Flattr, the Swedish micropayments service, is trying to get Pay A Blogger Day to become a thing November 29th of this year. I suppose the Day is about as organic as a Hallmark holiday, but it’s a smooth way for the micropayments service to get its concept of tangibly paying bloggers for their work into the internet consciousness.
That being said, don’t get the impression the Payablogger.org website is a Flattr-fest. They’re taking a classy, laid back approach to get the concept out there. There they suggest you click existing “Donate” buttons on websites, buy merchandise, or click the Flattr button if they have one. On top of that, they have a list of popular blogs to donate to that don’t seem to support Flattr micropayments.
The small monetary transfer sent when clicking a Flattr button seems like a great way to pay or subsidize salaries for bloggers and online comic authors who spend time providing free content to its users. The service would be a much better alternative for bloggers and visitors than hitting readers with a ton of adds, especially as more and more people use add-blocking software in their browser. That being said, it’s tough to get a movement like flattr to become mainstream.
“The idea behind Pay a Blogger Day is first and foremost we wanted to thank bloggers for their enjoyable, witty, insightful (and sometimes just effectively time-killing) work,” says Andrus Purde of Flattr and Payablogger.org.
“Although bloggers are not after money and fame, and they certainly appreciate everyone’s ‘social payments’ like comments and retweets, all of us blog readers can and should give something tangible back. If not every day, then at least one day a year.”
ArcticStartup doesn’t have a donate button or t-shirts, but you can support us in person by coming to our free Christmas Party on December 1st!
