0 givesThe phenomenon is not entirely new

It is Christmas for surfers! More and more sites are willing to pay to see produce and consume at home. Last July, 35,000 dollars were thus paid to Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the two authors of the "Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment" a video clip on the reconstruction of the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas with 100 bottles of Coca and the Mentos candies. "I am quite confident that now that we have launched this type of relationship with the authors of videos, others will be forced to adopt the same model", said Steven Starr at the time. Founder of Revver, a video site launched late 2005, the former agent of Bob Marley has paved the way by sharing advertising revenues with the authors of the videos published on the site.

The new Web 2.0 gives

The phenomenon is not entirely new. Established in 1999, the pioneer AllAdvantage paid those who had downloaded his "viewbar" in exchange for a window on the screen where parade banners targeted according to the sites visited. Its members could earn additional income by sponsoring friends. This "business model" collapsed in 2000 after the rapid decline in advertising revenues following the collapse of the dot-com bubble. The company closed in February 2001 after paying $ 120 million to the 10 million members in two and a half years of activity.

If there is more paid for surfing, some sites are again ready to share some of their earnings with the Internet. The original ideas to flourish. The French start-up Imagiin, for example, pay users to watch an advertisement and answer a few questions (see next page). Google, for its part, pays the developers who have helped to develop small applications ("widgets") on its site (50 EUR to 100 downloads of "widget").

If Internet users pay returns to the mode, it is because a groundswell: the advent of Web 2.0, that of an Internet where communities are Queens. It is within the "viral marketing", the word-of-mouth on the Internet is the most effective. The value of their service is directly proportional to the size of their market where the motivation of the users to recruit new members. On the site, the increase in traffic brings more advertising revenue, customers, or subscriptions. This is particularly true in the world of electronic commerce, with the emergence of the "social shopping", where, simultaneously, Internet experts are paid for their opinion, consumer purchases (commission, "cashback" in exchange for their loyalty) and their sponsors (see next page).

Across the Atlantic, the original examples abound. Lingo, a US company of Internet telephony, only more to offer $ 25 for members who recommend their friends to buy the site. It provides them a platform and a marketing toolkit that allows any user to become a commercial and recover $ 40 for each new Subscriber. For his part, Jellyfish, a comparison of prices, last summer engine launched in the United States, identifies merchants with the commission given to the consumer for their purchase. Open this month, the search engine Squidoo which analyzes the queries through filters developed by "experts" self-appointed decided to pay the latter based on the success of their recommendations.

Web 2.0 also marks a point of inflection for amateur content. User-generated content has suddenly increased in value. It is created and distributed much more easily than before, including blogs and photos, videos or podcasts aggregation platforms. Of the huge attendances will consist on sites such as MySpace (sold to News Corp.) or YouTube (sold to Google), which brought the tools of storage, publication and dissemination.

The appetites of the authorities

Many sites are born to aggregate the thematic or community content produced by users. For them, the content of quality becomes essential to attract traffic and power pay with advertising. They do therefore not hesitate to pay the best contributions. Launched in May 2005, the Social Media Group, Christophe Labédan, which includes several thematic blogs (automotive, high-tech...), pays its bloggers the ticket 5 euros. He did this year 200,000 euros of event sales advertising, resale of content and the creation of blogs. Its best bloggers can earn 300 to 400 euros per month. "You want to give the floor to lovers." "If it does not pay, they do not remain and they are also more difficult to channel," said Christophe Labédan. Launched early October in 80 cities in the world, Citizenbay is a publication platform where the local content produced by users. A thousand people have registered and best contributors have seen more than 100 euros in compensation, said Oleg Tscheltzoff, the founder of the society.

Some bloggers themselves are created such reputation online and emit enough traffic that they attract the appetites of the authorities. This is the case of Influence, an agency authority to negotiate for them contracts with advertisers. "Their content has value, learning to build value," assures Arthur Kannas, Director associate agency Heaven which Influence. It can also handle the sale of content or the sale of the rights of bloggers that it represents. Influence has taken under contract of individuals such as Zazon, a young woman who has been making videos hidden camera, Ouriel Ouhayon microphones-sidewalks, which launched the French version of Techcrunch (a blog specializing in the high-tech) or even Loïc Le Meur. The Six Apart Europe boss who receives more than 130,000 unique visitors each month on his blog, generates 4,000 euros per month with the latter including 700 euros via Adsense (a software from Google that distributes contextual advertisements to the text) and the rest with the Board. But it is an exceptional case.

The idea of agent made its way. Benjamin Bejbaum, CEO of Dailymotion, a French video aggregation site, said he also advocates "a revenue sharing model." It can act as agent for those who are content ". Will be no compensation to freelance, but those who will provide regular content that captures the hearing will be offered a contract with the terms and conditions are being established.

Debate in the blogosphere

The question is open, that the purchase of YouTube by Google for 1.65 billion dollars has caused a debate in the blogosphere on the unfair appropriation by the start-up of the value created collectively by its users. YouTube may soon be forced to be generous with the authors, under penalty of best viewing escape in favour of more lucrative platforms. "LonelyGirl15", a drama which caused a sensation on YouTube, is becoming a lucrative case it is posted on Revver although no figure was revealed. Even Google is. Like Revver, there for the first time shared advertising revenue tied to the "diet Coke & mentos experiment" clip on Google video. A similar strategy of YouTube announcement is expected by many commentators.

Content distributors have not finished grope with revenue-sharing models. Break, a video site launched last year, was the first to test a model of fixed remuneration of clips to success. End of November, he announced that he would double the amount for each original video clip which collects enough hearing to appear on the home page of the site, in the amount of $ 400. Born a true effort of producing short films and cartoons will be paid up to $ 2,000.

Will Internet users to take to the game If this is their passion, it is likely. But sites need to be wary of fraudsters, in particular when it comes (as in for example membership) click pay. "Avoid mercenaries." They are there! ", assures Arthur Kannas.

In any case, there may be an opportunity to win the equivalent of the monthly subscription to a broadband connection. One occasion that although young Internet users might enter.