Not many Internet startups launch their services by offering a "Declaration of Independence" or making comparisons to Martin Luther's famous actions nearly 500 years ago at the Castle Church. But startups are all about breaking with tradition, and with that BigDoor Media today unveiled a new way for online publishers to make money off their Web sites.

"While I fully recognize that launching a public beta of an Internet technology platform pales in comparison to the actions of Luther that changed the very course of western civilization, I tend to relish in the imagery and I draw inspiration from bold actions," writes BigDoor's Keith Smith, who previously founded online advertising company Zango. "So it is in that spirit that I write this inaugural post for our BigDoor blog and declare our independence from the established way of thinking in the online media world."

So, what is Smith actually building? Think of BigDoor as a new type of online payment system for online publishers. Or, as the company so eloquently puts it in a press release today: "BigDoor Media’s mission is to provide online monetization that doesn’t suck." (Martin Luther would be so proud).

We actually wrote about Smith's latest venture last month after he scored $250,000 in startup capital from angel investment group Founder Co-op. At the time, Smith didn't want to share many details.

But here we are, just over a month later, and the entrepreneur is letting the words flow. In his lengthy and amazingly well written "Declaration of Independence" blog post, Smith -- who describes himself and co-founder Jeff Malek as the "fathers of adware" and then later goes on to repudiate the practice -- lays out exactly what went wrong at notorious adware provider Zango/180Solutions.

Keith Smith

Smith describes 10 lessons that the team learned from the Zango blow up, and how those lessons will help shape the guiding principles of BigDoor.

"We view the long list of stuff we got wrong over the past ten years as one of our biggest assets, and if you think that sounds idiotic then I congratulate you on either being perfect or too dumb to realize the gravity of your own humanity," he writes.

Among the 10 lessons noted by Smith: "Only do business with the good guys," "be crazy passionate about customers," and "don't take ourselves too seriously."

BigDoor is entering a highly competitive, yet highly lucrative business. The new online platform "bridges the gap" between subscription and advertising models in an attempt to help "webmasters make a profit." In fact, figuring out a new way for publishers of games, music, news, etc., is kind of the Holy Grail of the online content business right now. (More on that later today with yet another Seattle area startup playing in the space).

The BigDoor service works like this. Say you are a small online publisher covering everything there is to know about dog parks.

After adding a line of code from BigDoor to the Web site, an "offer widget" appears on the publisher's Web site. This widget -- which can be customized to appear at select times -- prompts users to fill out a survey, subscribe to a newsletter or participate in another type of marketing offer. In the case of a Web site about dog parks, it could be a survey from a pet food company or a newsletter from a local veterinarian.

In essence, the reader is "paying" for the content by opting in to an offer from a marketer. (Smith's last company, Zango, got in trouble for signing up users for the ad serving software without their knowledge).

I then assume there's a revenue split between the publisher and BigDoor, but have yet to hear back on that from Smith. (Update: Smith tells TechFlash that they plan to keep 40 percent of the revenue, with the publisher receiving the remainder).

If a reader doesn't want to participate in the marketing offer, the company provides other methods for direct payment. That way, the reader can get what he or she wants and the publisher can monetize their content.

As Smith sees it, something has to change.

"Our founding thesis is that current online monetization sucks," writes Smith. "Google and the other commercially focused sites shouldn’t be the only ones that have great per-user economics. If online entertainment content is going to thrive, there needs to be an underlying business model that consumers enjoy and that sustains the publishers who are bringing it to market."