Here is a screenshot example of what a promoted posts looks like in the dashboard - http://cloud.jonathanmoore.com/Dsu4. Users have the option of choosing from several dozen feature options like "buy this", "very special posts", "super proud of this", etc.
Right now it appears to be limited to one highlighted post per day, and with all purchases on Tumblr they give you the option of donating an additional $1 to EFF, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.
That is a really smart way to generate revenue. Traditional ad placements would be inconsistent with the experience. Of course your posts are essentially ads, but users can now unfollow people who get too spammy. Kind of plays on the Google model of letting people pay to highlight their offer, or in this case their content. Interested to see how it plays...
Wow, this is a surprisingly non-terrible way to generate revenue. Good job, Tumblr. Ad placements and premium membership would have pissed off a good chunk of their users, but this is kind of a nice compromise.
That's a totally reasonable consideration but the revenue model of the host platform isn't always the best indicator of its success or longevity.
LiveJournal & Six Apart have longstanding revenue models but aren't hosting users like the President of the United States or large corporate media entities.
I don't know, everything is pretty portable these days. (user data/blog databases) I don't think most folks chose Wordpress on the financial strength of Automattic, do they?
It's a reasonable enough consideration for folks like us in this venue, the parent comment just jumped out at me as an interesting reason not to give the platform a whirl.
And there are the thousands upon thousands of dollars that will come in from people who just want to try it out for fun, since it's only a dollar. Wicked smart.
Probably due to the novelty of this feature, income will spike and then fade away. Similar to any other startup article appearing on TC. This service will stop being used pretty fast.
The only way I see this service being successful going forward is by providing stats/analytics to users on post views, engagement, post virality, follower stats, etc. If this service is provided together with the $1 highlight feature, I do see a business going forward.
Doesn't this make more sense, though? It's a combination of paying for advertising and paying for application features, both well-tested business models. Paying for random fake things that annoy your friends, however, is not as well-tested.
This reminds me of a business that was very successful for one of my brother's in-laws.
It was a site where you could post free press releases. If you liked, you could buy one or more stars for your press release, and the more stars, the closer to the top it sorted.
He bootstrapped in the late 90's without investors, his only co-founder was his wife, he grew it organically and got very profitable, ended up hiring a couple dozen people, and ultimately had a very nice exit.
Just tried it out on my Tumblr. Wonder if it will have any impact on whatever post-ranking/call-outs they already do. Unfortunately, I tried it on a Friday afternoon, which is not a good time to ever post anything.
But I love the easy integration of donation to good causes. I'll be making a lot of $2 purchases out of impulse, it seems.
Considering 43 million people user Tumblr, even if 5% of Tumblr users tried it ONCE - Tumblr would generate over $2 million dollars - yep.
Now for the ones that use it more than once, that's extra revenue. This could easily generate $2-3 million in revenue in 2012, and maybe half a million or so each year thereafter.
A lot of users are complaining about it right now, but to me, it seems like a genius way to monetize the platform. When things calm down in a couple of weeks and it gets used in the way intended, this will probably look much smarter in hindsight.
Still would like them to figure out a way to help bloggers monetize their sites on the platform. That's the rub for bloggers trying to go "professional" through a Tumblr site — all the readers they get through the dashboard are difficult to monetize right now.
Forrst has a similar system for promoting user posts as an advertising alternative, though Kyle (founder) uses credits (called acorns) and there are several ways to earn credits, outside of simply purchasing them.
It's a great idea: it's hard to get more "targeted" with ads than content that would have been posted within the community anyway.
If anecdotal evidence is any guide, it seems to have been received really well within Forrst, and the backlog was huge the last time I looked (not enough pageviews to match demand).
Right now it appears to be limited to one highlighted post per day, and with all purchases on Tumblr they give you the option of donating an additional $1 to EFF, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.
reply