I wouldn't like a micropayment system to be utilized for the comic. That would make it a hassle to access it, and I would probably stop doing so. Not that my opinion matters one bit. Love the comic, though.

Your opinions do matter.

I'm not thinking that I'd put the micropayment system up for PE(aott) -- at least, not for the current-most strip. If I did add micropayments for comic strip views, then I might do it for the archives. The most recent month would be free. The earlier stuff might not be.

But I really don't want to put micropayments on viewing the comic strip, so the above will probably never ever happen.

If anything, I'd offer other items through the micropayment system -- five cents for an exclusive PE(aott) wallpaper or five cents for a color Sunday comic. Something like that. I'd try to keep the regular M-F PE(aott) available for anyone to read.

Thanks for reading, Zeuge! I'm really glad you take the time to visit my little website.

A payment system on the archives is a bad idea, IMO. Here's how I read new comics: I find one that looks interesting, look at a few of the recent strips. If those catch my interest, then I start from the beginning. Comics, even those that are mostly single "gag" strips, are serial in nature and are thus better appreciated when you've read the whole archive.

If you have to plop down cash to start from the beginning, you might not dig the strip. Somebody who just had the last month's worth of PE(aott) to read probably wouldn't quite get the strip -- the alien/superhero storyline is older than a month, and it builds on a lot of previous strips.

At the same time, if the cost to see the entire archive was fifty cents, it probably wouldn't be a big deal. Maybe you could make the first month (or rather the first *good* month) free in addition to the most recent month -- just the stuff in between would cost. Then you could read the recent stuff and start at a place relatively near the beginning before you decided whether or not to pay for it.

I love the idea of micropayments, myself. I try and donate to the various Web sites I read (pretty much everyone has PayPal donations these days) but it's a pain to remember to do it on a somewhat regular basis, and I'm never sure how much to donate or how often. I'd love to donate a few bucks a month to each site, but I read too many sites to make that affordable to me. Micropayments that would amount to less than a dollar a month per site seem like a good balance.

I think the idea of paying for exclusive content is good, too. Penny Arcade has had some success with its "Club PA" model, where they give out exclusive comics or art and other goodies each month for anyone who donates any amount in a month. There's usually a post or two in a given month by Tycho and/or Gabe reminding people about Club PA and giving a teaser of the new content. This usually reminds me to donate. If I could automatically give them a quarter a month or something, I definitely would (same goes for you, Thomas).

I tend to read comics from the very first strip. I'm kind of pedantic and like things to be read in order. Then occasionally, when I'm bored and have nothing to do, I'll go and read from the beginning again. It's amazing how many little things you forget when you have a sieve-like brain such as mine.

Micropayments sound like a good idea though. I don't have a whole lot of money, but I love spending it on things that I feel are worth it. I wish I could afford to donate to all the online comics I love to read, including this one, but for me it's really complicated. I have to steal ask my friends to donate on my behalf because I'm too poor for a credit card and my mum is paranoid and doesn't trust PayPal. Paying for exclusive wallpapers and icons and stuff would be cool though. Especially for people as broke as I am.

Anyway, I know I started this with a point, but I think it became blunt somewhere. I very easily go off on tangents...I hope you managed to discern some semblance of sense out of this comment. I think it's in there somewhere, if very deeply hidden.

It wasn't too hidden. I think it boils down to what I've heard from other people -- an online comic strip with open archives will attract more readers than an online comic strip with a closed (pay-per-view) archive.

What I'm most likely going to do is add extra items and put them behind BitPass's payment thing. Stuff like desktop wallpaper, maybe some color Sunday-like strips, maybe some new short comic works. This is similar to how Penny-Arcade's Club PA and Keenspot's Premium Service work.

I'd like to be able to choose to set up a payment, in which I simply give you 20c a month, regardless of which comics you do, because I think hoping for a strip to be what the "public" wants isn't very good for creativity.

I just sent a request to the BitPass-Team for that:
"Can I set up my payer-account to give a few cents to someone every month for one year, without me having to do anything further, and without spending it all at once?
Like a subscription where not the sites owner decides what I have to give, but I decide, that the site is worth it.
It would be like donations, where you don't have to remember to donate over and over again."

But I am still careful about online-payments. PayPal for example belongs to ebay, and ebay gives personal information to those who feel threatened (it is not quite so easy, but close), so when I spend for something someone doesn't like, I could run into trouble.

I've asked BitPass about that recurring payment thing, and they've replied:

We can, but have not built yet, a way for recurring billing to be applied to the balance on a spender account. When the balance is low, we could send a reminder to put additional funds into the spender account.

More convenient billing plans will be implemented as resources allow. Your comments help us prioritize which ones to implement first, so please keep the comments coming!

Just so you know, Draketo, you're not the only one who's asked for a subscription rate thing.