My old chum John McGarvey just did an interview with Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief at Wired and author of The Long Tail. (See my old post about The Long Tail and blogging.)

It’s an interesting analysis of the free nature of internet content. Back in the beginning, I think people hoped that the internet would be free in the sense of non-commercial. The outrage over the first spam supports this hypothesis. Since then advertising has been the main way of making money from publishing online. However, Anderson identifies some other ways in which we ‘pay’ to consume online.

“Typically you’re paying with your time and regard. If you link to something, you’re paying by giving some of your own reputation to that site. If you’re spending time with it, you’re exchanging some of your scarce attention for that free product.

“Sometimes you do pay directly. Advertising, ultimately, is paid for by consumers in the form of higher prices for the products being advertised. It’s just not a direct shelling out of cash for products as in the traditional economy.”

All this hit a nerve for me. On the one hand, a reputable US media firm offered me a good sum of money to advertise on Bad Language.  I turned it down.  Mainly because I think advertising would make the site look awful.  Partly, also, I think that Bad Language is really a kind of advert for me and my work and I don’t want to share the limelight.  Also, I fear that if I advertised Bad Language would become more commercial than it is and I’d feel I had to write stuff when I didn’t want to and I’d have to get it properly proofread etc. 

On the other hand, I’m about to launch a new site for pilots and I do want to make some money from that because I’m investing real cash money in developing it.  I’m torn between an ad-funded model and a subscription model.  Currently, I’m going with adverts because I think charging subscribers will make the site more offputting than advertising.  At the end of the day, I still want people to read it.  I guess I’m both sides of this discussion.

(Full disclosure, John used be a client a few years ago. I used to write for Wired but never met Anderson. I use 123-reg for my own domain management. I don’t think any of this influenced the post.)