Web Monetization in the context of Lightning Network
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In recent years the online publishing business has faced serious disruptions. The existing business model is heavily reliant on targeted ads, which are really obstrusive regardless the point of view from where you look at. That has resulted in the spread of ad blockers wrought havoc on many websites and required the industry to think up new and innovative ways to make money without scaring away users.
Blockchain entrepreneurs saw this as an opportunity for cryptocurrencies to create a new kind of market where both, publishers and content creators, benefit from using non-invasive techniques allowing writers to easily monetize their content sometimes even without the use of a third party actor and readers to pay directly to creators for the content they read in a more fair way and not by seeing a bunch of ads sometimes not related to the content even.
Web Monetization concept is really wide and covers a range of possibilities that have been developed mainly thanks to protocols and tools created based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain concepts. If you want to know more about the State of Web Monetization and a bit from its history you can read about it in this awesome article written by Ken Melendez where he explains what is Web Monetization and take a look at how it is, today, the development of this concept applied to practical solutions in a general way.
It's fair to point out that this very article you´re reading now(the whole blog even **:)** ) is web monetized using the awesome technologies provided by Coil. Is simply content and you are not seeing a single ad...which gives you the freedom to focus in the essence of the writing: the content itself....
A lot has been written about monetizing web content using blockchain powered services. But today i want to tell you, dear reader, about the web monetization process on top of the Bitcoin Lightning Network. If you want to know more about what is the Lightning Network, its goals, advantages and disadvantages, i suggest you to take a look at my previous article covering those concepts. And now, let´s focus a bit in three simple questions that need some answers. **:)**
1, 2, 3...briefly explained...as in a breeze!
Why to take advantage of blockchain powered services to monetize content?...is a question many people ask when struggling with the idea of monetize their creations using tools born from blockchain services. My take is that monetizing using traditional methods, old fashioned ways, will quickly fall into oblivion when content creators realize the power of this kind of tools and the advantages it can bring over those traditional methods. Besides monetizing thru blockchain tools and services is fast, somehow secure, fair for both content creators and readers, easy setup powered by tools like Coil and thousands of other tools around the Internet...it is a clean way to get things done and benefit without the need of ads at all. Micropayments is the key here: it is one of the pillars of cryptocurrency world and will make easier the adoption of blockchain monetization tools for content creators. This is the second wave in web monetization world and you do not want to miss the opportunity.
How can i monetize without ads? ...by relying on paywalled content or by receiving contributions in forms of micropayments streamed directly to you. One way or another, ads are not involved at all. Your site will look clean, just like a pro :) and your readers will thank you for being so considerate taking away those nasty and intrusive banners which cut off the view and attention from what´s really important: the content!
Blockchain you said?...humm? Only over Bitcoin?...because i do not like it! ...nope! You can choose the right tools for you to monetize what you want to monetize. As an example, here in Coil blogs are monetized using the Interledger Protocol and many people receive their payments in XRP(a cryptocurrency). In Bit.sv you can receive your payments in Bitcoin SV(another cryptocurrency), this tool builds on microtransactions from Bitcoin SV to create a next-generation content network where people is paid using micropayments by accesing paywalled content from creators and Steemit is a content sharing platform like Medium that incentivizes content creators when their content receives attention from Steemit readers: creators earn STEEM tokens(yes...another cryptocurrency) that can be traded just like cryptocurrencies and can be converted into real money....so as you can see, dear reader, you have choices!!!
Monetize over Lightning Network? What´s so special with Lightning Network?...it is special just like almost everything related to the blockchain world **:)** Lightning Network(LN) has been one of the fastest growing technologies within the blockchain arena, especially within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Fastest micropayments linked to Bitcoin world has make LN one of the preferred technologies to choose for content creators and web monetization tool developers when trying choose a suitable ecosystem to develop their work. Bitcoin cryptocurrency has a huge fan club around the world. Besides, different LN implementation provide their own set of tools allowing developers to easily integrate LN payments to their products which in the end makes it relatively easy to use and therefore quickly gains expansion and acceptance.
Where to monetize if going with Lightning Network?
The Internet is a huge place and it is full of sites monetized using LN or providing those services for content creators. Let quickly analyze some of them.
One of the first ones! Is a Bitcoin-based micropayment blog platform that connects content creation to the Lightning Network (LN). Y’alls doesn’t have many frills, and the UI is pretty bare-boned. In order to use Y’alls, users need to install a LN wallet and fund that wallet so creators and readers can be able to make and receive payments from the platform accesing the content behind the paywalls writers set on their content. Basically you post an article and set a fee for people to pay in order they can read the full article, once the fee is paid the full content is revealed to reader.
According to the description of the site itself, ZapRead a website which combines many aspects of social media, economics, and Bitcoin. The idea is to create a community which is a self-regulating social economy where content which is of interest is rewarded, and poor content is buried. Users vote on content produced by authors by paying Bitcoin via the Lightning Network in increments of one Satoshi. The authors are rewarded for positive contributions, and the community is compensated for poor contributions.
Is a platform that has the goal of helping both the end user and the producers of content to get a much more pleasant experience when using the web. Its two main goals are: incentivise content creation by directly facilitating payments between end users and content providers and avoid inefficiencies of the current financial system by allowing micro payments through the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This tool completely removes the burden of running and integrating Lightning Network components from creators, so writers can focus on creating content. Ice Dragon is platform-agnostic and creators may use it on various platforms, however this tool have a Wordpress plugin that helps content creators using this platform to integrate the service into a WordPress blog really quickly.
Is a YouTube-like web-based platform that enables users to upload videos in exchange for BTC payments via the Lightning Network. That´s it: you upload a video and set up a payment that must be done before users can access the video, once the payment is done, the video will fully load.
If you’re a photographer or digital artist you can sell your work (monetize it :) ) for satoshis at Bitcoin4Photos. Similar to light-tube services, once a Lightning Payment is done you will be able to download the photo or image and use it where you want with no need to credit the author because that picture is yours at 100%.
These ones are some examples on how you can monetize your content using services built on top of Lightning Network. No matter if you are a blogger, a vlogger or a photographer you can always have the choice to select some platform that suits you best whether on Lightning Network or built under another concept.
Final thougths...by now
Lightning innovation is absolutely exploding behind the scenes. The innovation being built is extremely disruptive as it guarantees the use of one of the most robust and hardest money system on the planet in favor of web monetization allowing micropayments in a simple and effective way.
We can say that due to the nature of the LN transactions, the Publishing sector will be the pioneer in the use of this technology to monetize content but it will be not the only one: where micropayments can be applied, there will be an open space for LN to operate. Let´s wait for the future to come and pray on its success to get a fair and better approach for both readers and writers.
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Using Lightning Network you can monetize your conent on the Internet but, do you know that using LN powered tools too you can promote your content to bring more traffic to your creations as well? Now that you´ve already discovered some tools to monetize...are you eager to meet a couple of tool to promote with a few cents in Bitcoin you awesome masterpiece? **:)**
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