No Code Web Monetization Gating

#community

Hi!

I wanted to update the community on the launch 🥳 of a site with Web Monetization support that I've been working on called Monetized.

Monetized allows you to create premium sections that are only accessible by Web Monetization users. These payment gates could be used to wrap around existing content to create paywalls without needing to write any code.

Monetized makes a "monetized link" out of your existing web content. This link is like a tiny url + paywall combination that can be un-gated with Web Monetization.

I'd love to hear what you all think and what we should build next with it. Thanks! 😀

Top comments (6)

Hessel van Oorschot • May 26 '22

Nice one! Reminds me of the idea by fellow Dutchman Richard Straver in 2010 (Tinypay.me is no longer online but you can check web.archive.org/web/20110324202212...) - I guess he was too early.

Here is my initial UX feedback to help you fast track this:

When I sign up I do not have to agree with any terms
your welcome email ended up in spam (I am using Gmail)
When I click the link in the email it takes me to a http page (not a https) and Chrome warns me to be careful proceeding
The "gating" options are unclear to me. Maybe you should have information buttons. For example the the gating option "allow WM API users to view this content". Where is the money going and how do I know I get paid?
I can monetize any link. I know that in the terms on your home page footer it tells me I cannot do this but I never had to agree with your terms when I signed up. Before publishing you could show a human readable text pointing to copyright ownership, do's and dont's.
Your US lawyers should be aware of this: ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorne... Waiving your responsibilities is no longer enough.
Monetizing via your platform might be in breach with earlier distribution deals (via aggregators) signed by individual content creators. Tell them to triple check if they can monetize non exclusively via your platform while their content is also on other platforms (potentially some of these platforms claim specific exclusive rights).
I created a free account on May 26 but when I check my profile it states an invoice from Monetized on May 20 for $5.00 - not sure what that is. Made me doubt if I had a free account with you and wanted me to unsubscribe.
There is no option in the UI to unregister my account and delete my data / activities. I have read in your terms you are keeping datasets about my activity for potential legal actions in case of copyright infringements or other illegal activities but still (by law) I should be able to unregister, as stated in your privacy statement: The right to be forgotten (GDPR Article 17). Again something your legal team should help you with.
On the sharing page of my content I look at the WM section (right column) and it says: "This content is available for purchase". I don't like this sentence. The idea of having a Coil subscription is to browse different services and access premium content hidden to others. The way it's presented here is like a straight forward "pay wall". Something Coil doesn't want to be in my humble opinion.

I hope some of these remarks are relevant to build an even better version of your service. At Free Music Archive we are working on a redesign of all the artist, album and song pages. Our idea (artist page level) is to have a tipping option (donate), a license for commercial use and a section "premium content". I will tell our team to have a look at Monetized. Check if and how we can align some UX features.

Once again. Great initiative!!