Clearly this looks very experimental but Google has just launched a new way to monetize your web content using Google Wallet.

Through a micro payment you can now sell and monetize all that web content you create.

Here’s the scope. Using Google Wallet, you can label specific content on your web site for purchase. The first paragraph or so remains fully visible to the reader but to read the full articles the reader needs to make a small payment though Google Wallet.

Embed the Google Wallet banner on a web page to allow a user to buy it directly from your site.Give users a free sample before they buy. Google will rank your content based on what you give for free.

Once a user clicks “Buy Now” they are prompted to enter a credit card (or use one that is already saved in your Google Wallet). If a user wants to back out of a purchase, they use the Instant Refund feature. The goal with this is to lower the friction around the purchase.

If the user clicks “Instant Refund” within 30 minutes you take the content back, and the charge is cancelled.Google monitors how much a user refunds to make sure they are only refunding content they dont like, and not using refunds to get free content.

The micro payment offering caps out at $1, so if you want to charge more for your content you’ll need to use another solution (Google recommends using their digital good game solution).

Here’s some examples:

Start to knit

Oxford Reference

Peachpit Quick Start Guide

 

My biggest first reaction to the implementation process, is the way Google obscures the premium part of the content by blocking it out. For me it makes the website look vandalized. I’m not sure how willing publishers will be to uglify their site like this.