The good news is that the internet is trending back to Kelly’s vision. For example, many top writers on Substack earn far more than they did at salaried jobs. The economics of low take rates plus enthusiastic fandom does wonders. On Substack, 1,000 newsletter subscribers paying $10/month nets over $100K/year to the writer.

The prevailing standard is a 30% platform cut, which is accompanied by another 30% Apple Store / Google Play tax if purchases are made in app.  This has led to the new wave of standalone utilities such as Kofi, micro-tipping services offering more favorable revenue sharing terms for creators.  The most recent features from big platforms s... See more

Independent internet-native creators leverage the internet’s frictionless content creation and distribution, but they’re still trapped by traditional business models like subscriptions and advertising.

A subscription model is based on the promise of the production of future gated content. A publication or creator is paid to continue production, not ... See more