Flattr: New Micropayment System - Gets the Model Right?

[40hz]

(the same way Amazon was able to take off by selling the books, getting the money, and selling more before the initial bills were due)

-steeladept (March 09, 2010, 09:39 PM)

That's a practice called "using float."

And it's a risky way to do business unless you're very big or very very good at what you're doing.

And it's even riskier if you're running an investment fund. If that's the case, instead of 'float' it's called a Ponzi Scheme.

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Student: Master! I have a brilliant idea! What do you think of it?

Zen Master: What is the sound of one jail door slamming?

[MarmotMan]

Flattr: New Micropayment System - Gets the Model WRONG

As a consumer of web content, I have absolutely no interest in this model. THIS is the model I would support:

• I create an account on SpendMyBux and put some money into it
• I upload my personal recognition image
• I specify an amount to donate per click
• I see the donate button on a site I like and I click it
• I get a secured popup window from SpendMyBux that displays my personal recognition image and details about the site I'm donating to
• I click on the PayThem button and the popup closes
• If there's no money in my account, the popup would say so and refuse the transaction (no overdrawing allowed)

SpendMyBux would get paid by a flat monthly fee and a small transaction fee for each click. Users and sites would still have the option of using PayPal for donation of specific amounts.

[mouser]

That's not very different from the paypal model is it?

What i find appealing about the Flattr model (and appealing about a model i proposed long ago), is the idea of not having to worry about the actual amounts -- worrying about having enough, etc.


A hybrid approach actually could be VERY cool, and i'm not sure anyone has thought of this yet. Imagine:

Any time you are at a website you want to support or you like, or you think you MIGHT POSSIBLY want to support, you click a button and you type in a text little hint to yourself.  For example if you were on DC, you would click the button in your browser (not even on the website), and type "cool looking software, expecially FARR".

Ok now at end of the month, you get a report on HybridDonator.com, and it would be a report about all the sites that you indicated you might be interested in supporting, your notes, and maybe some extra info like how much time you spent on the website that month.

So you might see a report like:

DonationCoder.com | "cool looking software, expecially FARR" | 70 minutes during March 2010
Edith Frost's Music Homepage | "great music" | 10 minutes during March 2010

Next to each link you could type how much you want to donate, or click a link to visit, or a link to twitter/digg/recommend, or you could specify an amount percentage, like 10%, which would be based on the total amount you want to giveaway this month.

By default it could be set to divide up your monthly amount proportionately based on time, based on your ranking, or to give $1 per site, etc.

You could also uncheck sites you changed your mind about, etc.


What's so nice about this idea:

• Absolutely painless and risk free to decide on impulse to donate to a site (it's just a note to yourself not a commitment)
• Ability to change your mind later
• Ability to decide how much to donate in total at the end of the month, and simple ways of either spending fixed amount per month, or per site, or customizing.
• Provides additional functionality like helping you bookmark sites you want to visit (this could even be done automatically by adding sites that support "tipjars" to your report list automatically when you visit a page (but remember you dont have to donate to them at the end of the month).
• Streamlines the process since you would only log in once per month to actually process the financial donation in batch.

Thoughts?

[JavaJones]

Cool idea mouser, for sure. If it could be boiled down to absolute simplicity, it might even catch on... with the backing of a major player, heh. Breaking into the financial transaction market is tricky.

- Oshyan

[mouser]

Trying the beta.. it's really beta.. they are in a very rough early state.. 

[40hz]

Maybe Flattr should talk to the United Way about how they do it. From what I'm hearing this sounds very much like the way the United Way "fair share" contribution plan works. You designate a periodic amount to donate and then tell them how you want to allocate what you give.

Why reinvent the wheel when someone might already have the plans?