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Paying to write someone (ie, physical mail) was the standard for all communication before we had widespread telefax/internet messaging adoption. I don't know how bad the spam problem was there, but the concept doesn't strike me as being necessarily awful. What's your concern?

The concern is that free alternatives exist now, so you have to explain to people the value they get out of paying to contact me.

That’s not quite the same - you were paying for delivery by a third party, and you still do that when you pay for your email provider.

This is pay to play to contact someone - more akin to donors paying politicians for access at a dinner.

> I don't know how bad the spam problem was there

For every legit paper mail, I've had 5-10 garbage leaflet advertisements shoved into my mailbox by half-legally working teenagers earning $1-2/h in exchange for everyone's annoyance. 99% of these went into trash immediately without looking.

Well. At least I would get paid for clicking "delete". Good for me.

Just raise your price then. Until it becomes lucrative for you