Similar to television or newspaper advertising , the concept of pay-per-view is built on the premise that consumers are attracted to content and, having received it, are willing to view subsequent advertising. It is essentially "the exchange of information for value." But as marketers will attest, defining such value on the Internet is becoming increasingly difficult. Two notable instances of this model are 1) service for advertising and 2) money for advertising.

Service for Advertising

This model is best described by the websites who use it. Juno Online and Freemark are two companies who provide the value-added service of email for little or no fee. Users who adopt this service arguably get a great deal since the acceptance of the service is a nonverbal agreement to have advertising content "pushed" to you while viewing your mail.

Juno’s primary source of revenue is sales from advertising. Advertisements are delivered through the e-mail interface that Juno provides, and are prominently displayed while the e-mail subscriber is reading, writing, sending and receiving e-mail messages. Upon registering for Juno’s services, the user is prompted for demographic and personal information. With this information, Juno hopes to provide more value to their advertisers by allowing them to target the people who will be more likely to purchase their advertisers’ products/services.

An advertiser has a choice of displaying its products/services on either the ubiquitous banner ad or a showcase ad. Both ad types are displayed on the user’s e-mail screen as they are reading or writing messages.

What makes Juno’s advertising model unique is its ability to package an advertising channel with a valuable service to its users. The channel also provides an additional advantage in its ability to deliver advertising messages directly to the user, rather than depending on self-selection.

Money for advertising

Another example of pay-per-view is the "money for advertising " model which has gained much of its notoriety from CyberGold .

CyberGold is a start-up company in Berkeley, California that is redefining the traditional interaction between consumers and marketers. Their service allows marketers to pay for the consumers’ time and attention to the advertising these marketers have published on the web. The marketer’s web site or advertising link displays CyberGold’s trademark CyberGold coins. By clicking on these coins, the consumer will be able to read specific service/product information, answer questions, play games or participate in surveys. Successful completion of these tasks would then allow the consumer to collect CyberGold which can be redeemed in the form of US currency, goods or donations to charitable institutions.