Please Take My Money, Mr. Content Producer

Earlier today This Week in Startups (TWiST) began accepting donations.  In exchange, fans receive packaged perks for their donation, based on the subscription tier chosen (starting at $5 and up to $50/month).  Benefits include behind-the-scenes content, show credits, schwag, and even an in-studio visitation pass.

I’m a huge TWiST fan (I’ve listened to or watched all 133 episodes since the beginning - superfan booyah!) so I felt compelled obligated to make a contribution.  Although it’s a small amount of money, it feels incredibly satisfying to directly support content creators - not that Jason needs it :).

I would like to see more content producers adopt this type of program.  Not only does it add a little cheddar in their pockets but more importantly, it gives fans a means to give back and feel partly responsible for its success, however small the donation.

I believe we’ll see higher adoption of the donation-model as online consumers become (re)accustomed to paying for content.  We’ve already seen huge changes in this direction thanks to Apple’s iTunes and App Store marketplaces.  Facebook and the social gaming movement has also reinvigorated paid-for content and once Facebook Credits moves beyond the facebook.com domain, we’ll see microtransactions invade blogs, podcasts, and other content forms.

Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent.

I hope Jason and the TWiST crew share the results of their program to give other content producers insight into its performance.  Until then, I await to see my name mentioned in the TWiST credits. :)