The economic downturn is hitting everyone hard. Online content models and advertising is one of the harder hit areas. Long before the beginning of the market freefall, advertising revenues began declining. Evidence shows that, while print and television advertising is declining at an incredible rate, online advertising is not faring much better. The saving grace in online advertising is that, while it is declining, it is declining at a lower rate than offline advertising.

However, it is still declining.

The days of making money online via advertising would, by most accounts, seem to be over and with it comes the question, “How exactly do we make our industry profitable again?”

Conventional wisdom suggests that there are two models. The first is the advertising model. The second is a paid subscription model. Though we have been brainwashed to expect free at every turn, part of me wonders if a paid subscription model would work better. Surely, readers are willing to pay a small fee for access to valuable content?

For my part, I am considering a switch to a paid model. It is my belief that the content found here is worth paying a small fee for. In exchange, such a model would eliminate advertising and would probably be in the neighborhood of $5 a month. But I want to talk to you first.

Does this make sense to you? Would you be willing to support the emergence of a new model that benefits the larger community and how content business models evolve for a low price?