Flattr - I want to give you my money
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Flattr - I want to give you my money
1–10 of 59 posts
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#2I will second this, I have a flattr account and will rather certainly flattr your site if I like it.
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#3Flattr is "failing" (failing as in, failing to gain substantial traction) because of lack of users. Notch (of Minecraft fame) used Flattr for a long time on his blog and he removed it because he made so very little off it, even though he has a very high traffic blog.
They shot themselves in the foot when they launched the service: a "private beta". It was the most ridiculous idea ever, here is a service that NEEDS every user they can get vaguely interested to sign up and use it, and then when they have users interested (the initial launch "buzz") they say "nope sorry, it's a private beta, we'll send you an invite some time".
I used Flattr for a while and so little sites used it I just ended my subscription. I was lucky to get an invite too... they should have been trying to take everyone who WANTED to use the service, instead they pushed them away.
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#4Flattr could create a bookmarklet to flattr any webpage. Then if enough people have done so for a given domain they can contact the owner saying "Hey, you have 5$ to collect at flattr, why not sign-up?". This is basically what paypal does, allowing you to send money to anyone with an e-mail address even if they're not yet registered.
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#5I think that the Contenture/Readability model is probably the most likely to succeed. I'm biased, of course, having dreamt up the same basic model circa 2008.
When I learned about Kachingle (similar model with an opt-in step), I pretty much threw a wobbly and gave up on the idea. But I've taken from Facebook the idea that first to market doesn't always win, even if they have what seems like insurmountable network value. The race is not always to the swift ...
In any case, I've turned some of my design work into the basis of an honours project, so if all else fails I'll have an upgraded degree and something cool to talk about in interviews.
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#6Flattr is "failing" (failing as in, failing to gain substantial traction) because of lack of users. Notch (of Minecraft fame) used Flattr for a long time on his blog and he removed it because he made so very little off it, even though he has a very high traffic blog. They shot themselves in the foot when they launched the service: a "private beta". It was the most ridiculous idea ever , here is a service that NEEDS e…
In their defense, artificial scarcity can drive buzz for the product a lot, if done well. Also, a service that's not yet done can't afford to launch to the public, especially when there's money involved.
Rather than think about launching in beta vs launching publicly, think about launching in beta vs launching much later. Which is the better choice?
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#7I don't completely think that this is an execution issue. Do we really think there is a large market out there for "flattr-ing" blogs and other sites?
I don't know how many people would pay for/donate to something they're getting for free.
Something about not buying a cow when you're getting milk for free comes to mind...
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#8Flattr could create a bookmarklet to flattr any webpage. Then if enough people have done so for a given domain they can contact the owner saying "Hey, you have 5$ to collect at flattr, why not sign-up?". This is basically what paypal does, allowing you to send money to anyone with an e-mail address even if they're not yet registered.
I went back and forth with someone at flattr like 8 times saying this. At the end of the day that person just broke down and told me that it was a deeply political issue and the sides were divided on it.
Sigh.
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#9Flattr could create a bookmarklet to flattr any webpage. Then if enough people have done so for a given domain they can contact the owner saying "Hey, you have 5$ to collect at flattr, why not sign-up?". This is basically what paypal does, allowing you to send money to anyone with an e-mail address even if they're not yet registered.
I went back and forth with someone at flattr like 8 times saying this. At the end of the day that person just broke down and told me that it was a deeply political issue and the sides were divided on it. Sigh.
Oh and I should say that I was coming up with solutions left right and center for the "problems" associated with it. Each of the problems was more like a starting point to a great solution than a fundamental problem. (Eg. "what if 1m sites have less than 2 cents even after months?" "Auto lottery that shit" or "what if we can't contact the person?" "Same solution to someone signing up for flattr and getting hit by a bus. You can never rely on getting in touch with a person set reasonable limits and state them publically" etc, etc, etc)
Re: Flattr - I want to give you my money
#10Flattr is "failing" (failing as in, failing to gain substantial traction) because of lack of users. Notch (of Minecraft fame) used Flattr for a long time on his blog and he removed it because he made so very little off it, even though he has a very high traffic blog. They shot themselves in the foot when they launched the service: a "private beta". It was the most ridiculous idea ever , here is a service that NEEDS e…
In their defense, artificial scarcity can drive buzz for the product a lot, if done well. Also, a service that's not yet done can't afford to launch to the public, especially when there's money involved. Rather than think about launching in beta vs launching publicly, think about launching in beta vs launching much later. Which is the better choice?
In the case of Flattr? The latter would have been much more beneficial for them. I wanted to sign up to give them my money, to improve the value of their service (the value for content providers is the amount of users) and I had to "apply" and wait for it. Everything about that is wrong for Flattr.