Patent ID: 8380163

Claim:
A method for billing a user for a service, application, content, information, product, or some combination thereof (services) requested by the user, the method comprising the steps of: allowing the user to create a personalized area within an online community; making the services available to the user through the personalized area within the online community; receiving a request from the user for the services; determining if package billing is associated with the requested services; processing, in the event that package billing is associated with the requested services, the received request by determining if the received request is the first request associated with the requested services, causing, in the event that the received request is the first request associated with the requested services, a premium message containing a price code that represents a package price to be sent to the user, and maintaining a credit balance associated with the requested services; and determining if a subsequent received request is associated with the requested services and decrementing the credit balance when it is determined that the subsequent request is associated with the requested services.