I’ve written several times in the past weeks about Flattr, the micropayment system.
Yesterday, they announced they are going from closed beta testing to open beta. This means anyone who wants to can sign up without the need for an invitation. It also of course means they still consider themselves to be in the testing phase, but my experience with it so far has been very good and it all seems to work well.
To briefly summarize, with Flattr you can give small amounts of money to this and other websites which have signed up and have a Flattr button. You choose the amount of money you want to commit to giving away each month, with a minimum of €2, and this amount is spread among the people who’s Flattr buttons you click on. There are some costs, the fees for depositing and withdrawing money, and a 10% commission to Flattr themselves, which they promise to try to lower over time.
If you have a website yourself, you can also solicit donations through Flattr. There is also a service called imflattrd, where you can create an online profile and flattr button even if you don’t have a website. In particular this is useful with social networking tools.
For more detailed information, have a look at the Flattr website by following the link above.
I would really encourage all readers to become part of Flattr. As well as being able to donate small amounts of money to my efforts here, there are an increasing number of other sites accepting Flattr donations as well. The amount of money you have to commit is relatively small. After you have paid fees and the like, the minimum cost is around $30/yr, and if you have a website this will be partly or completely offset by donations others give to you.
Hi Patrick – thanks for coming over and updating me on your experience with Flattr. It looks like its early days for this kind of scheme (and I’ve found several now which won’t help). However the feedback from people involved in similar (longer running) schemes for WP plug-in development report that they haven’t seen much revenue for their efforts. I wonder if we’re too used to getting some much for free off the internet?
I hope it does take off so it becomes a viable alternative to advertising.
PS forgot to mention re currency conversion – both credit card companies and Paypal do factor in a conversion fee in their charges, so there will be even more nibbling away at that micropayment for people outside of the eurozone who join Flattr.