FeaturedUsers Launches Twitter Ad Network (+Freebies for You)
Dusty Reagan, who runs the Twitter app FriendOrFollow, recently launched a new Twitter ad network called FeaturedUsers. Before you moan and groan about how Twitter is becoming too commercialized, listen up: this ad network isn't about splicing ads into your Twitter stream. Instead, it takes a page from Twitter's own "Recommended Users" section which is shown to new users upon sign-up. The difference is that the FeaturedUsers ad network serves up recommendations across Twitter's ecosystem of affiliate applications, including of course FriendOrFollow, but also on nearly twenty other sites like Twitdom, TwtBase, FollowCost, DoesFollow, and more. And more apps are waiting to sign up because FeaturedUsers is actually helping Twitter app developers make money.
FeaturedUsers soft-launched into alpha back in February of this year after Dusty saw how TwitterCounter was featuring users on their site for the going rate of $100 per week. He was looking for a way to monetize the web traffic on his own application, FriendOrFollow, and Google AdSense was barely bringing anything more than a few dollars per month. That's when he got the idea for FeaturedUsers.
How it Works
With FeaturedUsers, any Twitter user can go to the site and sign up to purchase impressions across a network of eighteen different Twitter affiliate applications. You can see the complete list here. The cost to the user is $10 per 1000 impressions (CPM). Each impression is essentially just a banner add that displays the Twitter user's name, profile, and link to their Twitter account. After PayPal fees, which is how publishers pay, revenues are split 60/40 in favor of the publisher. So far, even with very little press, the site has been busy. They've yet to have a time when there weren't any sales. In fact, they currently have a padding of about 7 days out. As the padding increases, they add another publisher to the mix. Reagan tells us there's quite a waiting list for that already.
After a Twitter user buys impressions, the affiliate sites display these using a simple line of Javascript code. Reagan also put a lot of safeguards into the system to make sure that both the Twitter user and the publisher get the most bang for the buck. For example, there's an IP limit which is currently set at 30 impressions per 24 hours. If any particular IP address starts showing up far too many times in the log files, it probably means a particular user has been refreshing the page over and over again. Those extra impressions won't get counted.
Another provision is especially designed to protect the publishers. If the clickthrough rate on the banners drops below 0.6%, FeaturedUsers stops charging for impressions until it increases again. According to Reagan, this should encourage the publishers to move the Twitter banner ad to a more prominent position on their site where the rate will be better.
What About Spammers?
Of course, these days, there is some concern that spammers and others up to no good could use the system to promote their own, terrible Twitter profiles. But, Reagan thinks the very fact that you have to pay for impressions will keep those sorts of users at bay for the most part. He also thinks that even if they were to get through, they wouldn't see much value for their dollars spent since visitors clicking through to their profiles probably wouldn't follow the spammer's account.
Still, if there's a certain Twitter profile that a publisher doesn't like for whatever reason - maybe it's spammy, maybe it's too risque, etc. - the publisher has the right to block it from showing on their page.
Coming Soon: Geo-targeting, Contextual Profiles, and More
In the next couple of weeks, FeaturedUsers will launch a geo-targeting feature that will show you profiles of Twitter users from your area when you visit the affiliate sites - a move that should definitely help to increase the clickthrough rate on the ads. Next month, they'll add another feature called "contextual profiles" which will match keywords from a Twitter user's profile to a tag cloud of words that represent the affiliate site. This process will be used to better match up Twitter users and the sites their banners are shown on.
The publishers dashboard page will soon be updated, too. Now it shows things like the domain clickthough rate, the amount of money paid and owed, and the total page impressions. After the update, publishers will have the ability to add new domains and blacklist certain IP addresses - like their own home or work IP - so those don't get counted as impressions.
When Twitter oAuth leaves beta, FeaturedUsers will then let Twitter users claim their account and turn on certain options like having the banner display your latest tweet, for example. Reagan found static profile banners performed better, but wants to at least provide this option for those who want it.
Get Some Free Impressions!
Want some free impressions on this new network? We have 4000 impressions to give away. The first eight commenters who leave their Twitter username below will receive 500 impressions each.
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
It's a clever idea, but Twitter can wipe it out with one simple fix to their Find People feature. Right now it only searches the user's name and Twitter nickname. So if I use it to find "virtual assistant," I only get 8 matches. If they allowed you to also search the bio within users' profile, they would open up a huge lead gathering system that would make this ad model obsolete.
Luckily, there is a simple procedure for setting up Google Alerts for this type of search. If I use it to search Google for:
intext:”bio * social media” site:twitter.com
I get 869 results. Why doesn't Twitter make this a built in following feature?
I wrote up all the details on this type of search in a recent blog post:
http://www.alertrank.com/mrgooglealerts/2009/04/09/finding-twitter-users-based-on-their-bio/
We've been using this on one of our sites for a few weeks and we're happy with how it works. To get it running is just a few lines of JavaScript. Dusty asked us to send him the IPs of the machines we use most so we're not skewing numbers, which in the end leads to a more accurate portrayal of statistics.
I don't think they feel spammy - yet. There have been a couple users pop up who I thought were a little suspect but for the most part it's pretty good about being "real".
Yes I want some free impressions on this new network. Add me @NewTechBooks
Soudns petty interesting, monetizing Twitter the right way.
Btw, my twitter is @lorandm
I just wanted to be 5th!
Well I am open to trying FeaturedUsers ..
And FriendorFollow is a great site
@stevenhealey
Sounds interesting, though I'll have to reread info above again to really understand it. Sounds like a cool idea though.
w00t! Giveaways! My Twitter handle is @ankurb. #icanhazfreeimpressionz?
Sounds interesting to me, like to see how I can use this for clients
@alpesh_shah
I want some impressions :D
@jamesfkw
Hook a dude up: @grayfuse
And i guess that makes eight: @narbme
Very clever. I imagine they'll keep busy for awhile, just with corporate-backed accounts wanting to advertise ;)
@Jaykul
TwitterCounter atually charges 500 a week now and has more than 10 new requests for that spot, every day. There surely is a market for this...
Why are people paying to be a featured user when you can use Twitter automation tools to find relevant followers for free? You can use tools such as Hummingbird (one time fee of $197) and automatically follow/unfollow specific users in your niche.
Huh. That's the first revenue model I've seen that I have absolutely no issues with. Kudos to Dusty for doing it well.
Sounds pretty good actually!
Even though I missed out on the top eight, how 'bout it?
I'm too late for the free offer, but that's OK. It's good info, and I'm subscribed to RWW both by email and Twitter.
Twitter username is affiliatebin
I like this. New ways to connect especially as Twitter is hot now. I would like to have a shot at this.
Jenny Ferns
If I may be the turd in the punchbowl, while I agree this is a non-intrusive format, I don't see it having a lot of value for advertisers. What are these ads likely to deliver other than new followers? And if so, what is the value of that? Sure, power users like Calcanis may be willing to put a price tag on gaining a follower, but, especially in this economy, people and companies won't be willing to spend money unless there's a more direct line to ROI.
Don't forget http://www.tweettop.com - Also a featuredusers.com site!
J
@TheDigitalists: While "corporate" advertisers may not be able to display any ad they want, they can promote their Twitter profile (similar to the new Google Adsense unit), which is obviously enough value for some. If you can increase the number of followers you have, whether you're an individual or a brand, that provides a larger audience to converse with and potentially convert into sales.
Right now I've only seen individuals purchasing impressions, but with companies like Lions Gate Films and Turbo Tax spending dollars with Google to promote their tweets, I can see other companies getting involved quickly. Also, with the new contextual advertising and geo-targeted features being planned, I can see these ads becoming even more relevant.
What's most exciting to me is that this service unites a network of Twitter-related applications and gives them a unique path towards generating some income.
Disclaimer: We (Microblink) are a Featured Users publisher and use their ads on our What the Hashtag?! website.
FeaturedUsers is quite an innovative solution from a publishers standpoint.
I have been using it quite successfully on Twitdom (Twitter Apps DB)