Adding support for YouTube

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   April 16, 2013  //   News   //  29 Comments

Creators are uploading 72 hours of video to YouTube every minute of the day. much of it is what make the internet valuable for us all to use. Now you can easily show real appreciation to all creators on YouTube.

YouTubeJust like on Soundcloud, Vimeo, Instagram etc you just like creators on YouTube to send a microdonation to them.

We think this is a big thing. Most of the creators on YouTube never sees any money for the content they produce.

How to flattr on YouTube
1. Go to your settings page
2. Connect with YouTube (make sure your YouTube account is connected with your Google account)
3. Like videos. We love Anita Sarkeesian and her video series Feminist Frequency
4. Tell the world you’re supporting creators on YouTube. Or, if you’re a creator, that your fans can support your work.

Voilà! You are making the internet a better place for creators.

More to come
We are hard at work to enable you to flattr creators on more services. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or here to hear about it first.

 

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Twitter is forcing us to drop users ability to flattr creators by favoriting their tweets

Published by Linus Olsson   //   April 16, 2013  //   News   //  84 Comments

We think that we’ve created a beautiful way to support creators by checking what you favorited on Twitter and letting you send a flattr to the writer of a tweet. Twitter did not.

So we are extremely sad to announce that from today (16th of April 2013) at noon CET we will remove the possibility to flattr tweets via the use of favorites, as per instructions from Twitter.

What we do
To enable support for flattring tweets we use two sources of data our users have created. The data about what a user favorited on Twitter, and the data about the tweet that was created. To do this we need a Twitter API key.

What Twitter said
Recently Twitter contacted us and told us that we are violating their API terms citing the second part of a clause (IV. Commercial Use, 2C. Advertising Around Twitter Content) saying “Your advertisements cannot resemble or reasonably be confused by users as a Tweet. For example, ads cannot have Tweet actions like follow, retweet, favorite, and reply. And you cannot sell or receive compensation for Tweet actions or the placement of Tweet actions on your Service.”

Twitter steampunkThis is a quite logical clause as it would stop companies to sell e.g. retweets and followers. It’s an understandable rule to keep the Twitter network clean but in this case the rule is strangely stomping out innovation on their platform.

However, the term Twitter call to is a term about advertisment that states that we can not be compensated. One can argue that we can not get money based on this clause. Even though we think that is not obvious.

So we suggested to forgo our 10%, to not be compensated as a service. This would mean that the flattr donation go from supporter to creator in it’s entirety. That did not help.

Twitter said: “Our API Terms of Service state that you cannot sell or receive compensation for Tweet actions or the placement of Tweet actions on your Service. This includes compensation attached to a Tweet Action sent to either a service or through a service to another user.”

The idea of not letting people use their favorites in the way they want is in no way is mentioned in the API terms. We feel that Twitter is reading things into their terms that is not there.

With Flattr you can not of course pay people to retweet, follow or favorite you. Flattr is the opposite, a way to voluntary reward someone for something that they have created. It’s not possible to use Flattr to pay creators to get a certain result.

Well, the reality is that this was not how Twitter read it. After mailing with Twitter’s “Platform Operations” about this Twitter replied to us that, “If your service compensates content creators … in a manner that is not attached to Tweet Actions, this would be in compliance with our API Terms of Service.” To favorite somebody is considered a Tweet Action.

We have tried to suggest different solutions asking for an exception to the terms, even forgoing our cut, etc, without any result. But, this does not mean that we will give up negotiating with them over this on behalf our users and also their users.

Twitter users create the favorite and just like they own their tweets they should own the result of their action. If you favorite something we argue that you should be able to decide what you want to do with the data you create. If you want to use it to give Flattr donations to other Twitter users you should be the one to make that decision.

What is happening now?
From noon today (the 16th of April 2013) at noon CET we are forced to remove the ability to support creators by favoriting their tweets. This to comply with their API terms of service.

We are working on other ways to support creators on Twitter, and will keep the discussions going with Twitter towards a more acceptable resolution.

Remember, you can still use our browser extension to flattr tweets.
And, there are still eight great services, a lot of blogs, and other awesome content you can flattr.

Adding YouTube!
Starting today we have enabled supporters to send microdonations to creators on YouTube! Just like on Soundcloud, Vimeo, Instagram etc you just like videos on YouTube to flattr them.

We are on a mission to help creators get paid for their work. It’s their work that makes the internet so valuable to us all.

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Flattr as a payment(wall) on news sites

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   April 15, 2013  //   Learn   //  8 Comments

It’s a well known fact that news organizations over the world are discussing when and how they should start using a paywall, if they already haven’t.

Certainly inevitable if you look at the trends in newspaper industry, where revenue from readers is starting to be higher than the from ads. But there are lot’s of different ways to go, from a rigid wall to an open approach where all material is available with the possibility for readers to pay for what they like.

A global payment solution
It’s becoming quite a hassle to read news online. All news sites are implementing their own walls and subscription plans. The problem is of course that we don’t consume content in silos. Never had, never will.

If your news company isn’t The New York Times it’s highly unlikly that readers outside your absolute proximity sign up to read the one article they were referred to by a friend or that is the talk of the web.

Here’s how Flattr can be utilized on news sites

The button
There are a lot of ways in which Flattr can be used by news sites. The obvious way is to embed the Flattr button next to the articles, as Taz.de is doing.

The fly out
To increase clicks, the button can be featured in a fly out that appears when the reader scrolls down towards the end of the article:
“Hey, it seems that you like what you read. Show the writer your appreciation with a micro payment!”

The auto flattr
Why not build a solution that much like Grooveshark’s Flattr integration where you just “Listen to Flattr“? News sites can enable readers to automatically flattr articles they’ve finished reading, by measuring how long they’ve scrolled the page.

The freemium
A soft way to lock content is to allow readers to read a part of text and flattr it to read the whole thing, or Flattr to read exclusive material, insights from the author etc.

The “nag screen”
For sites that want to force people to pay but believe that it’s better to be a part of a payment system that works all over the web, Flattr can be used for that as well. By using Flattr in a nag screen you can find a the perfect balance between completely open and completely closed by asking your readers to flattr after reading one or many articles to forcing them to flattr before reading an article .

The wall
A full paywall, forcing people to flattr to read, isn’t something we recommend, we believe that it’s smarter to make let the payment be voluntary and have good arguments to why people should support the work they’ve consumed. But, if you really want a wall, you can absolutely use Flattr as the gate opener.

Tell readers why they can read your articles and why they should voluntarily pay
The more articulate you are with why you need your readers money, how much better quality your journalistic work will have etc, the bigger the motivation for readers to pay you will be.

This is a big part to the success of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. The first thing you see is a video and text describing why the creator wants you money and what he or she will use them for. We all need good reasons to buy. Good quality needs to be proven, the best way to let it show is of course to let readers read first and pay second.

The big German news outlet Taz.de is a good example of this. In the sidebar they give readers a prompt to pay. If you read further they say:

“With a few clicks you can support the journalistic independence of the taz and the free access of taz.de – regularly.”

And they’ve made a nice video

Our intention
Our mission is to get people to value all the amazing content we get on the internet every day. Think about it! We are giving creators a way to say yes to money and supporters a way show appreciation directly to the creators.

The idea that everyone have to pay doesn’t apply to a digital environment. Rather it’s its best advantage to the physical world. A copy doesn’t cost anything and you can increase reach and monetize at the same time. The idea of freemium is very common on the web. “Some pay, the rest get it free”. It’s a proven concept to increase the number of paying consumers. The real quest is to create a solution that makes the most people possible pay. It’s a case of changing the way we pay to be in line with our online behavior. Consume first, pay after.

It’s not about getting everybody to pay for everything, it’s about enabling all that finds specific pieces of content valuable for them to pay.

We believe in an open internet, where as much awesome content as possible remains open. To make that happen, think outside of plans for single site paywalls and get the readers to pay you voluntarily for the content that is valuable to them.

 

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FiveYearItch gives new clients $200 to flattr

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   April 8, 2013  //   News   //  No comments :(

FiveYearItch.com is a platform for developers seeking a new job. They matches what it would take to make you leave your job with employers who can promise to meet your requirements. Brilliant. And they just come up with another really good idea.

FiveYearItch will credit $200 to the Flattr account of each professional who gets a new job through the FiveYearitch.com. Rather than cash or trinkets, they decided to give an experience, an opportunity to do some good for the world. This way, the software developer, the employer, FiveYearIch, and Flattr all cooperate to “pay it forward” to worthy causes, and in particular to the open source developers who help us get our jobs done.

Half the barrier to donating to worthy causes is the hassle. Flattr pioneered a new, easier, style of donation. This initiative takes it one step further, by getting people and organizations the chace to give together. Collaborating with others to do good is the best social glue, and can encourage everyone involved to donate further.

This is definitely a great way of using flattr. We look forward to help companies give their employees money on their Flattr account as Christmas gifts etc.

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We are closing down the donation button

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   March 28, 2013  //   News   //  23 Comments

To make the use case for Flattr more straight forward and easier for everybody to undersand we’ve decided to stop letting our users receive single donations.

Starting today we will take away the “donate” button option on user profiles and in the popup that appears when you click at Flattr button twice.

The function will cease to exist on April 15. This means that users that link directly to a donation urls will still have time to switch to another service.

We’re sorry about the inconvenience that this might cause and we are looking into various options to do macro donations via Flattr.

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When you flattr somebody that isn’t a flattr user – unclaimed flattrs

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   March 27, 2013  //   Learn   //  4 Comments

With the ability to Flattr all users on services you hang out on, you can flattr a creator that hasn’t signed up to Flattr. Some people have misunderstood how it works.

This is how it works
First of, we are not holding onto money for creators we don’t know the owner of. This is the most important thing.

When you flattr a creator on Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud, Instagram, Github, Flickr, Vimeo, 500px or App.net that hasn’t yet signed up to Flattr that microdonation will be an unclaimed flattr.

Unclaimed flattrs are not be taken from your monthly budget, until they sign up. The month the creators signs up, is the month that flattr will be a part of your budget. The creator will then get the money on the 10th the coming month.

Again, we don’t keep any money in the meantime as we don’t want to hold money for creators that has not said they want to accept it. We also think it’s better that creators with accounts get the money.

How creators that have flattrs waiting get notified
At the moment we are relying on our amazing community’s help us be the messenger to creators. Head over to our Unclaimed flattrs page to be the messenger to popular creators.

We are working on a way to send automated notifications to creators that aren’t a flattr user to let them know that their fans want to support them with money. We just need to make sure people don’t feel spammed by our system.

 

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Tips & tricks on how to get flattred

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   March 25, 2013  //   Uncategorized   //  10 Comments

After signing up to Flattr you are able to receive microdonations from your fans on Twitter, Soundcloud, Instagram etc. It’s very clear in our stats that the creators that communicate that they are flattrable with there fans regularly are the ones that receive the most money.

Here’s some resources you can use to communicate with your fans that you are flattrable.

Make your Flattr profile pretty
Edit your profile to add your photo, a short bio and write a sentence about why your fans should send microdonations to you. Take the chance to drive some traffic to your site by adding your url.

Here you also have the chance to be a transparent super modern and share with the world what you in return flattr, what your monthly budget is and how much you make.

Always find a reason to tweet
The life of tweet is a only a couple of seconds and only a fraction of your followers will see each of your posts. Each tweet is another reason to be flattred.

By sharing what you do often you enable the same fan to support you many times during a month.

The first thing you can do is to tell your fans that you use Flattr and that they can sign up to send microdonation to you by favoriting your tweets.

You will get an email from us each time you are flattred. Be proud and happy! Say thank you to the fan that sent it!

Mention Flattr in your podcast
Many podcaster mention how an episode was produced and who sponsored it. This is a great opportunity to tell your listeners how and where they can flattr you.

Here’s your manuscript

“Beloved listeners. I love doing this and I’m very happy that you listen. You could say that I’m flattred. Speaking of being flattred I use service called Flattr. It means that I can receive microdonations on services like Twitter and Instagram. All you have to do to support me is to sign up at www.flattr.com and favorite my tweets as well as other creators you appreciate.”

I Use FlattrPublish a photo on Instagram
Since Instagram is a all about beautiful pictures, that’s of course how you should communicate with your fans there.

So! Go out and spray paint a house with your message, draw the Flattr logo in the sand or observe when the clouds say “support me” and capture it all with your mobile.

Or, just download this photo and share it on Instagram. Add the caption “It’s time to give back to creators” to rubb your message in.

 
 

Why
Last but not least, tell your fans why you need money and why it matters to you to get their support.

Here’s why supportes should use flattr:
Supporting creators gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. Flattr is a “Like” with real value. It’s about being a part of the creation of great content.

By flattring creators you help them create. It gives them both money and energy to create more and better content. Content for you to enjoy. We believe in an open and free internet. Supporting creators is the way to enable more content to be free and open.

Help us make the internet a better place, one microdonation at a time.
 

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How to be flattrable – a guide to Flattr for creators

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   March 19, 2013  //   Learn   //  1 Comment

We know it’s a hard time to get paid for the stuff you make online. Especially the everyday creations and communication you have with fans. We want to help you make that part easier.

Here’s the deal, we fix the tech and you tell your followers to support you!?

It’s really easy to start using Flattr as a creator. Here’s the super easy four steps to be flattrable on the services you already use.

Choose I'm a creator1. Sign up and hit “I’m a creator”
It’s as simple as it sounds. Head over to flattr.com and sign up with your email address, Twitter or Facebook.

Choose “I’m a creator” in the next screen to get you started.

2. Connect your accounts
You’ll get a list of the eight services (Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Soundcloud, Flickr, Github, Vimeo, App.net and 500px) we currently support. Simply connect with the services you use.

After you’ve made the connections you receive microdonations when supporters that use Flattr favorite, like and star your content!

Spread the word3. Let your followers know you are flattrable
We can’t stress it enough how important it is to communicate with your followers that they can support you. This goes for Flattr as well as Kickstrater, donation buttons on your site or other good ideas you’ve come up with to enable your fans to support you.

If you don’t believe us, ask Amanda Palmer about the art of asking.

To make it easy for you, there’s an option to send a Tweet that we’ve written for you or shoot to you fans on Facebook.

We divide supports money4. You get your money
At the end of the month we divide all supporters monthly budget’s by the number of flattrs they’ve made and send the equally big parts to creators.

You get paid to your Flattr account on the 10th the coming month. Viola!

Try it out, it’s free! And spread the word to your followers.

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Launching new Flattr – Add money to your likes

Published by Linus Olsson   //   March 18, 2013  //   News   //  21 Comments

We’ve made it easier than ever to support creators. Now you can give and receive microdonations directly on services you use. Connect your Flattr account to Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, Github etc and just “favorite”, “like” or “star” to flattr content you appreciate.

Everyday creators post 400 million tweets to Twitter and upload 5 million photos to Instagram. For most of us the internet is our most important source for information and creative work.

We are on a mission to help creators get money for the value they create for all of us. We believe that the way people pay must be in line with the way people behave online. If you think about it, we click a lot of links only to realize it wasn’t for us. That’s because we are explorers.

With Flattr supporters can send money to creators after they’ve consumed content and found it valuable for them.

New Flattr makes all the content on services you use flattrable!

How it works
Connect to services you use
You can connect your Flattr account to Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, Github, Vimeo, Flickr and 500px. We will continuously add support for more services. You can always turn connections on and off in your settings at any time.

“Like”, “favorite” or “star” to flattr creators
When you’ve done the connections you can start flattring creators on the services you’ve connected. Regardless if you use a service on the web, in mobile apps or in third party apps, you just “like”, “favorite” or “star” to flattr content.

Creators get their money
At the end of the month we divide supporter’s budgets in the number of flattrs made and send the equally big parts to creators. Creators receive their money on the 10th the coming month. The value of a flattr is a users monthly budget divided by the number of flattrs he or she makes during a month.

Head over to Flattr.com to learn more about how it works.

Share the new Flattr with your friends

Give back to creators
With new Flattr, supporting creators becomes a natural part of your life. By doing what you already do on service you already use you can easily support the creators that make the internet so valuable for you.

We believe in a free and open internet. We want people to value what they get from internet and support creators monetarily / voluntarily, and help them create more awesomeness.

Join us on our mission to make the internet a better place, one microdonation at a time!

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“How do we let people pay for music”

Published by Martin Thörnkvist   //   March 4, 2013  //   Discover   //  4 Comments

At Flattr we are on a mission to get people to support creators monetarily based on voluntary micro payments after a piece of content is consumed.

Amanda Palmer and Peter Sunde

Amanda Palmer and Peter Sunde

The reasons why we are trying to push this model are many. One of the strongest ones is that it’s aligned with the way in which we consume media on the internet. We watch, listen and read a lot of content. Most of the time to find out we didn’t like it. In some cases we fall in love. That’s when we’re willing to pay. And that’s when creators needs enable supports to pay.

This behaviour will likely never change. We are explorers, on a constant mission to find stuff that add value to our lives.

We are building a tool for creators to get paid, but it will always be up to creators to ask for money and for supporters to acknowledge the value they get and make sure they pay the creators they appreciate.

Our big idol Amanda Palmer phrases it very well in her TED talk last week:

“Perfect tools ain’t gonna help us, if we can’t face each other and give and receive fearlessly. But more important, to ask without shame.

If you’re a creator please communicate what you are doing and sign up to Flattr to ask fans for support. If you want to support musicians we strongly recommend to Flattr them on Grooveshark, where thousands of artist profiles are flattrable.

You can support Amanda on Flattr here »»

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