me a Snickers bar (if I ate them). But I have only posted 1/100th of the content that will be available. I have done absolutely zero advertising as well. I don’t see the results as a minuscule amount of cash. I see the results as confirmation that my business model can work. That BitPass payments have real potential.

I’ll give you more results as I update the site with more content.

I’m also working on a new project with the domain internetmarketingnewbie.com. There is nothing there yet. But there will be soon, and BitPass micropayments will be incorporated.

Here’s what others are saying about micropayments:

Skype Hype on Micropayments
GeekAustin
Micropayments and the future of online flea markets…
“new media” musings

Here’s the problem: Everyone who bad-mouths micropayments has never even attempted to sell content with them. What’s worse, is almost all the naysayers have never tried to sell content period. I don’t need these people telling me that I can’t make money with micropayments. I pay my bills selling content online. And my BitPass account statements (as well as other’s) prove how much sound and fury these people generate, all signifying nothing.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2005 at 11:47 am and is filed under Wealth - Internet Marketing, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.