Can Small Businesses Find an Affordable Niche in Google’s Paywall Service?

Discussion started over at SEW…

Google always gives prominence first to paying customers (PPC above natural results) and second to what it deems are the most relevant results.

Let’s say that now when we produce valuable content on a client’s website, we have the opportunity to collect a fee. If a customer of Google’s paywall clicks and “accepts the charges”, supposedly we as the publisher of valuable information gain a dominant share of the fee.

This shows a great potential for businesses to invest more greatly in researching and publishing quality content. Of course it could also mean that writing a great headline could earn you the same fees rather than focus on the content behind the paywall…

Let’s look at it another way. I publish great content and offer it via RSS feed to other websites to increase my traffic. Will the paywall only be enacted if the visitor enters by Google referral?

Many questions certainly but I truly hope that Google succeeds in developing a working model for paid content. The dumbing down of literature and culture badly needs a buttress against the hammering of small opinions writ large.