With so many of the Web 2.0 sites out there being social sites, it’s really only a matter of time before a shift is made from getting users to work for free to having to pay them.

The site that got me thinking about this is nerdynews. On the surface, nerdynews is just yet another digg clone. And to top it, they don’t really have any traffic or users yet… the only stories being posted appear to be from the founders. Ok… we can’t all have instant traffic driven by mediocre fame like Kevin Rose.

But, the idea is sound in a way. Nerdynews works by allowing users to linking their AdSense account information to the stories they submit. Revenues from AdSense are split 50/50 and automatically credited to the users account via the AdSense API.

Issue #1: You have to actually view the comments section of each story to see the ad. This will seriously hinder the ad revenue for users.
Issue #2: They are going to have to attract users in order to… attract users. Early adopters are going to see almost no revenue. I think nerdynews needs another draw to bring users in. Why would I go to nerdynews instead of digg or mixx?