Payal vs Amazon, and Flattr on the side
Mar. 10th, 2011 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zeeth_kyrah posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crowdfunding(reposted from my journal)
So. I'm thinking of opening myself up for donations right now. I've already decided that Flattr is a good idea: You pay a low, flat monthly fee (which you can boost in larger amounts, but it's only decremented in the smaller size like a pay-as-you-go phone), and that monthly amount is divided among the people or things you've decided to "flattr" each month, or some charity.
However, while getting money into Flattr is easy (they accept lots of services IN), right now the only way to get money OUT is through Paypal, which is a service I feel rather doubtful about using.
I decided to look at Amazon's payment system. They have two kinds, one for individuals (where you can do things like transfer cash between people using Amazon emails and/or your cell number), and one for businesses (which is where "official" donations stuff goes).
So I'm faced with a choice. I can't enable Flattr unless I get a Paypal account anyway, but I'd rather use Amazon -- except I don't feel that I've heard enough about Amazon to know what I'm getting into as far as how they behave toward their users.
For now, I'm thinking of just using this for donations; but at some future time, I'll probably sell things like poetry or stories, so I'll want a business account anyway.
What do you folks use, and which do you think would be better for me, Paypal or Amazon?
So. I'm thinking of opening myself up for donations right now. I've already decided that Flattr is a good idea: You pay a low, flat monthly fee (which you can boost in larger amounts, but it's only decremented in the smaller size like a pay-as-you-go phone), and that monthly amount is divided among the people or things you've decided to "flattr" each month, or some charity.
However, while getting money into Flattr is easy (they accept lots of services IN), right now the only way to get money OUT is through Paypal, which is a service I feel rather doubtful about using.
I decided to look at Amazon's payment system. They have two kinds, one for individuals (where you can do things like transfer cash between people using Amazon emails and/or your cell number), and one for businesses (which is where "official" donations stuff goes).
So I'm faced with a choice. I can't enable Flattr unless I get a Paypal account anyway, but I'd rather use Amazon -- except I don't feel that I've heard enough about Amazon to know what I'm getting into as far as how they behave toward their users.
For now, I'm thinking of just using this for donations; but at some future time, I'll probably sell things like poetry or stories, so I'll want a business account anyway.
What do you folks use, and which do you think would be better for me, Paypal or Amazon?
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Thoughts
Date: 2011-03-10 05:41 am (UTC)I don't use Amazon for money-handling. I am enrolled in their affiliate program for book/product links and advertising, which is a handy way to help my audience find books that I'm recommending. But getting money out of Amazon is a pain in the tail; I think the payout is at $100 or so, which means they mostly just keep money that people have earned because few affiliate accounts will get that high. This does not impress me with their financial responsibility.
I think that Flattr sounds like a very cool idea, and could use a boost to become popular enough to really fly.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-03-10 01:57 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2011-03-10 02:07 pm (UTC)I've heard about Flattr, too, and had a couple readers ask me to sign up, so it's on the to-do list.
(The $100 payout reminds me of Google AdWords, which is why I went with Project Wonderful Ads)