TheWayoftheWeb

I’ve had several conversations about user generated content with my colleague and fellow blogger David Cushman (and you can read his take here.)

Any online submission or rating system needs to have some reward to make the time invested worthwhile. And most of the current models use recognition as that reward, including Digg and Del.icio.us.

But the idea of payment is most definitely spreading. For a while bloggers could monetise their work either with advertising on their site – or by submitting articles to sites like Blogburst. Or even by writing content for sites like Helium.

But the options are growing every day. (Note, I’m not vouching for the earning potential, or payments from any of the sites in this post)

You could earn by using a social network like Yuwie.

Or you could submit links and comments to social review aggregator (and Digg clone), Ximmy.

Or by submitting videos to the likes of Revver.

Or you could even submit pages of search returns for Mahalo.

What’s interesting is how these sites will fair, and how the payment system evolves. Is payment enough to tempt enough users to make Yuwie or Ximmy a viable alternative? Because currently the payment system is definitely aimed at keeping payments as an optional bonus rather than a viable reason to justify the time involved.

Mahalo, meanwhile, takes a more valuable view of the content provided – as it should if it will challenge the likes of the Google search algorithm. Whereas Yuwie or Ximmy offer miniscule amounts for micro actions, Mahalo pays a huge amount, by comparison. But it also expects a lot more work, and applies a rigorous judging procedure.

But the main risk I can see for any of these new business is that their success could easily pave the way for competitors to attack them in a simple price war. And that could lead to a lot of false promises and unmade payments until finally the payment equilibrium puts a fair market price of user submissions, participation, and content.

That’s why I wouldn’t advise anyone to build a system around payment alone. But increasingly payment is becoming an expected part of participation and has to be factored into any social plan. The only variable is whether 1000 links to articles is worth $10 of my time for Ximmy – or a page of researched and picked search returns is worth $10 of my time on Mahalo!

This is just the start of my research into the online user economy, and economics isn’t my main skill, so I’d be really interested in opinions, comments, and anyone’s experiences with using paid UGC sites of any type…

(For the record, I’ve signed up with almost every site mentioned, but I’m still working towards any actual payments!)

I recently read an article on psychologist Oliver James, and his book defining the ‘Affluenza‘ virus – the physical and mental illnesses that can come from constantly putting too high a value on money, possessions, appearance and fame.

James claims that the fact English-speaking nations are more Affluenza-stricken, and have rates of mental illness twice as high as nations in mainland Europe. (Interestingly, books I’ve read about Swedish culture, for example, point to the idea of ‘lagom‘ – doing just enough to do well, without being ostentatiously super-successful)

So, and here’s the interesting bit, if constantly being bombarded with superstars on TV can lead to Affluenza-stricken people comparing themselves unfavourably to TV characters, then Facebook etc could actually boost their self esteem and mental wellbeing.

Because, after all, Facebook puts you in touch with your peers, equals, and friends. So you can compare yourself to people who are on an equal footing – and suddenly things don’t seem so bad. (Obviously it doesn’t work quite as well if you start stalking superstars).

So, ignore the superstar accounts set up by PR companies, and start connecting with people who you share something in common with. It’ll make for more meaningful conversations – and make you saner…