The Dilution Dilemma

Changing what is in your cup

A product can only take so much dilution to it’s core ingredient before it becomes unattractive to the consumer. For a good headline let’s call it the Dilution Dilemma. Malcolm Gladwell recently was a guest on the Bill Simmons podcast, part of The Ringer podcast network (I LIKE FREE SHIT!), where he gave the example of Folgers Coffee. Folgers used to be considered high quality coffee back in the 70’s where year after year they put less and less actual coffee into their product and eventually became the Folgers coffee we know today.

This dilemma has become quite apparent when consuming online media. Just like Folgers, publishers and media platforms are putting more and more ingredients into their content which makes their products unattractive (demonstrated by what I did to the first paragraph of this post by selling out). The filler of choice has been advertising.

This dilemma is most certainly avoidable by simply testing a product’s level of dilution and their consumers tolerance. Well run companies like Google and Facebook are doing this already and it shows in most recent changes like Google punishing aggressive advertisers. However large chunks of the online landscape have already blown past their dilution points. This can be proven largely by the ad blocking movement where adoption of these technologies have seen hockey stick growth for the last couple of years.

So if the internet has already turned into Folgers what do we do about it?

A certain percentage of people can tolerate the ad dilution that exists today and that’s fine. However for all those that can’t and have hit their dilution threshold there needs to be a focus on how to bring content back to it’s purest form. People have been paying for premium content for a long time through subscriptions and on a lot of levels those models work great. However subscription models have not become as widespread as hoped due to two factors, ease of entry and price point.

Consider the benefits of using micropayments. Micropayments solve the price point hurdle by being able to provide prices that capture the majority of consumers without significant drop off. Add to that a low friction adoption process where people don’t have to constantly think about how much to give. Both major issues of the subscription model are now solved. This model should be able to flourish on it’s own but it will always be at odds with advertising. It won’t be until someone comes along and combines both advertising and micropayments in a seamless way for a platform to truly dominate how content is monetized.

One take on doing this would be to constantly test the dilution point with consumers until it gets to where each person’s browsing experience is tailored towards their own dilution point. Think of it as an ever adjusting dial where ads flow in and out depending on how each person chooses to browse the internet. If a person is generous and gives back to the content creators they consume, that person will never see advertisements because they are supporting content through micro contributions. This user is self sufficient and the money is sent directly to the content creators without a middle man. If a person is a bit strapped for cash or even enjoy seeing ads, this user doesn’t have to pay a thing and will continue to see the ad supported world most prevalent today.

Before you decide what camp you’re in think about this...If you choose the micropayment route you help solve the dilution dilemma. You also help solve another illness of the advertising age which is most commonly referred to as ClickBait. Not only is advertising cluttering up and slowing down your browsing experience it’s actually changing the way content is produced. More clicks = more ad revenue = an internet that is impossible to navigate and at times not even worth trying. The advertising model itself puts the value on the ad click and not the quality of content produced.

With micropayments the reward rests on getting the emotional response from a consumer to give back. This is done by producing something worthy of the consumer's time. Yes this is a utopian idea but one that is quite feasible today with the proper network effect and technologies like Bitcoin to process the billions of transactions that would happen on a daily basis with little to no cost. We remove the middle man of the monetary world (banks) and remove the middle man of the online world (advertisers).

By adopting micropayments we put the decision to reward content in our hands. The only reason advertising owned that decision in the first place was that we didn’t have the technology that exists today and needed a way to support the mass scaling of content online. Advertising got us to where we are now, I say we take it from here.

Give micro-philanthropy a try and support the content you love. Here’s a list of a few companies that are attempting to take the step to change content creation for the better.

[Full Disclosure] Tribute is my horse in the race. We are still in very early stages and are actively building out our team so a helping hand is more than welcome.

Upcoming Posts: How to curate content through reader’s micro contributions, how to pool payments to commission new content, and how to use the transactions themselves to optimize your time online.