The current economic model of the internet is based on "cut glass/jewel" model. Web sites provide for their casual visitors shiny pieces of cut glass and semi-precious stones to pick through for nothing.

The precious jewels on the site are for sale once you have become tired of the cheaper free material. There is a significant problem with this model, namely that the jewels for sale must be of sufficient value to justify a significant payment. It is just not economic otherwise. Paypal, for example, charges 2.9 percent of a sale plus 30 cents so any transaction under say $1 is clearly uneconomic and besides would you go through the complexities of a Paypal payment for a $1 item, probably not.

Think of parts of the internet as a local market with stall holders, like The Green Man, providing home made goods for sale for small amounts of money. Much of your time at the market is spent browsing but occasionally there is a trinket, or jar of jam, that takes your fancy, it is cheap so you buy it on a whim. This is a problem in the virtual domain that is begging for a solution. Think of placing $20 in your virtual pocket and browsing the virtual market; spending 20c at this stall, $1 at the next one, 50c at another. Establishing this “virtual local market” structure will make the person responsible very rich. Establishing it, however, will not be simple, like the telephone is only truly useful when most people have one, so this system will only be useful when a large number of websites and visitors are participating.