Sold Out Activist.

Flattr is a forthcoming micro-payment service with an intriguing idea: the Digg button with money instead of point. The idea is brilliant, in theory. And I expect it will work handsomely for a niche market of self-publishers. I encourage you to watch their video (which is also on their site), if only because it has a great pitch that involves cake.

I’ll boil the idea down if you’re lazy (otherwise skip past this paragraph): Users pay a monthly fee and gain access to online content from digital publishers (musicians, podcasters, writers, cartoonists, whatever). The publisher places a Flattr button on relevant pages which the user will click that button if they enjoyed the content and felt it was worth paying for. Each month, the user’s subscription fee is divided equally between the number of Flittr buttons clicked. If your mp3 button is 1 of 10 clicked that month, you get 10% of that user’s money. Not only did you get some cash for your song, but now you’ve gotten “Flattr’d” a number of times which you can show off just like a Digg button.

Where this is really cool is for small charities or causes. They can’t leverage marketing campaigns because they can’t afford it, nor can they produce slick websites with smoothly structured payment gateways to handle donations–that is, beyond PayPal or physical money. And there are people who would donate to a charity if it was as easy as a few clicks–and most importantly–amid their other purchases. These users are paying for Flattr before they access content, so they have money-burn mindest and it doesn’t cost them more if they click on 50 or 5000 Flattr buttons. Tossing in a few charity clicks will make them feel good and help worthy causes.

“Today, I bought a sweet indie MP3, a wallpaper of my favorite webcomic, and gave to a charity that rehabilitates zoo octopi. In three clicks.” Tell me that sentence wouldn’t make you feel better standing next to your friend drinking his $6 latte.

Communication is a skill and pitching is a specialization of that skill. Those of us who pitch do so frequently in a narrow environment: scheduled in advance. But the most fruitful pitches are often those unplanned. Such as at a party or convention. I’m sure we’ve all daydreamed about running into a major industry player, investor(, or attractive mate) somewhere and tossing a wonderful 5-minute pitch (or sublime small talk). But more often that ball is dropped because you daydreamed instead of planned. And you certainly didn’t practice for that occurrence. I mean, how often do you get the perfect opportunity for anything?

Some are born with a silver tongue, the words float from their mouth fluffy and sweet like cotton candy. Or clean and prim like freshly minted money. Whatever appeals to your ears, these people have the knack to make sure you hear it. The rest of us have to work at such devilry. And even then we’ve not a silver tongue, but one that’s silver-coated. At the end of the day, you work with what you’ve got. But how to improve your communication skills and add to that coat of silver? Practice. (more…)

Blog retconned, now located in Vancouver. Canada. If you’re looking for my Tumblr: here. On Monday, my root blog will develop a more professional tone. I know, how exciting. I’ll worry about the layout later. Going to a gathering of fellow Bootup Labs Cohortists tonight.