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…*
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.
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.
Flattr seem like a very cool idea that I’ll have to subscribe to … just to see how it work …
Thanks for the nice tut!
What I didn’t understand is: how exactly do I publish a new thing? I can’t seem to find that information anywhere!
Hi Penélope, maybe this post helps http://blog.flattr.net/2012/01/adding-flattr-button-to-your-site-a-step-by-step-guide/
It’s a step-by-step guide on how to add buttons.
Joined Flattr today.. The idea looks cool. :-)
Yea :) cool idea, i think the idea came from
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, which is generally considered the first modern microcredit institution.
see how it work
Hello Flattr,
Now I understand that I am not quite sure what exactly the Flattr is, including the purposes, and today the Flattr button has just been added into my own website and I didn’t marked how much the monthly budget will be needed, is it be matter? Anyway I think I need more details about, hope a very simply example will be useful for me because I am a confuse man. Thank you very much, Hotman Sihombing, Jakarta.
I just got to the part about Flattr in TPB: AFK and immediately paused the video to go check it out. Now I know what those users on Twitter were talking about! It’s a genius idea and I hope it soon becomes the new Facebook Like (in that everyone is clicking it). Here’s to a brilliant way of generating revenue as part of a free Internet.
This is an excellent idea, and I really hope it catches on.
I really like the idea of small payments for great content / services that I control. I love the idea of being able to reward producers that do things the way I like to see them without having to put up with ad’s and having my data collected everywhere. The thing I’m not sure of with flattr is the monthly budget thing. At least initially I find myself wishing I could just click the flattr button, decide on an amount for that site / producer and be done. It’s possible that I don’t quite have my head around it yet so I’m going to give it a try! If nothing else, thank you for getting me thinking about this!
The idea with the budget is to remove the need to think when you give. You just click the button and your done. We think it has to be that simple to get people to do it all the time.
Hopefully once flattr will be available for trovebox, everplaces & more…