This isn’t just a complaint article here - this is a serious statement about the biggest problem with this social media web 2.0 “place.”

We’ll start off with the biggie:

Everybody and their Mother loves to complain about Twitter’s downtime. Yup, it’s a pain in the butt. But, if you consider that fact that these guys are running this MASSIVE texting infrastructure without a charging us a dime, you gotta wonder how they didn’t go down in flames a long time ago. We’re not paying for it - who is?

(Hint, them rich VCs and super nice Angels eventually do want their money back at some point - and with interest)

Enough people have said enough times that they wouldn’t mind paying for some uptime.

Please let us.

Imagine what Twitter could do if they actually had revenue. There ain’t a phone company on the planet that don’t charge for what you’re giving away for free (and it’s a HUGE industry). I pray your business plan isn’t just giving away for free what everyone else charges for.

When I was at Google last week (more details coming), I mentioned to a few people half-jokingly that I’d love to find someone down there who could let me pay for my GrandCentral.com account (remember my whole FROOMED piece last year?) Everybody laughed away my idiot idea that someone might want to pay Google for service.

Obviously, Google ain’t Froomed but one can only dream of the services they might provide if they let me pay for it.

Anyway, the reason for this post …

Anybody following this knows I just started getting into the live video thing.

I like it. I like it a lot. I’ve already started pricing light kits.

This morning I got a note from one of you asking what my plans were now that they’re going to do the whole lower thirds text ad insert thing.

Don’t know.

Very annoying.

I make more money when I don’t share my content with Other People’s Completely Unrelated Ads (OPCUAs). Don’t mind paying for the chance to do so either.

You can’t do that when you make a profit.

I’d be more than willing to pay 100x what you’d make on those clicks to have an ad-free player at Ustream.tv. Any chances? I doubt it. Why take money from my credit card when you can make pennies per thousand people for clicks to Jessica Simpson Wallpaper and Animated Smiley Face Pointers.

I got all excited when Mogulus announced their (”coming”) White Label option earlier this year. I contacted them asking for pricing and I got a response that sounded more “hey, we needed to announce something, we have no idea” than “Information coming soon.” I hope I’m wrong but i seldom am on these things.

(Mogulus, prove me wrong, I’d love to update this posting).

I get the whole “audience is more important than profits right now” meme. I can argue that at times but the fact of the matter is this.

There are a whole bunch of us who don’t mind paying for service.

I’m not the smartest businessman in the world but I’m pretty sure that there is money in people willing to pay you for what you already have - but are giving away for free.

Customers are standing by …

Please don’t let the legacy of Web 2.0 be “we didn’t believe people were willing to pay …”

Technorati Tags: twitter, ustream.tv, mogulus, grandcentral.com, freemium, froomed