Readability: a service for decluttering web pages and donating
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After Flattr, Readability is another option for donating to publishers of free web content [source]. But it has features beyond that that make it interesting to readers. Its tag line is “Enjoy reading. Support writing.”
Readability for readers:
- In order to get an account, you need to pay a monthly fee (whose size you can choose, the default is $5).
- 70% of all membership fees go directly to the publishers and content creators in your reading list.
- 30% of all membership fees go to improving Readability’s growing set of tools and services for readers.
- Afterwards, a bookmarklet allows you to make any web page more readable by removing ads, navigation elements, etc.
- You can also push URLs to your account on the Readability website and access them from there later on.
- There will be an Readability iOS app for offline reading, a modified version of Instapaper.
- Safari Reader is based on older Readability code.
- Instapaper users can link their account with their Readability account so that their Instapaper activity decides how their donation will be distributed.
- You need to register with Readability in order to get paid, but Readability keeps a backlog of articles, so if users have read your content in the past, you retroactively get money.
- Readability provides you with statistics regarding your content (how many people access it, when, etc.).
- You can install buttons to “Read now” and “Read later” on your website, for each content unit.
- Safari Reader is a great way to test how your content will probably look on Readability.
- This solves an important problem for readers of free web content: Publishers currently have no incentive to display all of their content on a single page, because it decreases ad revenue. With Readability, the equation changes.
- As a benefit to Readability, if publishers receive donations through them, they are also likely to promote them (via buttons etc.).
