Support Your Local Hyperlocal Publication with Kachingle

ChicagoTalks.org is a not for profit enterprise, but we are looking to have a revenue stream that will allow us to pay our editors and contributors. We also believe that there are many people who will pay for content if they enjoy it or find it helpful, and if it is easy to make a payment.

That has been the big stumbling block to paying for news and information online. Registration, paywalls, lots of clicking just to read a story just drives readers off. We are experimenting with a new tool called Kachingle, and we are asking you to check it out. We have our Kachingle badge (in the sidebar on the left.)

You join Kachingle as a reader and as a site owner, if you have your own site. Kachingle asks you to put up $5.00 per month using Paypal. That part takes about five minutes to set up. Once you’ve pledged money in Kachingle, you can click on the Kachingle badge on ChicagoTalks.org (and any other Kachingle badges on sites you read or view.)

Kachingle keeps track of your visits and each month, it takes your $5.00 and distributes it to all the sites you visited – but the best part to me is Kachingle allocates the money proportionally, based on what places you visited the most. If you Kachingle and only visit ChicagoTalks.org, we’d get the whole $5.00. If you visit five sites, each would get $1.00.

Simple, easy, fair to all the sites you visit, and it provides a low-cost way to help keep sites with content you enjoy going. Why not try it today? You can cancel your monthly payout whenever you want to.

If you are a ChicagoTalks writer or reader, how about Kachingling us? We thank you and hope the idea of Kachingle, not pay walls or set monthly fees, becomes a model for the way online publishing works.