DISQUS

Social Times: Blogger Puts Twitter Account Sponsorship on eBay

  • Ian Schafer · 1 year ago
    Just to clarify...

    There will be no impact on the text of my tweets (a la @scobleizer). That's annoying. Instead, what's up for grabs is the skin on my profile, and the replacement of my avatar/icon with the high bidder's logo.

    As for the cost, I figured it had to start somewhere, and given the high value of some of my followers (take a look at the list, you'll recognize many of them: http://twitter.com/ischafer/followers), I figured it carried a B2B premium, yet still wouldn't impact the tone or content of my tweets. Heck, I thought 400 bucks was a bargain.

    And any money generated is being donated to charity (The David Wright Foundation).

    Again, this is being done to make a point and start a conversation.

    I'll be blogging the process (and the coverage of it) after the auction is over.

    Thanks for joining the conversation (as @jaffefuice would say)!
  • Jason Preston · 1 year ago
    That does seem a little high for the number of followers.

    It'll be interesting to see if that number grows or shrinks once he starts doing sponsored tweets, and what form those tweets will take.

    Ian does call it an "experiment" in the auction page, and I think it's worth trying out. Sponsorship may be a viable way to monetize microblogging via twitter, just like it's a viable model for monetizing full-scale blogs.
  • Mark Frost · 1 year ago
    There has been lots of talk about this, but I heard just this morning that it was being done for charity which brings justification to it. I just don't want to see the "Twitterholics" taking money from advertisers for sponsored tweets.
  • brandon · 1 year ago
    Now there are whole companies devoted to this model, but how many peopl actually view your twitter page? Dont most people use tools like mobile phones and IM to view and receive tweets, never really seeing another users profile page. I read this article today about http;//twitter.com/Linkbee and http://twitter.com/dvdquotes which both seemed to be viable ways to monetize a profile on twitter in their own ways. http://blogcampaigning.com/2008/10/making-money...