The New Age of Monetizing the Web

It really wasn't that long ago that I decided to convert this Web site to a subscription-based resource. The reaction was fierce. There were threats. There were recriminations. There were insults (galore). And there were countless predictions of the imminent failure of Webcomics.com.

There were 272 comments in the announcement thread. Most of the complaints boiled doen to a "free content" attitude that prevailed on the Web at that time. I had no reason to ask to get paid for researching, writing and moderating this site, after all... it was just expected that I would do so (and do so for free).

Moreover, I could tell my my site statistics that a significant number of people who had some to jab their pitchforks in the air were making their very first trip to the site to do so.

Read that last sentence, and think about it for second.

That was 2010...