Hosted services for collecting payments from and providing personalized content to web site visitors

A system for providing fee-based access to content, comprising:

• a service provider site that collects payments from users, including single-action payments initiated from pages of external sites;
• and
• a content provider site that is external to the service provider site, the content provider site comprising a content page, and including an additional page that includes a selectable link to the content page, said link including a reference to the service provider site to allow the service provider site to collect payments;
• wherein selection of the link by a visitor who is registered with the service provider site causes the service provider site to charge the visitor a fee for accessing the content page and causes the content page to be displayed by a browser of the visitor, whereby the visitor may pay for and access the content page with a single action.

A method of providing single action payment functionality within a web page that is external to a service provider site that collects such payments, the method comprising:

• incorporating, into coding of the web page, a reference to a display object served by the service provider site, to cause the display object to be requested from the service provider site and displayed within the web page when visitors view the web page;
• at the service provider site, responding to a request for the display object from a browser of a recognized visitor by returning a customized version of the display object that is adapted to be selected by the visitor to effect a single action payment to a corresponding payee;
• and
• in response to selection of the customized version of the display object by the visitor, effecting payment from the visitor to the payee without requiring the visitor to perform a further action.

A method of providing personalized content to visitors of a web site without exposing visitor identities to an operator of the web site, the method comprising:

• incorporating, into coding of a web page of the web site, a reference to an object served by a server that is separate from the web site, to cause the object to be requested from the server when users view the web page;
• receiving, with the server, a request for the object, the request generated by a visitor's browser in response to retrieval of the web page coding from the web site;
• and
• responding to the request with the server by at least (a), identifying the visitor, (b) customizing the object based at least upon an identity of the visitor to generate a personalized object, and (c) returning the personalized object to the visitor's browser for output to the visitor.

A system for distributing content to users, comprising:

• a service provider site which (a) collects voluntary payments from users who access content on external sites, and (b) generates ratings of users;
• and
• an external content provider site which hosts a digital work, and uses the service provider site to collect payments from users who access the digital work;
• wherein the content provider site includes multiple ratings-based destinations, each ratings-based destination corresponding to, and providing access to content associated with, a respective user rating;
• and wherein the content provider site further includes a navigational link which is selectable by users to access the ratings-based destinations associated with their respective ratings, said link pointing to the service provider site;
• and wherein the service provider site is responsive to selection of the link by a user by determining the rating of the user, selecting the destination corresponding to the rating, and redirecting a browser of the user to the selected destination;
• whereby the user is provided ratings-based access to content on the content provider site without exposing to an operator of the content provider site an identity or rating of the user.

A method for controlling user access to content, comprising:

• setting up multiple destinations on a content provider site such that each destination corresponds to, and provides access to content associated with, a respective user rating;
• incorporating into a web page of the content provider site a link to the service provider site to permit ratings-based access to the destinations, wherein the service provider site collects payments from users of the content provider site and other external web sites, and generates ratings of the users;
• and
• in response to selection of the link by a user, determining the rating of the user, selecting the destination corresponding to the rating, and redirecting a browser of the user to the destination;
• wherein the user is provided ratings-based access to content on the content provider site without exposing to an operator of the content provider site the identity or the rating of the user.

A method for providing payment-based access to a digital work, comprising:

• hosting the work on a content provider site in association with a link to a payment service provider site;
• on the payment service provider site, in response to selection of the link by a user:
• (a) collecting payment from the user;
• (b) generating a string containing transaction information associated with the payment;
• and (c) redirecting a browser of the user to a destination location on the content provider site such that the string is passed to the content provider site with a destination URL;
• and
• on the content provider site, determining whether the string passed with the destination URL is valid to determine whether the user is authorized to access the work.