The observant amongst you may have noticed another button mysteriously appear in my overcrowded sidebar. It’s a Flattr button, and with any luck you’ll start seeing such buttons pop up all around the internet. It’s something of an experiment, but it is a rather innovative way for folks to reward content creators such as bloggers, musicians, and podcasters for their work without having to fiddle about with rewarding them individually. It also neatly avoids the creator feeling awkward or embarrassed about asking for donations. Invites to the beta version of Flattr just started going out, and I was lucky enough to be in the first few, so I figured I might as well give it a try and see how it goes. Here’s how it works:
To receive cake, you also have to be willing to share some cake with others. I’m looking forward to being able to give a little slice of cake to any of my fellow bloggers who makes me smile or think.
I usually don’t like this kind of thing at all, but this *is* intriguing. I’ve applied for a beta spot, so we’ll see.
You’ll probably be getting some more linkage from me soon. (Tomorrow most likely, if I keep posting twice in one day those blasted readers will start expecting, I dunno, consistency or something. :D)
I’m uncomfortable with the whole asking for donations things, on the whole. I’m a prideful creature. But on the other hand, I could certainly use the cash.
The way this works, it’s less like begging, and more like rewarding something that gives you a few moments of entertainment. And it only lets you receive if you also give, so it helps to create a culture in which we can show appreciation for eachother’s efforts.
That sounds like a good culture to encourage, so I’m giving it a try.
And I always enjoy linkage, and appreciate yours! :)
[…] said, Arkenor (him again!) found a potentially fun way to get while giving — check it out, he’s got a video and everything. It’s a new, er, thingy […]
Just a question. So I need to have money in the Flattr account to give money to others? Video isn’t loading for me… stupid YouTube. :(
Aye. You need to put a minimum of 2 euros a month into your giving account in order to be able to receive. If you receive more than that, you can transfer money you made into your giving fund, but otherwise you do need to pay into it.
I may well not actually make a profit! I will report back on how it goes. At the moment though there’s obviously very few people using it, so I’m not expecting much.
I flattrd you! /grin — though it hasn’t registered it yet in my Flattr tutorial. It’s still telling me I need to go give some props. :P
It seems to have worked! Let me know when you get it up and running on your site!
Already done – that was the next part of the tutorial, heh :D