17 thoughts on “READER FRIDAY: Should the Internet stay free? What would you pay for?”

1. I would LOVE for FB to stop slapping our hands when we post to promotion groups. There’s no rhyme or reason for it, either. I swear they pick people at random. I’ve known authors who got a notification before even publishing their post, because they posted the day before to too many groups. And then, I see others who post to 30 in five minutes with no consequences. It all comes down to money. They want us to pay to advertise rather than use the groups for free. Okay, I’m done with my rant. To answer your question, yes, I’d pay a nominal fee to be able to use promo groups however I wish. The sales would more than make up for the price. Twitter? Nope.

   • FB wants to control their service to force people to pony up. They make money selling our info PLUS want more from us to conduct business or just give posts a wider soread (because of their tightly squeezed choke hold). I’m not a fan.

     And once you pay, how do you really know your promo us getting out there? Because they show you a bigger number of outreach? Yeah right

     Thanks Sue.

2. Huge topic. Intimidating, and a two-tiered system was recently debated widely. Many people felt that a two-tiered system would benefit larger companies to the detriment of smaller ones… yet more evidence of the decline of true democracy in favor of the growing oligarchy in the world.

   Years ago, France made a type of “Internet” free and accessible via landline phones (mid to late 80s; phones had small screens)… even before the States and Canada really got into the Internet. I don’t know France’s current policy, however.

   I’m definitely in the free Internet camp. It’s difficult not to be in that camp when you live in a country where the middle class is relatively small, and many people don’t have computers, but they use their smartphones to communicate and for access to the Internet (Mexico)… sort of like Singapore where the population skipped landline phones almost entirely and moved directly to cell phones.

   If I had to pay for social media access, I suppose I would because I can afford it, but for our societies? I believe it would be a bad thing. I have a difficult time simply thinking about myself, what I would pay for and what I wouldn’t, because I think I’m more concerned about society in general, and the decline of the middle class.

   As for my personal privacy, I don’t think open access to the Internet and privacy are mutually exclusive, although I’m sure we need more oversight on the way that companies can use our data.

   Which leads me to target marketing for anyone, including authors. I’d love better ways to find my target audiences. I hate spamming my fellow authors because we already get spammed enough, thank you. Some days my Facebook news feed is jammed with authors promoting their books. Ugh! I can’t possibly read all of them, so I basically ignore the promos unless I happen to be very close to the author, in which case I’ll check the book out, but if the writing is blah (no voice or replete with sloppy and lazy writing), I then ignore all further promos from that author.

   However, it seems to me that if we want more privacy, we’ll be sacrificing what little ability we have at the moment to find our target audiences.

   Would I pay an organization that helped me to find my readers in a meaningful way? Probably. I’m beta testing one such organization as we speak, but it focuses on Twitter, and I’m not a Twitter fan. Besides, most of the audience members they’re finding for me are other authors, with a few exceptions. Perhaps that group of exceptions will grow.

   I’m really interested in what your other followers say on this subject.

   • It’s not spamming if you “engage” with potential readers rather than scream “Buy My Book!” There’s an art to marketing, and when it’s done well it can sell boatloads of books. Concentrating on the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) and simply chatting with readers is the way to sell books. But yes, if you belong to groups, you will see other authors post to groups. And sadly, many don’t market their books correctly. They simply promote, and that’s the key difference right there.

     • Social media is still only one method to getting your book and your name in front of people. Often it takes several methods and occurrences for that reader to actually buy. I keep hoping some genius service provider will find a niche eay to develop a truly effective way to market books to readers, something quantifiable. Right now, it seems lots of promo companies only know how to post to sites. Even the free book may be downloaded and not read or reviewed. No one has the definitive way yet, not even the big publishers for the average book.

       Maybe if I wrote my wish to Santa…

   • You’ve raised many good points, Sheryl, especially about the accessibility to various classes of people. The truly impoverished won’t have smart phones but when I hear about the internet being the only way for global atroscities to come to light, it makes me want to support the internet remaining free.

     If it’s free, then no matter how unjust it may seem for FB & Google & other search engines to make money on the habits of the masses, it must be free to all. These faceless corps have a right to chg and manipulate how they wish because it’s their convenience we use. Until we all get proficient on the workings of the dark web and can somehow insure that our queries remain private, this will remain a tough topic to debate.

     Any small business owner, authors included, can expect to pay for services rendered and hope these corporations are providing a useful service until something new comes along.

3. The Internet started as a free way for scientists to exchange ideas and grew to embrace the whole population. I won’t pay and don’t trust the providers, who will keep squeezing every last nickel out of us.

   • The internet was funded by DARPA as I understand it. I think surveillance might have played a part in its creation.

   • http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet-related-networks

     Link to DARPA’ s funding

4. No and No

   I’d find alternatives.

   • If you find alternatives, let us know.

5. I already pay for Internet access. My service provider gives me an email address (not that I use it). It’s really nice to have free services online (like Blogger and WordPress!). I don’t mind seeing ads–in fact, I ignore them so well that I also no longer see billboards.

   For book shopping, I subscribe to BargainBooksy, Bookbub, BookZio, and a bunch of others. Plenty of juicy book ads in my favorite genres all the time.

   • These free services come at the cost of your privacy but it sounds as if you don’t mind that, as long as the internet access is free.

     Thanks for your input, Kessie. Happy surfing.

6. I am constantly amazed at how many people are willing to give up all sorts of personal info and any semblance of privacy on the internet. Use google for your searches? They keep track of what you search for and what you click on …forever. Don’t think Bing is any better. Visit a website, and there’s a good chance that it has installed a cookie that reports what other websites you visit right back to it. That’s one reason you see targeted ads. Even if you try and avoid this, realistically you can’t. I would love to see these practices outlawed. I would pay money to not be tracked. Right now, if you plug my name (rare combo) into google, you can, for example, very quickly locate my house, and the county’s pictures of it. I had a customer do this while I was speaking to him over the phone. It was creepy and disturbing, and, IMO, just wrong. As for Facebook, Instagram, and the like, I just can’t imagine posting my personal info. It’s not that I have “something to hide”. I just like my privacy. Also, the increase is cyberbullying, especially against women, troubles me.

   • I am so with you, sister. Abso-frickin-lutely.

7. I used to be annoyed with the freedom with which commercial organizations practiced their approach to marketing in the digital age, but I have a better understanding of how it fits into the bigger picture of consumer desires and how the majority of the digital consumers dictate trends in the media. I would never have had this level of understanding had I not pursued a major in communications at the graduate level.

   Traditional media publications encouraged the spending of dollars, and the more influential organizations flourished on the printed medium with positioning of their advertisements within a publication. In the digital age, positioning is more delivered by the efforts of the client and their knowledge in gaining their own position within the medium. This means you must know how to navigate the digital platforms and understand how positioning works. This can be a cumbersome effort.

8. I don’t really put any “personal” info out there. Okay, I jones about doughnuts all the time, but I only snatch a quick sample in the store. So shoot me. I like the free and open environment. I’ve made some amazing connections out there. One of the best is right here at TKZ with y’all. However, when it comes to purchasing things, the safety of your credit card is important. Currently, monitoring activity on my account and having having the bank eat fraudulent purchases works for me.

   Paying for access might not resolve a thing. Many folks out there try and con you into paying for security. As old school as most of know that is, folks fall for it constantly. Yunno. The pop-up messages that say your computer is about to explode or the entertaining phone calls from wherever with some mush-mouth guy saying he’s calling from inside your computer. HAHAHAH!

Comments are closed.