Substack seems to prove there is an audience for some blogger out there that's willing to pay money. Whether there's enough market for that on the open Internet remains to be seen.

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stackghost 14 hours ago | parent [-]

The earnings distribution on Substack is almost certainly the same as on e.g. onlyfans: a small number of high-profile writers earn big bucks, a slightly-larger number of creators actually earn decent money but not enough to live on, and the vast majority essentially make nothing at all.

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tastyfreeze 14 hours ago | parent [-]

How is that different than any other human endeavor? Not everybody that fancies themselves a writer is going to have the skill to draw an audience. Just because a few heavy hitters earn the most revenue doesn't mean the model is broken. That is just the way humans are for any given skill.

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stackghost 13 hours ago | parent [-]

>How is that different than any other human endeavor?

I don't think I understand what you're getting at. Unionized factory workers all get paid the same amount, modulo seniority and other factors, and there is no steep income gradient among auto workers because of this. Is that not a "human endeavor"?

>Just because a few heavy hitters earn the most revenue doesn't mean the model is broken.

The model is broken because the vast majority of blogs are trash. The writers are simply not entitled to be paid by the pageload, because the content is not worth paying for. The large earners are the exception that proves the rule.

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DangitBobby 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Then people will just choose not to visit? What exactly is your objection?

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stackghost 6 hours ago | parent [-]

My objection is that x402 expects that if I click on a random link from HN, I'll end up paying.

Fuck that noise. I'm not paying before I have even had a chance to see what the content is.

	▲	DangitBobby 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I would expect a content preview of some kind the same way they do paywalls now, except the way you resolve the paywall is via micro-payments instead of a subscription.
	▲	sryantrabot 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[flagged]