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How to guides, tutorials, case studies – materials that make using Flattr easier, doesn’t matter if you mainly like to donate money or look for ways to make Flattr more successful for your site.

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Get notified when flattred

Published by Simon Gate // February 22, 2012 // Learn // 4 Comments

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Last week we added a activities in our API. That means you can get a atom feed containing all your activities that occurs on Flattr. At the time of the writing of this article there is only one activity and that is when you get flattred. We have a few other activities coming soon. To get a mail or get notified on your mobile phone you can use IF This Then That. IFTTT is a service that scans feeds and when something new is acts upon the new feed item. This means that if we would add the Flattr feed to IFTTT and we could trigger actions when someone Flattrs you. Actions can for example be SMS, e-mail or Boxcar. To add the Flattr activity feed to IFTTT and add a action that will send you a e-mail when you someone flattrs you do the following. 1. Get a account over at ifttt.com 2. When you have signed up create a new task and click "this" 3. In the list of available trigger channels select "Feed" and click "New feed item" 4. As the feed URL add https://api.flattr.com/rest/v2/users/USERNAME/activities.atom?type=incoming ( change USERNAME to your flattr username) and create the trigger. 5. Click "That" and select a "Action channel" for example "Email". I currently use "Boxcar" so I can get push notifications to my phone. 6. When you have clicked "Email" select the action "Send me an email" 7. The default message will suffice, now click "create action" 8. Add a description and click "create task" Now you have added your first task to IFTTT that will send you an email every time you receive a flattr. Flattr activities also support 'outgoing' activities, i.e. activities you do, example is flattr or add a new thing. If you would like to use the outgoing activities you change the type parameter to outgoing instead, https://api.flattr.com/rest/v2/users/USERNAME/activities.atom?type=outgoing. The activities is only available if you have public flattrs. You can change that in your Privacy settings. Another wonderful solution is to send get notified on your mobile phone when you get flattred. I use Boxcar to enable this. Boxcar makes it easy to send push notifications iPhone. Boxcar has a set of actions available over at IFTTT, so instead of setting up the e-mail action choose Boxcar. You can setup a Boxcar account over at their homepage where you also will find links to download Boxcar for you iPhone and Mac. If you have any questions you can tweet me or send me a e-mail.

Flattr subscriptions and Popularity Dance

Published by Siim Teller // February 7, 2012 // Learn // 6 Comments

One of the lesser known features of Flattr is the ability to subscribe to a Thing. It’s a simple way of donating to something over a longer period of time without having to remember to do it manually. It’s great … Continue reading →

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Adding Flattr button to your site – a step-by-step guide

Published by Siim Teller // January 26, 2012 // Learn // 7 Comments

You’ve signed up and want to put a nice friendly Flattr button on your site? This step-by-step guide explains how to get set up – quick and pain free. 1. Visit our Get button page (you need to be logged … Continue reading →

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I’ve signed up with Flattr, now what?

Published by Siim Teller // January 4, 2012 // Learn // 3 Comments

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Welcome! Let’s walk through all the options that Flattr gives you whether you’re someone who creates and shares content or you simply want to support your favorite blogger, coder, web comic artist…* [caption id="attachment_5806" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Use this easy flow to figure out what’s next for you. (Click for larger view.)"][/caption] Broadly speaking people sign up for one of two reasons: 1. Givers - want to support content they enjoy 2. Authors - use Flattr on their site to offer a simple way of supporting Often the authors are givers themselves too, hitting Flattr buttons on their own favorite sites. And likewise the givers could easily turn into authors. I want to give 1. Add funds to your account - without this you won’t be able to click Flattr buttons you find on the web or in our Catalog (this is the place where all flattrable content can be found). You can add funds with PayPal, credit card or bank transfer. 2. Set a monthly budget - this is what you’ll be giving away when you click the buttons. Let’s say you added €10 and your monthly budget is €2. Your funds will last you 5 months and no matter how many Flattr buttons you click in a month you only spend €2. However, if you click very many buttons then your average click won’t be worth much so if you really enjoy the content you might want to increase your budget a bit. [caption id="attachment_5811" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Some of the supporters who have flattred Amnesty International"][/caption] 3. You’re all set - find Flattr buttons (if you don’t have anyone in particular in mind then browse our Catalog with all flattrable content), click buttons, collect karma points :) 4. When you flattr someone then let the world know - use the share to Facebook and Twitter feature and drum up more support from your friends. It’s a nice way of giving back for the efforts of someone who’s work you’ve enjoyed. 5. Subscribe to the best - if you click a Flattr button twice then you get an option to subscribe to this author. You can pick the period of your subscription and from now on every month this author is automatically flattred by you. Just make sure you have some money on your account. I’m an author 1. Put Flattr buttons on your website - visit our Get Button page to see if we have a plugin or a guide on how to put a button on your site (it depends on how do you host your site, if it’s Wordpress, Tumblr, hand coded site…) 2. Tell your audience - this is probably the most important thing to really make the most of Flattr. Explain what it is, how it works, why you’re using it, how do you plan to use the money you make. Fans and followers like transparency, people genuinely like to support people who give them value (be it useful, entertaining, interesting or practical content) and feel more invested and engaged with the site if they have a stake (even if it’s just 50 cents) in it. 3. Follow our blog to read case studies with other authors on how they are using Flattr. *Content, authors and creators - what’s this? Because Flattr can be used to support a wide spectrum of "things" it’s hard to find a very good word to describe it all and that is why we’re saying "support content", "support authors/creators". It’s bloggers, podcasters, coders who share their software for free, it’s open source software projects, web comics (and the artists drawing), charities, it’s poets, musicians, photographers, crafters who share knitting patterns, do-it-yourself how-to videos, tasty recipie, style advice, the list is endless… If someone is creating something of value and sharing it then you can Flattr it. That’s the beauty of today’s internet - anyone and everyone can become a creator.

Humble Indie Bundle and comedian Louis CK – challenging the establishment

Published by Siim Teller // December 14, 2011 // Learn // 5 Comments

This week has been great for the “pay what you want” model, and DRM-free, straight-from-creator-to-audience sales models with Humble Indie Bundle and comedian Louis CK hitting one out of the ballpark. Sign of times or lucky exceptions to the rule? … Continue reading →

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This week has been great for the "pay what you want" model, and DRM-free, straight-from-creator-to-audience sales models with Humble Indie Bundle and comedian Louis CK hitting one out of the ballpark. Sign of times or lucky exceptions to the rule? What do you think? [caption id="attachment_5596" align="alignnone" width="513" caption="Fast take off for the latest HIB"][/caption] Humble Indie Bundle is out with its 4th edition (for the uninitiated, it’s a collection of cross-platform, DRM-free games sold as a "pay what you want" bundle) and looks like this one will trash the records set by the previous bundle that brought in a total of $2,167,519.10. The nice aspect of HIB is that you can donate some of the money you pay to a charity (it used to be EFF but this time the guys switched to Red Cross). Turns out that people give up to 5 times as much money when they pick the charity option. Techdirt has a good post on it and I recommend reading their excellent Lessons Learned From 'Pay What You Want' that looks into one of the failed experiments with such payment model. Louis CK is a big name comedian doing shows in places like the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. This is also the place where he had a film crew shoot one of his latest stand up shows. But instead of going down the usual route and distributing the material via a publisher he slapped the video up on his website, DRM-free, put a $5 dollar price tag on it and hoped for the best. It’s not quite Flattr but we’re supportive of any scheme that takes away the middle-men and helps build a stronger relationship between the creator and the fan ("consumer" just sounds wrong here). 4 days later 110,000 people had purchased the show, covering his production costs and earned him a solid profit. I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood. Louis CK also seems to be learning a lot of the lessons we’ve experienced in Flattr - people don’t pay for what you do because they like it, they actually get more invested in you, they’re more enthusiastic supporters but they also want to know how much you’re making, how are you spending it. The successful comedian posted a super interesting overview of the whole ordeal if you’re interested in learning more about his experience.

Pay a Blogger Day recap

Published by Andrus Purde // December 12, 2011 // Learn // 3 Comments

November 29th was Pay a Blogger Day, remember? Thank you all who participated, pressed Flattr buttons and spread the word! Here’s a bit of a recap on how the day went. Our goal was to inspire one million people to … Continue reading →

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November 29th was Pay a Blogger Day, remember? Thank you all who participated, pressed Flattr buttons and spread the word! Here's a bit of a recap on how the day went. Our goal was to inspire one million people to give something tangible back to bloggers that day. It was an ambitious objective, and we didn't quite reach it. We don't exactly know how many additional donations and purchases we drove, but it wasn't close to a million. Looking at anecdotal evidence the day drove some thousands of euros worth of donations. One blog reported receiving 70 dollars, Jeremy added a donations button just for the day and collected even more, this beer blog got about 10 dollars, and so on. Number of flattr clicks was 10-20% bigger than on previous Tuesdays, but this figure has been known to fluctuate quite a bit. So, in terms of donations this day bought some coffees to hundreds of bloggers, but (we hope) no one quit their day job just yet. But perhaps more importantly, there are now some hundreds of thousands of people that have given some thought to whether bloggers should and could be paid. Around 50 thousand of them visited the payablogger.org minisite, and many more picked up the topic from Mashable, The Telegraph or one of the dozens of blogs that picked up the story. A well-argumented discussion followed. Maria Popova stated it's important to create a culture around giving to free content in her brilliant Brain Pickings. Audrey Watters stated that her motivation with Hack Education blogging is not to make money, and part of the reason is also that she hates ads. Readers added their perspectives. Alastair McKenzie and his readers were a bit skeptical about Pay a Blogger Day, but thought it may have a chance in the travel blogging community. VP weighed pros and cons and decided to shy away from adding donate buttons, some readers took a different stance. Exmoorjane put up Flattr buttons on her blog on Pay a Blogger Day and shared what led her to do that. TheStrategyWeb gave tips to companies and marketers for paying bloggers. Jo was of two minds about asking money for blogging, or blegging as she called it. Her readers went on to discuss. So the vast majority of these people didn't do much, they didn't pay a blogger or sign up to Flattr immediately, but a seed was planted. Not everyone is an fast adopter and most people need to be reached a couple of times with a message before they take action. Flattr will definitely continue to inspire more people to make donations to "free" web content, and with support from our users it stands a very good chance. If you're interested in the marketing aspects of Pay a Blogger Day, I've covered this in more depth on my personal blog. (And so you know, I'm almost done with my 945 pushups resulting from the related bet.)

Show you got Flattr on Flickr

Published by Marie Axelsson // November 26, 2011 // Learn // 8 Comments

Not all places can get shiny counting buttons yet, but there are a few different solutions to allow people to flattr your content on these sites different sites. You can learn more about which ones. To add a flattr-link to … Continue reading →

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How to Use Flattr on YouTube

Published by Marie Axelsson // October 23, 2011 // Learn // 5 Comments

Not all websites support Flattr buttons but there are a different solutions to still give your viewers, readers, followers, fans to flattr your content on these sites. This post explains how to add a Flattr button to video on Youtube. … Continue reading →

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How to flattr presentations on Slideshare – here’s a nifty way

Published by Siim Teller // September 5, 2011 // Learn // 2 Comments

Slideshare isn’t yet partnering with Flattr but one user – Marco Michael Damm – has figured out a way to embed a Flattr button inside a presentation hosted on Slideshare that allows viewers to support the author. I love seeing … Continue reading →

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5 tips to make crowdfunding work for you

Published by Siim Teller // August 31, 2011 // Learn // 1 Comment

Our very own Linus put on his writing hat and posted “Crowdfunding: get paid for free stuff” over at the netmagazine.com. It’s a nice little overview of crowdfunding if you’re new to the topic, and of course it explains how … Continue reading →

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