* or pretty pixel patterns, or a transparent/invisible space, or a completely customized image - but this is The Internet, and gosh darnit we love cats.
Most of the content internet is supported primarily through advertising. It's an unpleasant truth, since a lot of those ads tend to be ugly and intrusive, but content writers (and forum moderators, right Rob?) gotta get paid.
Have you ever thought to yourself, "You know, I really enjoy visiting this site but I hate dealing with all the ads. I know the site needs funds from advertising to keep the lights blinking on their servers, but I wish I could just toss some change in a tip jar rather than deal with these ads." ?
Google Contributor is that tip jar.
(Not a perfect analogy, deal with it.)
With Contributor, you pay a monthly fee of your choice ($1-10), and Google uses that money to pay the site for the place of the AdSense ads you would otherwise see. You can choose to limit that effect to only certain sites (like AndroidForums.com and Phandroid.com) or spread the funds across the millions of other sites that also use AdSense. And you can also pick what gets presented in place of the ads:
You can even enter a custom HTTPS URL to use an image of your choice!
So now, instead of this:
Android Forums looks like this:
And the content creators still get paid!
As with most other new things from Google, Contributor is in an invite-only beta period. The link to sign-up, as well as more information about the program, can be found here: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/
Most of the content internet is supported primarily through advertising. It's an unpleasant truth, since a lot of those ads tend to be ugly and intrusive, but content writers (and forum moderators, right Rob?) gotta get paid.
Have you ever thought to yourself, "You know, I really enjoy visiting this site but I hate dealing with all the ads. I know the site needs funds from advertising to keep the lights blinking on their servers, but I wish I could just toss some change in a tip jar rather than deal with these ads." ?
Google Contributor is that tip jar.
(Not a perfect analogy, deal with it.)
With Contributor, you pay a monthly fee of your choice ($1-10), and Google uses that money to pay the site for the place of the AdSense ads you would otherwise see. You can choose to limit that effect to only certain sites (like AndroidForums.com and Phandroid.com) or spread the funds across the millions of other sites that also use AdSense. And you can also pick what gets presented in place of the ads:
You can even enter a custom HTTPS URL to use an image of your choice!
So now, instead of this:
Android Forums looks like this:
And the content creators still get paid!
As with most other new things from Google, Contributor is in an invite-only beta period. The link to sign-up, as well as more information about the program, can be found here: https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/
