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> Those are not the only two choices.

absolutely, and I'm grateful to see people experimenting with different models for making money, but as it stands the most reasonable way for websites to make money is, probably in order of effectiveness:

1) advertising

2) charging for content

3) freemium, ie free content with paid extas

4) sponsorship

5) ???

generally when I talk about websites serving advertising, I'm speaking specifically about news/media websites. The cost of producing news is substantial, so earnings have to be commensurate. Either you charge people for it, or you give it away for free with advertising, and perhaps have added value services.




5) accept donations




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