New multiplier is 5x

Right now this is all play money that you seeded into the system. I can't wrap my head around when it goes beyond that initial funding.

I like that I could post the Facebook thing here because it won't be censored. So that's unique content. (Also like that I just saw there's now an option to add more images because I took screencaps of every screen as I went through the appeal process and was instantly denied.)

I can't even talk about the FB thing on FB since they could take any mention of snow I make to be a drug reference and my profile is already "at risk".

Posting the Butterwell content here is easy extra content I can post -- but it is already available for free. While it's a good experiment at posting things, I don't think I'd want to be taking "real" money for it since I give it away.
I also write content as eric81766 talking about AI and some of the behind-the-scenes of Butterwell content -- but that too is already out there and free.

To write something of "value" here that I'd feel appropriate to charge real money for, I'd have to put in thinking.

Along those lines, to choose to read something here it would have to be from you or one of the other few people I read their content on FB. And even then there's such a deluge of content that I try to limit how much I take in.

And with that, I start to mentally run out of steam.

Back when I was in comic book publishing, my partner liked the idea of Disney Bucks and wanted to create "Triumphant Bucks" that retailers could use to convert their unsold copies of comics (comics were sold to comic stores on a non-returnable basis) into purchasing new issues in some way to encourage retailers to continue to stock the comics. Eventually creating our own private money system with the retailers.

Since then I've noticed other ways that places attempt to create an internal economy. There was a writing site around when bitcoin started becoming popular where people claimed they were writing articles and making thousands of dollars.

And now even substack attempts to create a monetization system. In some ways, it makes more sense because it's really just a "patreon for writers" system.

But I don't know what works for writing. Or if writing itself works.

Goldratt - who wrote The Goal - said something to the effect that books are sales brochures. He wasn't selling books, he was selling business consulting. And for that, handing someone a book is an excellent brochure.

And that's now how I view a lot of written content. It's not the thing being sold, it's the sales pitch.

An issue I think I have with pay-to-read on a per post basis is that the only thing I have to go on for "Do I want to read this?" is reputation.
So you, when writing as you, have a reputation for well-thought content. So this could work. For you.
But you have this reputation for well-thought content through the posting of free content for...? I'd guess I've been seeing content from you for about 15 years - but it could be longer if it was content under another name. And that's just my personal experience - not how long you've actually been posting content.

I know someone who posted their story of creating music that they won't copyright strike and putting it on spotify for streamers to use so that they wouldn't get copyright strikes on their streaming content. So a typical streamer might listen to 40 or more of his songs during the stream and thus the small pennies start to add up to large dollars.

But AI content can now beat that while providing perks like never repeating a song or music tailored to a theme.

AI will dominate content creation.

Even Butterwell content - which I don't put too much attention to - is an enormous growing pool of content. I haven't read any Dave Barry or whoever is the modern equivalent columns lately, but I'd think Butterwell could start to be on that level. And with attention the amount of Butterwell content could be a flood. And that's just me starting to play with AI.

AI can take advantage of ad-based models even better than getting work-for-hire on fiverr.
It will smush them.

But back to this - and it relates to my thoughts on the other post you recently did on monetization
"Well, I am going to post a lot of valuable content here."

You're already known for valuable content. So valuable content from you works. But you built the reputation first.

And I'd bet that there's a whole specialization thing that your content could be sliced by:
Good for general audience vs Good for a highly specialized audience (like a subset of movie/video content makers)

So you could make articles good for people for a nickel and articles good for a specialized audience like that for $$$.

By that same token, I can't do that for either market. And I don't have an audience that already knows me to want to pay 5 cents or $$$.



reference for that
My Passive Income - How I Make $150,000 Per Month
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek6p_NmYb44
stream beats
5:18
which gets about
5:19
40 streams per listener because
5:22
typically streamers are playing this in
5:24
the background behind their live streams
5:26
for
5:26
hours on end so stream beats gets about
5:29
1.2
5:31
million streams per day multiply that by
5:34
.0037
5:36
that makes hundred 4 dollars add an
5:38
extra ten percent for publishing
5:40
royalties that makes
5:41
four thousand eight hundred and eighty
5:44
four
5:45
dollars almost five thousand dollars
5:47
which means
5:48
every month it makes about six
5:51
thousand dollars

This post costs a thousandth of a penny tho.

Eventually I want to be able to give readers the chance to filter by price/author.

If I don’t trust you, I won’t read your $2 article.

If I do trust you, I might.

I think (wasn't paying full attention) that the notification showed that you reacted to what I wrote, but didn't show that you replied to it.

Using Butterwell as an example of a starting out creator. If Butterwell gets some moment of attention from a stranger, what's the best move?
A send stranger to a site where they have to figure out how to pay a thousandth of a penny for the next bit of content
B get stranger to consume another piece of free content (note all the free content has "sign up for emails" or equivalent on the page)
C send stranger to where they could buy some real physical product (t-shirt, book, etc) that costs some sizeable $ amount

I think the thousandth of a penny functions as a lot of friction. Not as much as the $20 t-shirt. But in terms of proportion of cost vs profit, the cheaper thing is more friction.

All this flips if Butterwell was a known celebrity with a huge following. But at that point, there are so many other options.

I remember in the 90s there were a lot of experiments with micropayments on the web. I don't know why none of them worked out. Some of it may have been just the general difficulty of transacting online in general until PayPal broke the ice.

If micropayments had worked early on it would have led to a very different web that wouldn't be so advertising focused.

We'll see. I'm not sure what I could write that wouldn't get people going "I want my $0.00002 back!"

What's the customer service cost of refunding $0.00002 ?

I'll check that bug!

So let's say you're a new creator. Nobody is going to argue over $0.00002 to see if the content is good. Unlike Facebook, it will be VERY easy to control your newsfeed. So you aren't risking a lot. On Facebook, you are the product. On nstfl, you are NOT the product. You are the collaborator.

The friction here is important -- do you want to be the product that Facebook profits off of, and then uses that money to promote propaganda? Or do you want to collaborate with folks who entertain you, and who you can entertain? Facebook makes $2 per user per month (US/Canada). So even with photos that cost say $0.0005 per view -- that's 4000 views a month to cost you $2. But YOU have skin in the game. No useless doomscrolling "for free" while getting battered by ads and propaganda.

These aren't micropayments from you. You will top off your balance $10 at a time. $10 might last you months, or might last you forever if you create entertaining content.

nstfl will SELL daily reports of what is the most popular category and subcategory (most follows, most views). Facebook won't. But you're not selling it into an unknown place -- you're collaborating with others who want to share knowledge, be entertained, etc -- with NO recurring subscription.

Substack is horrible. Those subscriptions cost too much. I just want to microtransact!

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