Today's web pages are based on free information because the methods for collecting fees remain very primitive. Thus, the largest sources of web content are:

• Government publications where the information is considered "public".
• Advocacy and special interest groups driven by the goal of public education.
• Commercial sites posting marketing and product support information.
• "Academic" groups dedicated to the free exchange of ideas and information.

Some primitive fee-based web services:

• Subscription pages, where users pay an annual fee to obtain a password for information access. The on-line equivalent of printed journals are the most common examples of this model.
• Electronic commerce, where users purchase items via the Internet. On-line bookstores, such as Amazon, are the best-known e-commerce sites. These businesses generate income by selling and delivering a tangible product such as a book, video, or CD. The next step are vendors that deliver their product via the Internet. Software vendors have been the first to adopt this method, although the music industry may rapidly become the largest virtual businesses.

Both of these fee-based services represent an electronic parallel to familiar community newspapers and stores. As such, they are effective only for established businesses that are prepared for daily sales. They are of very limited value to an author seeking to self-publish the latest novel or scholarly treatise.

Pay-per-view is the next frontier for commercializing the web.