16 Mar 09 Making micro-transactions work on the web

Many people believed that there may be a possibility of making vast amounts of money from extracting just a few dollars out of everyone of your users. However, there is a vast difference between having to pay just a little, and absolutely free. All of the barriers associated with this is the most likely reason that these types of revenue models won’t work. However, that isn’t to say there is no place for micro-transactions.

In a world where time = money, and people have plenty of spare time, making it worth peoples while to give you just a few seconds of their time can then potentially translate into money, or at least value of some sort.

The best way to get people to give you their time is to give them a good reason to do it. Add value to the process that they engage in, so  it helps them more than it helps you. A great example of this is Blippr.

After seeing great services like this and Twitter, the adage “short and sweet” is ringing true more and more often.