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Hey, Ad Blockers: Spare a Little Change for Your Favorite Sites?

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Hey, Ad Blockers: Spare a Little Change for Your Favorite Sites?

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AdBlock Plus, a popular platform for eliminating ads on the Internet, has teamed with microdonation company Flattr to get Internet content creators paid.

With Flattr Plus(Opens in a new window), those who block ads can opt to pay a monthly fee, a portion of which will be donated to content destinations they care about most.

So, for instance, users could set their monthly donation at $10. Flattr Plus would then analyze which sites the user frequents and dole out cash to the sites based on how often they’re accessed by the user. All the user needs to do is keep funding their accounts and check out their favorite content.

In a video (above), AdBlock likens online ads to “that guy” who’s always a little annoying. He’s not evil, but you don’t really want him around. Enter ad blockers like AdBlock Plus, which allow users to read news stories, watch videos, and consume other content without ever seeing the ads that would typically be displayed on the webpage.

While the feature is an appealing one to consumers, it’s a thorn in the side of Internet publishers that rely on ads to operate a free site. Preventing ads from being displayed means publishers make less, content creators and journalists make less (or lose their jobs), and the Internet suffers, some publishers have argued. As a result, some sites have prevented those with ad blockers(Opens in a new window) enabled from viewing their content.

Many users, however, say that the time has come for publishers to create new business models that don’t rely so heavily on ads to fund their free content. Flattr Plus is now among those potential new business models. But how much those companies could actually make from such services is unknown. While alternatives, like Patreon, which supports artists and individual content creators, can be a desirable revenue stream, it likely wouldn’t be enough for the average, major website.

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That said, AdBlock Plus and Flattr say that they will actively seek out users who want to support content creators but don’t want to look at ads to do it. In return, Flattr Plus will take 10 percent of the donation, according to Wired(Opens in a new window), 3-5 percent of which goes to banking fees.

Entrpreneurs that are looking to shake up traditional publishing models have run into roadblocks. Last month, several members of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) sent a cease and desist letter to Brave Software and its founder, Brendan Eich. Brave created a Web browser that allows users to replace online ads with advertising from Brave’s own network. In doing so, users earn a small share of the revenues in bitcoins (15 percent), which they can spend as a micropayment to receive an ad-free experience on their favorite sites for a certain amount of time.

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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/news/hey-ad-blockers-spare-a-little-change-for-your-favorite-sites