Flattr People and Updates

Flattr is growing and you can now give money to people besides me!

At the top of the front page of this blog I have a new link labelled ‘Flattr‘, and on that page you will find a current list of flattr buttons for people who would like to display them here.  Here’s the current list:

Søren Holt, plant breeder and author of the blog In the Toads Garden.

Tom Wagner, plant breeder and author of the blog Tater-Mater.

Lieven David, plant breeder and author of the website De Lusthof.

Tim Peters, plant breeder currently working on perennial food crops among other things.

Patrick Wiebe, the author of this blog, Bifurcated Carrots.

Kelly, author of the blog Populuxe, and maintainer of a private seed bank through which she shares seeds from her garden.

As of a few days ago, the flattr developers reported the number of flattr accounts was doubling every 7 days. There is now a major German newspaper with flattr buttons on all their online news articles.

The money calculations were also just done for the month of May, and several users earned more than €100.  I earned 66 cents above and beyond what I paid in fees!  I think that’s really good considering how few people are using it right now.

It’s no longer necessary to use PayPal.  Many people complained about this.  There is now another option, Moneybookers, where you can pay with a credit card as well as direct bank debit in a lot of countries (Germany, Netherlands and others).

I hope more readers of this blog, and bloggers in general will give it a try.  It’s an important way you can show support for my work and that of others. To repeat something I said before, you have to think first about why you want to use it.  There are three reasons:

1. You want to give away money to other flattr users.
2. You want to earn money, by doing something and asking others to support you.
3. You want to do some combination of the above.

There is no free money with flattr.  There is a fee for using it, but depending on how you use it this doesn’t need to be very much.  It’s important to understand in advance it’s not free!

Flattr is still in beta testing, meaning some things may not work as you expect.  I’ve been conversing with the developers, and they promise lots of new features are on the way.

It’s still necessary to have an invitation to use flattr, but these are becoming more common and I have several available if anyone is interested.  Just send me an email.  Every activated account can request 3 more invitations, so you’ll be able to invite friends. Soon it will be open to anyone who wants to join anyway.