Comments on: Maybe Twitter SHOULDN’T Monetize

By: Ben Rowe

Ben Rowe — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:00:21 +0000

Nice post Colleen … it’s interesting to read a different perspective on this.

I certainly don’t think that Twitter should monetize by way of advertising. I think advertising would ultimately kill Twitter off. Anyone who uses Twitter to promote themselves (myself included) know that you have to be very, very subtle about it.

Instead, I think monetization could be based around the huge loyalty of twitter fans. I think they would be a lot of people that are so hooked on Twitter, they’d be prepared to pay for it.

I guess something similar to the flickr ‘pro’ model could work, whereby paying users are given additional features AND the ‘badge of honor’.

By: Alain Saffel

Alain Saffel — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:39:19 +0000

I think that if Twitter users want to see Twitter stick around and improve, they should be prepared for it to be monetized. Besides, what’s wrong with that? Why shouldn’t they be rewarded for their hard work on what has turned out to be a pretty good application?

If people truly value the service Twitter provides, then they’ll sign up. As long is it’s a reasonable charge, I’m more than prepared to sign on, whether it’s a monthly fee or some ads.

If they want to keep a big user base, they can have a premium version with no ads and the free version with ads.

By: Merlyn Sanchez

Merlyn Sanchez — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:04:16 +0000

Colleen, I think most of us would agree that Twitter needs to be sustainable and needs a revenue model, just not one that tweets adverts. I’ll unfollow anyone who starts “magpieing” me.

By: Laurie/HaloSecretarial

Laurie/HaloSecretarial — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:57:33 +0000

I LOVE Twitter and sure hope that it isn’t a casualty of the terrible economy. I’d rather be advertised to than lose it!