Micropayments online Related to the whole "information as product" vs. "information as service" debate is the micropayment fracas. Here's a great article on Kuro5hin that not only lays out the basic micropayment approaches, but also has a lively user debate on what works and what doesn't.

The problem is the focus on using the Internet as a primary market ie. insisting that the main profit generating activity be online. Instead, a better approach for many might be to capitalize on secondary (offline) markets, and use the Internet to support those through lowering the cost for all support services. The author of Sluggy Freelance is far more famous because of his website than he would be if he tried to break into the newspaper world.