Twitter users offered the chance to earn from ad service

by Staff, Brand Republic 03-Sep-08, 11:50

LONDON - Micro blogging service Twitter might not have embraced advertising just yet, but another online start-up has come up with a way for Twitter users to make cash.

Called Twittad the service allows so called Twitters to put advertising on their personal homepages.

Unlike click through rates, such as Google Ad Words used by bloggers on their blogs, Twitters will be paid according to how many hours the ad is kept on their homepage.

TwittAd makes its money by charging a 5% service fee on the total purchase price.

Twittad said: "Every hour the ad is served, the Twitter user will receive money in their Twittad account. Once the Twittad users account reaches $20 they can request payment.

"If a Twitter user removes the image before the advertiser's time has expired, we alert the advertiser and they have the option to give negative feedback to the Twitter user. Advertiser will receive credit back from Twittad for the time their ad was not served."

However, how much cash Twitter users will make is unclear as most users of the service do not visit each other's homepage very often and many more update via mobile devices and software such as Twirl.

That said many Twitter users might well sign and earn cash as new visitors or Twitters visit their homepage.

Wired reported that two other services, called Twitads and Twitad, are also set to launch although Twitter itself has not tackled the problem of advertising, but has experimented with ads on its Japanese service.

The service asks how many followers uses have and how much they wish to sell them for, trying to match the Twitter user with an advertiser. Then the ad sits on the left-hand column of a user's Twitter page, which is currently empty.

Techcrunch describes the ads themselves as "not so bad" and says they are "relatively unobtrusive".

What it does not do, and which would likely scare off Twitter users, is plaster ads everywhere.

*Read Gordon's Republic blog Is Twitter ever going to make money out of being Twitter?*

Comments

Jamie Riddell - 03/09/2008

That's wonderful, if: 1. People actively visit the twitter homepages [most people prefer to use clients like Thwirl] 2. Users don't get upset about twitter 'selling out' see http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/25/scoble-sells-out/ 3. Twitad itself doesn't get blocked. Their own twitter account is suspended due to "strange activity" http://twitter.com/twitad To survive, Twitter will need to monetise the tool somehow [Jaiku achieved this by selling to Google] but this form of advertising, I fear, is not the answer.

Amod Munga - 05/09/2008

The leading point in the above comment is the one I was going mention. I'm a Twitter user via TwitterFox. I hardly visit my Twitter homepage. And with Ping.fm going public I think less people will use the actual Twitter page setup.