Web Monetization Explained

What is Web Monetization?

Simply put, Web Monetization is a way that content creators can earn from streaming micropayments based on the amount of time that visitors spend on their digital content.

The Web Monetization Standard is a JavaScript browser API that allows for the creation of a payment stream from a website visitor to a website.

The Problems That the Web Monetization Aims to Help Solve

While the internet has become a highly useful part of our lives, as it has grown so to have the problems that it causes, especially as large companies look to see how they can profit from it and organizations look to see how storytelling in the digital sphere can be utilized to shift the public conscious. With this has come an increase in digital advertising and fake news, as Adam, the Founder of gFam articulates below.

The problems go beyond advertising and fake news though. Within this mix, we see individuals’ data being taken advantage of for the profit and manipulation of others, and we see the formation of a classist and have and have not system on the web, where big players are profiting off of the work and creativity of others. This is particularly the case for marginalized people, who (to quote Interledger and Grant for the Web from their SXSW 2022 panel pitch ‘Bringing Marginalized Creatives Back to the Web‘) “too regularly have their voices muted, are eliminated from projects, and are finding that they have limited options for controlling and monetizing their art.” Too often “the web’s creative platforms and predatory ad models grant privilege and access unequally, leaving most creatives out of the very industries they helped build.”

The web’s creative platforms and predatory ad models grant privilege and access unequally, leaving most creatives out of the very industries they helped build.

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Building One Solution for a More Equitable Web through Web Monetization

Web Monetization is one of the solutions that people are working on to make the web more equitable for creatives and solve some of the problems discussed above.

Amber Case talks about the importance and need for Web Monetization and Micropayments in the video below. It should just be stated that Web Monetization does not need to be at odds with subscription models and that a subscription based model is the main working solution for Web Monetization at present, as the community continues to work, problem solve, and experiment to build upon the ecosystem and ways in which to Web Monetize your work.

How Does Web Monetization Work?

Basically how Web Monetization currently works is through the transfer of micropayments from the Web Monetization subscription of a website visitor to the Web Monetized site or digital asset that they are spending time on. As Amber explains …

Continue on to discover how to begin to Web Monetize your digital assets and support other creatives with Web Monetization.