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Posted by Eric LaManna
I came across this article today and thought that it supported some of the revenue model ideas for twitter that came up in class. It seems to be the main idea to make twitter profitable right now.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_ultimate_twitter_revenue_model.php
3 comments
I really like the tiered model because I personally know some people who hate advertisement, so giving them the option to "opt out" of targeted advertisement really gives twitter a lot more freedom to what and how they view twitter.
I believe the "leveraging context" option is a very effective way to not only generate sustainable revenue, but also not affect its increasing growth. As opposed to direct ads, which are obtrusive, the leveraging contexts will at least target specific viewers with specific tastes. A few other websites already employ a similar technique, and, through personal experience, have been fairly effective. One example was a website I used to search for furniture books; subsequently, the site then projected furniture related retailers and manufacturers, which I ended up clicking.
The tiered model is certainly the best idea if you use ads to create revenue. Users of Twitter will want the option to not see the ads, and as long as the ads are targeted and delicately placed, Twitter won't lose many customers.
One idea for placement may be to place the ads solely on user profile pages, to avoid crowding the Twitter site with them. This way, businesses on Twitter will be encouraged to pay the premium to avoid traffic moving away from their page. This is one way to try to separate the businesses from the independent users on Twitter. At the same time, it gives the independent users the choice to pay to "improve" the look of their profile.