With more newspapers looking to charge people a fee to read their content, it has to leave you wondering how long it will be before other content providers like some of the big names in the blogging world, start to charge to read their content. Would you pay to read CopyBlogger, Problogger or the Marketing Pilgrim?

I am not sure that I ever would and I am not sure that we will ever reach that stage. Small Business Mavericks asked the question – Is Paid Content Our Future? and more generally, “is this the future for all online content?”

What I can see in the not too distant future is that some of the big named bloggers and content providers will ‘charge’ an access fee – however, it won’t necessarily be in dollars. Insisting that individuals become members (and so sign up to the mailing list) is one option – an option that is probably very real. Would you become a member of one of the big sites if that was the only way to access their content?

I do see a problem with that model however. The only way it would work is by having all the content marked as private. This means keeping the search engines out and if you keep the search engines out, you won’t rank for that content. If you don’t rank, you will not attract new visitors unless you can circumvent the search engines and deliver a strong social media marketing campaign. If you niche is franchising, how will you let the non-franchise world know what is happening. I know if I was in that industry and want to Make Your Franchise a Success – I would want all the free traffic I could get.

Some niche’s are probably not big enough to utilize a subscription based content model. Take medical transcription – would you subscribe to get the latest news on the topic. If you were in the field you may, but that is only 5,10 thousand tops – is that enough? Probably, if you were so popular you had all of them subscribed. Most of those involved have enough difficulty Handling Home-Based Medical Transcription – I don’t think they would bother with any form of paid content.

I guess if the big boys aren’t ranking in the search results, we may get a look in! In the meantime, is paid content on the horizon – maybe for big time operators, otherwise, don’t even contemplate it.