Forem: Name cannot be blank

Web Monetization Model VS Subscription Model

Name cannot be blank — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 08:01:03 +0000

My name is Akintunde Sultan and I'm a GrantfortheWeb Ambassador, I'm working with the team to push the adoption of web monetization here in Africa.
My Official annoucement

Okay, so I'll take it that we all know what web monetization is, but for people like me who love to know the idea behind whatever it is I'm working on. Here's a brief explanation of web monetization.

What is web monetization?

A simple model that allows users access to contents that are monetized on the web, and creators; to generate revenue.

The whole idea of web monetization right now is 100 + 20% which is amazing and I see a future in this coming soon.

So here's my personal definition of web monetization:

Web Monetization is the only model that puts both the content creator and user in mind for content and revenue allocations.

An explanation for that? All other previous models are too focused on how the creators can generate revenue that it totally ignores the users. (Both privacy and financially ignored)

Let me prove this to you. I know I said I'll be focusing on just subscription models, but a little curve along the way won't hurt anyone.
Take the ads(adverts) model, for instance, Your data are mined to suggest relevant ads to you, you get click baits and redirection links. No one cares if you're in a hurry to access content as a user, no one cares if you have limited data or if you're trying to quit gambling and you need to avoid temptations.

Web monetization model VS subscription-based model

So here's me seriously giving you the difference between web monetization and subscription-based models. I'll be focusing on both users and creators at the same time because a lot of creators are also users. So I'll like you to see yourself from different perspectives here. If you're more of a creator, then this is a way to understand your users.

1. Subscriptions are static, web monetization is dynamic:

You need to subscribe separately to each platform in subscription-based models, while for web monetization, one subscription can be used on all platforms.

2. You can exceed your budget in a month for subscriptions, however, web monetization has a fixed $5 unlimited usage:

Users who set a budget on monthly cash outflow would not subscribe out of the blue to your platform just to access one content, while users on web monetizations do not have to worry about this. Yes, that's one of the advantages of web monetization to the users, no matter how many contents you consume in a month, it's always going to be within your $5 subscription.

3. Card update is a whole new task for subscriptions, web monetization does this in a click:

Consider a user who just misplaced their card, or perhaps that card just expired, they have to manually visit each website they're subscribing to and make card update as a subscription-based user, while for web monetization, they only need to update once on their coil account.

Stress-FREE!!! Think about this as a creator, What are the chances that everyone would remember to come back and update their cards, or won't decide to just postpone to next month, and then to the next month, and then to the next month till they find another platform with the same content.? Or as a user, which option looks simpler.

4. Cost efficiency, $5 VS $Unlimited:

I like to refer to web monetization as "One subscription to access them all."
Exercise:
Make a list of the top 5 websites you love that use a subscription model and calculate how much that is per month, I bet it's more than $20 altogether, well if all those platforms decide to opt-in for Web Monetization, you'll only be spending $5/month now.

5. Flexibility:

Before you slam that subscription model on your website, ask yourself, would all the contents I'd be producing worth each penny? Would there be times I'll just want to pass information and not want to monetize it under my subscription? I'm just here to tell you that you can easily decide what to monetize as premium content and what to set to general if you're using web monetization.

6. Cross border - Cross continent access:

With web monetization, creators no longer have to worry about the location of their users, money is streamed in real-time from Coil to your payment pointer through interledger, so you have no issues thinking about currencies. As a content provider, subscription-based models really limit your audience right here.

As a creator, one important thing I believe we all value is spreading our content to as many users as possible. We want to cross boundaries and make what we provide available to everybody in the world. The subscription-based model really limits this important option.

So you've looked at both options and you're finding web monetization interesting? How about you set it up with these few steps.

Set up web monetization on your website in 3 steps.

A. Visit Uphold to get your payment pointer
A payment pointer is an address where payments are sent automatically from users who visit your website.

Uphold here is just one of the wallet providers for web monetization. Check HERE for more..

B. Attach your payment pointer to the head section of your website

OR
If you're on a WordPress website:

Install the web monetization plugin and input your payment pointer.

C. There's no really step 3, your website is live and monetized, users who are web monetized would see something like this now when they visit your website.. Coil is paying.... Meaning, as users who are web monetized use your website, you get paid instantly to your payment pointer attached to your website.

If you have questions, I'll be glad to answer them in the comment section. And feel free to drop a link to your web monetized websites here so we can all check it out.

Web Monetization like I'm 5

Name cannot be blank — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:57:37 +0000

Web Monetization like I'm 5
Why we need Web Monetization
Web Monetization as a user
Web Monetization as a Creator
Suggested Project for Web Monetization Hackathon

Web Monetization like I'm 5

The term is exactly as it sounds, monetizing the web! but what that term doesn't explain is the fact that it's also protecting your privacy, protecting your data, saving your time, and also distributing payment seamlessly using open-protocol. Ohh I shouldn't bring in the boring stuff from now, I'll keep things basic and in another article, I'll talk about the web monetization API and others.

If a product is free, it's good, but when you pay for a product; that's better. Or perhaps, I should ask like this, would you rather have your information sold or would you pay $0.0001 (In Nigeria that's like 30Kobo) or so. You might probably think your data are worthless until you tell your friend you are not voting for a particular presidential candidate on WhatsApp and you start having issues with your voter's card...That's just a joke, but you get the gist right?
The way your data are used influences what you see, what you read, and subconsciously how you behave. People understand the influence the world wide web has over various factors and the goal is to make it safer.

And let's say you wanted to read an article or tutorial on DNA splitting, that was written by a professor that happens to have a paywall, you have to start thinking about what currency is in use in that country, the payment platform to use and if you subscribe, you're probably going to just read that DNA RNA article and that's it, after that day, the subscription is no longer useful. These examples go on and on like that. This brings me back to "Web Monetization" Take it as a way to have unlimited access(covered under your subscription with Coil

Web Monetization is a way of streaming micropayments to the creator of the contents you're using. Meaning, you don't have to always register on every website just to read a two-page article.
Payments are automatically sent to the payment pointer while you're on the website. But one thing is sure, if you're on Coil with $5, you can't exhaust it in a month. Two reasons for this are

The Micropayments streamed are small.
When you use up to $4.5 your remaining funds are well managed to spread across the end of the month. As a creator/User, you don't need to bother yourself about this.

See it like this, the future of Web is faster, little or no more annoying on-click redirection in websites, content creators can accept streamed payments from all over the world without worrying about the location, currency, or conversation rate of their users. And oh, I'm from Nigeria and I have Web Monetization all setup also both as a creator and a user, you can check out devcareer.io/sultan

I'll be sharing how you can set things up as a first time user also.

Why we need Web Monetization

There's no single answer as to why we want a safer web, a faster web, and a web that supports content creators from all over the world seamlessly. I can begin to explain the technology behind the Web Monetization API, interledger, the meaning of Open protocol, and even go as far as explaining the process of streaming funds across the web, but the simple answer is: We need a better web that's safer and less frustrating. We need a web that supports content creators without extorting users, a web that generates revenue for content creators without having to sell users' privacy. Do you want to read more about how Coil handle user privacy? Check out this post by Ben Sharafian

Web Monetization as a user

So you want to have a feel of what Web Monetization is all about as a user? Here's a quick guide to help you out.

Steps

visit https://coil.com/signup and sign up.
Go to settings and enter the "Membership" card.
Add your credit card and subscribe, it's $5
Download the extension for whichever browser of your choice, Web Monetization is currently being discussed as a standard under the W3C and has several players involved in the conversation including a number of the major browser vendors. Here's an INTERVIEW W3C had with Stefan Thomas; the current CEO of Coil.

Download the Coil extension for Google Chrome here
Download The Coil Add-on for Firefox here
Download The Coil Add-on for Microsoft Edge here

You can also download Puma Browser as an addition to other browsers for mobile phones.

Once this is done, you can start visiting the various websites that are monetized, an easy way to know if a website is monetized is by checking the status of your Coil extension/addon icon.

Here's an example of a monetized website: Check out the Coil icon with the dollar tag on the top right corner.

Compare that to this page that wasn't monetized:

If you click on the Coil Icon, you should see this: Coil is paying; which means, as you're spending time on the website, Coil is streaming micropayments to a payment pointer associated with that webpage.

Yes, your guess is correct, Web monetization for creators is so easy that you can easily decide what pages on your website you want to monetize. I'll talk about this in the next Article, oh sorry next chapter.

Web Monetization as a Creator

So you're a content creator, or you just want to test this out? Let's try out this short tutorial, Feel free to send me a message on Twitter on @hackSultan if you need help with anything.
It's completely free to test out and to start using Web Monetization on your website, you're an early adopter + you have more to gain and nothing to lose.

Steps:

Register as a creator on Coil on coil.com/creator-setup
The next thing is getting you a payment pointer, you can get a payment pointer from tons of wallet providers. In this example, I'm using Uphold, visit uphold.com/signup and sign up.

Next is to get your payment pointer, Uphold offers you access to various cards, ranging from USD, to EUR and also Cryptocurrency cards.
We're using a USD card for this example:

Click on your USD card, and click on the "ADD FUNDS" tab

You would be picking the "from Interledger Payment Pointer" option here.

Click on "generate payment pointer" and you should get something like this:

Copy this (your) payment pointer, it should look funny, like a pair of letters & numbers that you can't keep in your head. So you'll just have to copy it. You have no need to save it elsewhere, you can always come back to this page and copy it in the future.

Here you'll want to do two things with your payment pointer,
A. You'll attach it to your Coil creator account.
You'll do this by going to Settings on your Coil account, then visit "Payout" and add your payment pointer. If you got your payment pointer from Uphold, then you'll select Uphold.

Setting up your Payment Pointer in Africa (Nigeria): If you're in Nigeria (I haven't checked out all other countries in Africa), Uphold is fully available for you as a payment pointer provider with no downside. I would say this is the best wallet provider as of now for Africans.

B. You'll add it to your browser.

Adding your payment pointer to your website is pretty straightforward.
Web monetization is flexible, you can decide what pages on your website you wish to monetize if you're a writer and you want to make some article premium, you can set things up.
So now that we're still setting things up, just go to the

section of the webpage you wish to monetize and add this:

So now, all you have to do is change "Your payment pointer here" to the actual payment pointer you copied.
You can do this on any website, and if you're having trouble setting this up, feel free to ask me here in the comment section and or send me a message on twitter @hackSultan.

Suggested Project for Web Monetization Hackathon

So DEV announced that there's a Grant for the web Hackathon going on here.

Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team ・ May 7 '20

#gftwhackathon #opensource #meta #webmonetization

Kindly go through the post to get a full understanding of what the hackathon is all about?

And oh, my personal goal is to get 10,000 content creators in Africa to start using Web Monetization before the end of 2020. In case you're about to ask me, NO I haven't applied yet so you can still steal my idea. I'm sure the web is enough for us all to come up with the same/different ideas and still see it through.

So here's a cheat for you, visit the official Grant For the Web forum and you'll see tons of ideas there, but if you need me to help out with an idea, just drop a comment here on what you do and your field and I'll look for suggestions along that line for you.

Welcome to the future!!!

And Ohh, if you'll love to test the Web Monetization API, you can through https://testwebmonetization.com

Tech fields that do not require coding

Name cannot be blank — Sat, 18 May 2019 14:26:42 +0000

N.B: You must be an amazing reader and a good thinker.
(Don't get scared, you can still be in the tech field without writing those codes you feel are boring)

UX/UI Designer: As amazing as front end/back end developers are, companies hire professionals to think from the users perspective, you'll be responsible for designing user interfaces, understand how the end user relate with features and product. This field is tasking and you will actually need a lot of design skills to be perfect.
Software Quality Tester: Companies don’t launch apps or features without testing first; either automated or manually. As much as automated testing is good/faster, that end user feeling and experience is needed and amazing people fill this role. You get to give advice and recommend improvements💪
SEO analyzer/specialist: No matter how amazing a product(website/app) is, it’s useless if people don’t get to use it. Don’t confuse this field with marketing, although you’ll think like one, the difference is that you’ll think with the programmers also and make researches 👌
Data Analyst: An amazing level of mathematical computation, Statistics & analytical skill is required to fill this position, you’ll need to be the master of various Data processing apps. Trust me, your results at times could determine where the company is headed. 💪 Knowledge of Python of R is required for some core data analysis, but then, you can be good at making use of the softwares. The same way I won't actually call Matlab programming.
Project/Program Manager: This isn’t actually the same as Program is higher than Project. You’ll need to tailor yourself to a particular field, you know you are not writing codes, but you should know why you want your developers to use GraphQL and not REST, why Angular not React. You’ll read a lot and understand tech terms, this role pays more than programming fields most times, although a lot of companies require you have a Degree in CS, you can take Nano degree courses and be perfect for the role.

This list could be updated later, here a link to the twitter thread.

Name cannot be blank

@hacksultan

Tech fields that doesn’t require CODING.

N.B: You most be an amazing reader and a good thinker.
(I hope these encourages someone)

1. UX/UI Designer: As amazing as front end/back end developers are, companies hire professionals to think from the users perspective
👇

07:02 AM - 12 May 2019

618 999

I'm an African Developer Avocado, I'm trying to build more developers in my Country, Ask Me Anything!

Name cannot be blank — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 19:40:48 +0000

I started the #laptops4Developers campaign in Nigeria, it's a Non-profit mission to support 20 upcoming developers into programming; people who already have an interest in programming but are unable to follow up due to bad or no laptop, no mentor or other support. This program is aimed at supporting them through the course of 3months, they'll be paired with a mentor of their in their field.

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N.B: The 1m written here is 1 million in Nigerian currency, that's less than $3000

Here is also the link to my main Dev article that talks more about this campaign.

#Laptops4Developers; Nigeria++

Name cannot be blank ・ Apr 17 '19

#technology #nigeria #opensource #javascript

The support from developers in the US has been really encouraging, but as it is, I'm currently running all these alone and in need of major foreign support to assist. We have been able to raise about 1750 pounds in a month on our Gofundme and we need more support on this.

The campaign is going forward on twitter with the hashtag #Laptops4Developers, with over 2million impressions since we've started.

We've gotten support from a lot of developers and a lot has volunteered to join the mentor's list.

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This is the Gofundme link to the Project: https://www.gofundme.com/z7q9rs-laptops4developers

Please feel free to reach me on Twitter on https://www.twitter.com/hackSultan
or send me a mail through akintundesultan@gmail.com

I'll be answering all questions here also..

#Laptops4Developers; Nigeria++

Name cannot be blank — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 23:05:34 +0000

Laptops4Developers

https://www.gofundme.com/z7q9rs-laptops4developers

The current (#Laptops4Developers) campaign that's going on right now was started for two main reasons;

To reduce the number of people learning Programming with Phone.
Reduce the unemployment rate in the country the little way we can( Just in case you are asking how bad the unemployment rate it, "The number of unemployed Nigerians rose by 3.3 million to 20.9 million in the third quarter of 2018 (Q3’18), a report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown."

Current support

When it comes to supporting the upcoming developers in Nigeria, one man leads the way; Prosper Otemuyiwa (@unicodeveloper). Well, I can surely say more than 1000 paid Udemy course have been shared; directly or indirectly through him.

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Laptops4Developers is a project created to support upcoming developers in Nigeria with;
A good laptop,
A mentorship program, and a
Programming course.
Yes, we have a lot of free course website online, but nothing beats having a mentor you draw inspiration from and can easily access on your WhatsApp or Slack, whenever you need him or her.

We actually started this small, the aim was to raise 1million naira ($2,777) to support 10 upcoming developers, well things expanded when I got flooded with DMs and comments, we had over 1000 request in less than 48 hours.
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So yes, if we are able to start with 20 Developers yearly, that's a pass mark. Next year, these 20 Developers will already have a stable career and they'll join our mentor's list. Yeah, it's a continuous program.

I started out sharing programming courses late last year, I've shared over 200 paid course on Udemy to upcoming developers alongside Prosper Otemuyiwa (@unicodeveloper) VSCode courses of over 300 sponsored by James Quick on Udemy. A lot of them were sponsored by Authors and volunteers.

Later on, I discovered that a lot of these people we gave courses are coding on mobile phones and a lot on bad laptops, this is either like a waste of course or a waste of time, imagine mentoring someone who tells you he's learning React on his phone.

I also noticed this during the current Hotels.ng internship also.

So I’m starting a project to support upcoming developers with a laptop too and mentorship. (20 at a time).
We currently have a lot of people on our mentors list( Developers that have volunteered to support the programs and help mentor the developers we choose after the screening and first training process. )

Our mentor's list for #Laptops4Developers

We currently have developers from the
The software engineering team for Twitter,
We have a front end developer at Shopify,
Developers from Interswitch
and lots more. We also recently got partnership support from CodingCoach to support us with more mentors.

Fundings

We have been able to raise £1230 in 25days; the first week we started this campaign was tough, we had no single donation. Thanks to our various sponsors like
James Quick
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Kent C Dodds
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Hassan Djirdeh
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Chris Blakely

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Sarah Edo, Kevin VanGelder, Dave Stevens and lots of other amazing Developers.
Thanks a lot to you guys. We really appreciate, the dream is coming on real.

We have been getting donations also directly from Nigerians to sponsor this campaign
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Game of Thrones seams to be my friend but, maybe we will get a donation from them in the future.
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The developer community in Nigeria has been doing great, I wouldn't say we are self-sufficient yet, but we have quite a lot of great talents, and when The current CEO of Jumia said that we don't have developers that's why they don't employ us into programming roles, I'll love him to go ask Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Twitter, and co. Yes, I could start listing out developers I know that currently work there.smile

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I won't say much about our talented youths, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft beats Jumia from any angle, so if Microsoft, Google, and the likes value us, that's a pass mark.

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I reached out to The Dev Community on Twitter and they were really supportive on this; Hence this article,

Curent Reach

Over the past 25 days, we've started this campaign, we've gotten about 1.7million impressions on just twitter alone.

So if you've been a supporter, please keep supporting, we will surely make this campaign a success together

This is the GOfundme link to this project.

If we can get lots of people to donate even just $10. This project will be a success.

Lots of Tech Companies have recycle policies on their laptops, these old laptops could be sent over to support us. If any organization would require more information as regards to training and planning procedures for this campaign. I'll entertain emails and respond as fast as I can.

-More updates to come.

-Akintunde Sultan
akintundesultan@gmail.com

Forem: Name cannot be blank

Web Monetization Model VS Subscription Model

What is web monetization?

Web monetization model VS subscription-based model

1. Subscriptions are static, web monetization is dynamic:

2. You can exceed your budget in a month for subscriptions, however, web monetization has a fixed $5 unlimited usage:

3. Card update is a whole new task for subscriptions, web monetization does this in a click:

4. Cost efficiency, $5 VS $Unlimited:

5. Flexibility:

6. Cross border - Cross continent access:

Set up web monetization on your website in 3 steps.

Web Monetization like I'm 5

Table Of Contents

Web Monetization like I'm 5

Why we need Web Monetization

Web Monetization as a user

Web Monetization as a Creator

Suggested Project for Web Monetization Hackathon

Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team ・ May 7 '20

Tech fields that do not require coding

I'm an African Developer Avocado, I'm trying to build more developers in my Country, Ask Me Anything!

#Laptops4Developers; Nigeria++

Name cannot be blank ・ Apr 17 '19

#Laptops4Developers; Nigeria++

Laptops4Developers

Current support

Our mentor's list for #Laptops4Developers

Fundings

Curent Reach