Could Bitcoin Solve the Problem of Ad-Blocking?
Digital news outlets, blogs, and other content creators on the internet are being hit increasingly hard by users’ ad-blocking software. Bitcoin microtransactions could prove to be the solution to this problem.
What I’m talking about is the rise of online users using ad blocking software. Most ad blocking tools are browser extension which can be added to all major browser freely in a couple of clicks, and which block all ads displayed on web pages.
Obviously, when the ads are blocked, the publishers (website creators) don’t earn from the ads they put on their site, causing a huge loss.In fact, it’s estimated that about 300 million internet users have already installed adblocking software in their browsers to block ads when they surf the web.Several options have been tested and are currently being implemented by major companies In order to recoup this loss. Here are some examples:
Google contributor program
https://www.google.com/contributor/we...
The main online advertising company Google is currently testing an initiative to make people pay in order to receive less advertisements on websites.
Prices range from 2 to 10 dollars per month and each package will reduce a certain amount of ads buyers get to see.
While this is obviously the only thing a money grabbing company like Google can come up with to solve the huge problem they are currently facing, which is the rise in ad block usage (need to ensure their stock remains valuable right?), it seems a pretty unrealistic experiment to me.
First of all, users will always keep seeing advertisements as none of the plans include a complete ad-free experience.
Secondly, it’s very unlikely the masses will pay up to $10 a month to see less ads. Nobody asks for advertisements and nobody really wants them.
It’s a simple fact of changing business models, but of course, invading users privacy, scraping that data and selling it to advertisers so they can push their products in your face everywhere is the only model they know.
Wired found a solution to deal with ad block software users:
http://www.wired.com/how-wired-is-goi...
Another company who solely relies on advertising income is wired.com, a website publishing news stories and that generates revenue by placing advertisements along the content.
Here are the options they present the visitors who do and don’t use ad blocking software:
“You can simply add WIRED.com to your ad blocker’s whitelist, so you view ads. When you do, we will keep the ads as “polite” as we can, and you will only see standard display advertising.
You can subscribe to a brand-new Ad-Free version of WIRED.com. For $1 a week, you will get complete access to our content, with no display advertising or ad tracking.”
So as you can see, they will use a similar tactic as Google’s experiment, but go one step further and simply block people who use ad blocking software from the site’s most interesting news stories and charge them $1 a week to get access.
While it’s normal that a company needs to make money to deliver a high quality product (in the case of Wired high quality news stories), I believe that charging people who want to surf ad-free or refuse to have their privacy invaded by several tracking and spy tools will most probably never work.
So what is the solution?
In this article I’ll present to you a complete foul-proof system that will:
Allow everybody to surf the web ad-free without privacy invasion and malware infection from annoying advertisements
Help the website owners get paid for running their site and focus on the quality of the site to earn more
Help advertisers cut their ad spend and focus on relationships with consumers just as it’s supposed to be
The circle is completely round with this system, and it’s time we see an urgent change in terms of experiencing the internet, and ad blockers are necessary to achieve that.
On top of that, You, the internet user is not a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder in order for them to promote their products to you all around the net, ruining your browsing experience.Something is wrong here and the intrusive, sometimes with malware infected advertisements are the last straw for many people.
Are you one of them?
By now it’s clear that using ad blockers is pretty much necessary to have a “non-annoying” internet experience. And you also know that ad blockers are causing huge losses for publishers, and this is only about to increase.
So how can ADZcoin solve the issues?
Through the power of a social media platform called Startpeeps that gives away free ADZcoin to its members, and allowing website owners to collect “donations” in various ways in ADZcoin. Here are some impoprtant notes:
The system is Free for visitors to support their favorite sites (unlike the Google concept)
It makes it possible for website creators to earn even when ad block software is enabled in every visitor’s browser
Urges website creators to focus on the quality of their website, because that will determine how much they earn
This system is about to revolutionize the entire internet advertising industry in ways we can’t even imagine yet. The Google solution to charge people is created by a company that only cares about squeezing every last dollar out of website visitors by invading their privacy, collecting as much data as they can and sell this data to advertisers.
The ADZcoin monetization system that can (make that will) replace this absurd system will be focusing on improving website quality, enhancing the browsing experience of every internet user and still ensure website creators get paid for their work of providing interesting content visitors appreciate.
“And ADZcoin is the fuel that will start this revolution!”
ADZcoin is a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin and is perfect to receive online “tips” which is exactly what it will be used for in this concept.
On top of that, millions of coins will be distributed to members for their social activity on Startpeeps, a social network that doesn’t put advertisments on its site and doesn’t collect and sell your data, contrary to a platform like Facebook for instance that makes billions of dollars selling your information to advertisers.
Startpeeps is still in Beta at the moment, but will be turned into an open-source project so developers can build plugins, themes, apps etc. on top of the core version.
So in essence, by making the platform open-source once version 2.0 gets released, it’s only a matter of time before the user-experience is similar to the user-experience of for instance Facebook, as tons of features will be developed then.
HOW DOES THE STARTPEEPS CONCEPT WORK?
In order to understand how ADZcoin will create a revolution in the online advertising world and fill the gap of lost revenue for website creators from an increased usage of ad blocking software, you first must understand the power of social media.
The internet today offers the opportunity to get a project in front of millions of people in a short period of time. Obviously, this is a project that makes sense for many people and can go viral fast.
Who wants to have their personal information collected by a large corporation, which in turn sells this information to advertisers trying to sell their products to you?
This is on the verge of legality if you ask me, but of course companies with a lot of money and influence such as Facebook seem to get away with it. At least for now…
But sooner or later, the general public will simply say: “ENOUGH!”
And since this is the business model of Facebook, the snowball effect can cause them some serious damage if they don’t have a plan B.And that plan B will need to be much better than that of Startpeeps, as there, none of your data is collected and sold and no advertisements are displayed.
In terms of revolutionizing the internet advertising industry, here is the basic concept:
Startpeeps members earn free ADZcoins
Website owners add some code to their site and an ADZcoin donation widget will be displayed instead of advertisements when ad block is enabled
Visitors can donate ADZcoins to the website owner if they like the content and/or want to support the site.
There are also other options for website owners, like blocking some premium content and ask an ADZcoin donation to unlock it, or simply ban ads all together and solely use the ADZcoin donation widget.
WHY IS THE CONCEPT SO EFFECTIVE?
ADZcoin is a cryptocurrency, which means it’s decentralized. So there is no middle man such as Paypal, and you’ll be able to send a “tip” to a website creator with the click of a button to reward him for creating high quality content.
Don’t forget that the website owner doesn’t earn a thing if a visitor comes who has adblock installed. This way the website owner can still earn and get rewarded for his work.
As I already mentioned, The Google and Wired solutions require visitors to pay in order to experience an ad-free visit to their sites. The ADZcoin solution is way superior as it doesn’t require the visitors to spend a dime as they’ll earn free ADZcoin on Startpeeps.
On top of that, the content creators will be forced to solely focus on quality, because that’s what will eventually determine how much they get paid.
So the focus of the project is towards:
Instant P2P transactions between visitor and content publisher
Transactions based on the quality of the content
An overall better user-experience
Every website creator that enables ADZcoin monetization will be able to add a special badge to his site saying “ADZcoin Powered Website – Focusing On Quality”
This badge will become synonymous to a website that provides high quality content, because the main income source will be the ADZcoin donations from users liking their content.
Do you start to see how everything comes together yet?
HOW CAN STARTPEEPS BE SUSTAINABLE?
The final question that needs to be asked related to the overall concept is how Startpeeps will earn. Since the platform won’t collect data from its users and sell that to advertisers, how will the platform generate the revenue in order to pay the ADZcoins which can be used as “replacement” to ad revenue for website owners?
There will be multiple income streams in order to make Startpeeps and the ADZcoin project sustainable. Here’s an overview:
Leverage online sales
The most logical place to look for revenue is with the advertisers themselves. If their ads get blocked, this means they have less expenses. So this extra budget can be used to support the Startpeeps project in another way, namely referral commissions.
As I mentioned, Startpeeps won’t be collecting data and displaying ads to their members. Why would they? The members that will join will most certainly have ad blocker installed meaning they don’t like ads and/or being spied on.
However, this doesn’t mean these members don’t buy things online every now and then. That’s why Startpeeps will have an external platform called “Startpeepscoupons” on which the vast majority of online retailers will be listed along with interesting deals/coupons.
The goal here is not to promote the coupons and online shops to Startpeeps users, but rather to serve as a database of online shops.
Online sales have reached well over 1,700 billion dollars in 2015, and it’s estimated that over 80% in the US and nearly 95% of people in the UK shop online on a regular basis (at least once a month).What does this mean?
“Startpeeps will leverage something the majority of people are already doing in order to generate revenue, and redistribute that revenue with its users who in return will pay in the form of ADZ micro-payments for the loss in advertising revenue of website creators.”
Pretty ingenious don’t you think?
The premise for Startpeeps users is fairly simple:
Startpeeps users can sustain the concept by themselves by doing just one thing: Clicking a link whenever they buy something online because when the referral link is clicked first, Startpeeps will earn a commission from the sale.
IMPORTANT: To make it very easy for Startpeeps members, a browser extension will be available. Whenever they visit a webshop, it will turn green and they can instantly click the referral link, so no extra step will be needed in order to support Startpeeps.
Do you start to see how this all comes together?
Startpeeps user buys something he was going to buy anyways
Startpeeps earns and pays its members in ADZcoin
Website owners don’t need to annoy visitors with advertisements and can focus on creating high quality content
It’s a self-sustaining system that cuts out the advertising and spying aspect of the whole internet experience, which is exactly what everybody hates so much and gets rid of through ad blocking software.
Payment Gateway
Apart from being used as replacement for online advertising, ADZcoin can also be used as a currency to buy things online.
Inside the Startpeeps dashboard, a payment gateway to receive payments straight to the Startpeeps web wallet is integrated for online merchants. This gateway can be used just as any other form of online payment system such as Paypal for instance to receive payments in ADZcoin. Startpeeps receives 0,5% of every transaction made through this payment processor.
This is much lower than traditional payment services, but an extra source of revenue in order to pay Startpeeps members more ADZcoin for their social activity.
Startpeepsmarket Commissions
As a new market is about to emerge based on the ADZcoin concept, the best place to sell products and services is the Startpeepsmarket, which is basically an online marketplace similar to Fiverr. The marketplace accepts ADZ-only and Startpeeps earns 10% from every sale made, which goes to Startpeeps members.
So these are 3 solid income streams to start with, which can make a huge impact on the online advertising industry, and change the internet for the better forever.
“These revenue streams alone can generate enough revenue to actually the replace the lost advertising revenue for publishers from people using adblockers.”
You think advertising agencies will get nervous reading this? Rest assured, they certainly are…
CONCLUSION ON THE ADZCOIN WEBSITE MONETIZATION SYSTEM
As you have learned in this post, ADZcoin and Startpeeps can become the solution to save you from paid subscription models.
You don’t’ think it will happen? Just follow the links below and you’ll see the issue is indeed very real:
Google is currently testing a paid subscription model
Youtube will soon follow
Wired already proves this is what we’re evolving to
Unfortunately, companies like Google have enormous power, and if they want to keep their shareholders happy, they will need to enforce paid subscription methods on users.
After all, if everybody uses ad blocking software they are basically out of business because that’s how they make money.
In that respect,the Adzcoin project could herald one of the most radical business model changes in internet history. It’s hard to imagine, a world in which the almighty G needs to restructure their entire business in order to survive.Will it be?
That is always the question, but two things are for sure:
Internet users WILL keep on using ad blockers, in increasing numbers
Internet users WANT high quality content for free, yes content publshers need to be pad somehow
With these two notions, Could the best solution be to use the ADZcoin system?