Experiment - If 1000 people Flattr this I'm gonna shave my head (on video!)

This is an Experiment on how well the new Flattr service is working already.

I'm serious - I'm going to completely shave my head if 1000 people Flattr this!

See you soon =)

Flattr - and its hardest nut to crack...

By the time you are reading this, you probably know about the new service Flattr (https://www.flattr.com). Its pretty similar to the Facebook 'I Like'-button with a micropayment background. So its more like an 'I Care'-button that allows you to show appreciation for the content you have just consumed.

The idea is simple. People register, pay a monthly fee of: 2, 5, 10 or 20€ and can Flattr as many times as they like. At the end of the month that money is equally shared amongst all the owners of the Flattr buttons clicked. Thats it simple and genious.

Who profits in this system?
The people who obviously will profit are those content creators that in a way emotionalize others (or Flattr users as others can not (yet) Flattr) so that they click the button. I personally click all the buttons when the words 'Cool' or 'Wow' are in my head or I have a smile on my face after consuming the content.

I myself am using Flattr now in my development community (http://www.anddev.org) so every single of the 13.000 users can add his/her Flattr-ID and a Flattr button will magically appera below every single post, so others can show their appreciation for the help they just received. I think that the use of Flattr in Forums is a area that has not yet received the attention it deserves. In the end its about people that Flattr other people.


 and its hardest nut to crack...
But wait, ....

In the end its about people that Flattr other people.

Who did sign up to Flattr up to now? I don't really know! But all I can assume that the vast majority were content creators and not consumers.

So what does this mean?
This means that the (currently) the money does not yet flow from consumers to content creators but from one content creator to another. The biggest nut to crack will be to actually get consumers to participate in the system. Would you take that hurdle to register to a service that requires you to pay 2€ per month to show your appreciation for an 'average' blog post? Probably not, at least I would not do so. When money enters the game, people start thinking about it at least twice.

In my opinion this is when emotion comes back into the game. For example:
If I'd help a user on my forum on a problem that he's been fighting for days, that he's probably doing his Happy-Dance in private, he might consider jumping over that hurdle!

So what are your ideas on how consumers can be induces to participate in the system?

Flattr Button Plugin for Blogger.com / Blogspot

Hi guys,

recently I stumbled over new service called Flattr. Basically it's pretty much like a Facebook "I like!" Button, with the tiny difference that you kind of pay a part of your monthly deposit to the 'owner' of the button. More info can be obtained here: https://flattr.com/

So as I expect this service to become big and a got an invite yesterday, I thought of the need for a plugin for blogger.com / blogspot.com .

Of course you can manually insert the a Flattr button using the Javascript-code (https://flattr.com/support/api). I did that too, at least in the beginning.

As Blogger doesn't really provide a plugin mechanism Matthias Bomelin had a nice idea to integrate the code into the template engine of blogger.
http://mattias.bomelin.com/2010/05/att-infoga-flattr-knappar-i-blogger.html

As I had some trouble using the code from his blog (due to the formatting that blogger tends to break pretty successfulyl), this is my copy-paste save version:

<div expr:id='&quot;flattr_summary_&quot; + data:post.id' style='display: none;'>
<data:post.body/>
</div>
<div expr:id='&quot;flattr_title_&quot; + data:post.id' style='display: none;'>
<data:post.title/> 
</div>

<span style='float:left; margin:5px;'>
 <script type='text/javascript'>
  var flattr_uid = &#39;_____&#39;; // Replace underscores with Flattr ID
  var flattr_tle = document.getElementById(&#39;flattr_title_<data:post.id/>&#39;).innerHTML;
  var flattr_dsc = document.getElementById(&#39;flattr_summary_<data:post.id/>&#39;).innerHTML;
  var flattr_cat = &#39;text&#39;;
  var flattr_lng = &#39;en_GB&#39;;
  var flattr_tag = &#39;<b:if cond='data:post.labels'><b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><data:label.name/><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != &quot;true&quot;'>,</b:if></b:loop></b:if>&#39;;
  var flattr_url = &#39;<data:post.url/>&#39;;
  var flattr_btn = ''; // for normal button
  // var flattr_btn = 'compact'; // for compact button  
 </script>
 <script src='http://api.flattr.com/button/load.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</span>

But where to put this code?

Caution: Before you change anything in the template, save a backup somewhere!

This code goes right into your template. Make sure that you have the field to show the whole template checked! While I myself am not really familiar with blogger templates at all (mine obviously isn't the most common one) I can only assume that the right line to put the code below is the one surrounded by the red ellipse. (It seems to include the needed variables).

Actually I don't need to post a screenshot of the result, as you can check it out yourself in this post ;)

If you have questions, post a comment!

[Edit]
Reader Piratino requested how to add a compact button to the bottom of a blog post. Actually it is almost the same except that you'd 'swap' (comment the one and uncomment the other one) the following lines of the code used avobe:

var flattr_btn = ''; // for normal button
  // var flattr_btn = 'compact'; // for compact button;

You'd add that code somewhere below the line marked below, as it includes the content of the post.

As always it is a little different for every template, so you might have go for a little Try and Error to find the right place and formatting.
[/Edit]

Best Regards,
Nicolas