What is Flattr?

Did you ever think Wow, this is really a useful blog entry? Now you can give something back to the author with very little effort. Flattr is a new mirco-payment platform to revenue good, free content on the web.

The concept is pretty easy:

1. You register with Flattr and load some smaller amount of money to your Flattr account (e.g. 5-10 €).

2. You decide how much money you would like to pay overall per month for good content on the web (e.g. 2€).

3. Whenever you find content you like, just click the Flattr button next to it.

At the end of the month, your monthly charge will be spread among all authors you flattred. This might only be a few cents for each author. However, if many people like a certain article, a few cents from each can already become a few Euros.

Why would you flattr?

Especially since blogging became popular, there is an amazing amount of free, high quality content on the web. The publishers of this content are mostly volunteers. So, how do you show your respect for these volunteers? Before Flattr you could select your favorite authors and buy them something from their wish list or send them some money directly. But did you ever do so? So, Flattr is your answer to this problem.

I use Flattr to give people something back for their work. So should you do! :)

Comments

s/heart/heard/ s/few effort/little effort/ revenue fühlt sich da falsch an, mir fällt aber nichts Besseres ein… s/ammount/amount/ s/some Euros/a few euros/

1-2 andere Kleinigkeiten sind auch noch drin, aber das muss erstmal reichen ;-)

Danke Dir. Sollte doch nochmal gegen lesen oder nicht in zu viel Stress bloggen. :/

lol for the sed syntax Felix : )

Im not sure yet if i like the idea enough to create an account but i will consider it. Hard to find good articles since google-keywords-blogging began ; )

cheers

@Tobi: joa, passiert :-)

I quite like the concept too, not sure if I like the idea of _having_ to give to receive though (and I sure would be on the giving side most of time, so no bias there). Another point that boggles me a bit is that the amount you allocate monthly seems to get equally shared between the "people/posts/site" you flattr, or is there some way to influence the ratio? What if I find one of the people I flattred deserved more than another?

Agreed, this is a great concept and since they activated my account I'll try to add it to my blog as well when I have a minute.

@Felix: I think you may be able to click twice to give more parts, but not sure. The idea however is that there is no automatic weighing on their end, and I think that's good. Blog posts might appear less worthy than videos to some for example, but some other people might feel the other way around.. Since you can't tell, I think having the same value for everything is good. Clicking multiple times should be allowed though, if it isn't.

@Jordi I didn't mean for them to "impose" some weighing, but for users to be able to set them. Clicking multiple times on "flattr" might be a workaround, but not something I'd call a solution.

@Felix: Right, it's true that you may want to set personal weighing values.. Could be a nice "advanced" feature. Feel free to submit it on their forum. The service is pretty new so it'll undoubtedly still evolve.

A good idea but I am left with the feeling that a few will monopolise on this leaving the vast majority out in the cold... as with all economies, only a few manage to make the most from it.

Why I will not partake in this venture, sorry :)

Okay, let's do this :) I flattred you, now flattr me.

Good idea! I flatterd you! ;-)

benz

Awesome! Thanks for suggesting this! I think this would/could work out very well. I also like the idea that if you dont use your pre-paid money that it goes to a charity. That's an awesome selling point.

I flattr'd you, flattr me?