Twitter launches Promoted Trends with Toy Story 3

Image via CrunchBase

Twitter has launched its first promoted trending topic, as bosses of the microblogging site explore further options to turn the social network's success into a profitable revenue source.
The first topic to receive the Promoted Trend treatment is Disney-Pixar's new animated film Toy Story 3, released in cinemas this weekend. By clicking the yellow promoted link, users of the site will be taken to the latest tweets about the film, headed by a Promoted Tweet published by the advertiser at the top of the results.
According to Computerworld, Promoted Trends are highlighted on user pages as a supplementary addition below the top 10 current trends. Twitter has confirmed that topics can only become promoted if they are already being actively discussed in the Twitter community.
Twitter explained: "Promoted Trends are a new advertising concept we began testing this week; they are an extension of our Promoted Tweets platform.
"With Promoted Trends, users will see time-, context- and event-sensitive trends promoted by our advertising partners. These Promoted Trends initially appear at the bottom of the Trending Topics list on Twitter and are clearly marked 'Promoted.' As conversations about the topic increase, Promoted Trends may move up the list."
The first Promoted Trends were launched on Thursday, and Twitter will base the future of the advertising model on its success. Analysts are praising Twitter for developing a business model that will not impact on the all-important user experience, by making Promoted Trends minimally invasive.
"People will tolerate advertising as long as it lets them do what they want to do," explained Ezra Gottheil, analyst at Technology Business Research.
"As with Google, users know someone has to pay. Users prefer it to be painless. Advertising that doesn't get in the way is generally welcomed."

Twitter unveils universal integrated search

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Twitter Search has been added to the profile of every user after months of selective user testing.
The search bar is found on a user's right hand menu bar and results are now shown in the main panel. Previously users had to leave the main Twitter home page to search the site for real time results of users' tweets.
The new search model also has a button to save a search - a particularly useful feature for people who want to search for the same thing repeatedly - that will put a shortcut on the user's homepage for them to quickly get updated results for their query. Underneath the saved searches, users are shown a list of the current hot topics being tweeted about to make sure no one misses out on popular subjects.
Much like Google Trends helps people see what people are interested in, Twitter looks set to be one of the first sites people turn to get instant answers to what's hot right now.
Integrated Twitter Search which was previewed in February and since then other Twitter search sites such as Twazzup have sprung up trying to take a foothold in the previously unfulfilled gap. Now Twitter is set to show that it can do it itself.
One thing that many commentators have noticed is that Twitter has yet to find a way to find a way to make money from its service. With no ads to be found on the site - unless you use the Japanese version - people have begun to speculate that we are soon to find adverts appearing on our feeds.

Bukisa is a place where you can share your knowledge with others and get paid when others use it.

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How does the Bukisa Revenue Sharing model work?

Bukisa's unique and revolutionary revenue sharing model is based on two main revenue streams and the innovative Bukisa Index:
1. Getting paid for people reading, viewing or listening to your high quality published content.
2. Getting paid for the read, viewed & listened published content of your friends, friends' friends and their friends (up to 3 levels).
You get paid up to 3 (three) levels. Most people will ask their family and friends to join.
•    1st Level - You invite your Family and Friends and they are now helping you earn more money.
•    2nd Level – Your family and friends now ask their friends to join the Bukisa family and because your family and friends are contributors with Bukisa because of you, you are rewarded. 
•    3rd level – Now their friends will want to boost their earnings by recruiting their own family and friends and you get rewarded a third time.
Here’s an example with a table illustration below.
Let's take a look at Simon.

• Simon has 10 items published on Bukisa
• Each item produces 100 unique views a day - that's a total of 30,000 unique views per month.

So Simon is earning $120 per month on the above content that he published (based on a Bukisa Index of $4).
Simon has lots of friends online so he invites them to join Bukisa.

• A total of 30 of his friends sign up and start producing content.
• In total those 30 friends are producing 150,000 unique views per month
• Simon earns a total of 25% of their direct income ($600) which is $150.

Now Simon's friends start inviting their friends, and they start inviting their friends. You can from the table below that it can become a very profitable business to submit quality content to Bukisa.com:

	Members in the Network	Unique Impressions per/m	Networks Revenues	My Revenues	Calculation
My Content		30,000		$120.00	30,000/1,000*4
1st Level Friends	30	150,000	$600.00	$150.00	150,000/1,000*4*25%
2nd Level Friends	60	300,000	$1,200.00	$75.00	300,000/1,000*4*25%*25%
3rd Level Friends	120	600,000	$2,400.00	$37.50	600,000/1,000*4*25%*25%*25%
Revenues per/m				$382.50

* Based on a Bukisa Index of $4.00 during a period of 1 month.

What is the Bukisa Index?

The Bukisa Index is a unique and exciting way you can keep track of your earnings from your published content and networks content in Real Time.
What this number means is that for every 1,000 unique human visits to your content (and also accept our Bukisa advertising to be displayed) you will receive the USD equivalent of the Bukisa Index.
For example if the Bukisa Index is 4.00 that means you will receive $4.00 USD for every 1000 unique views your content receives.
The Bukisa Index is updated at least once per month based upon the overall performance of our websites revenue streams - this involves the following: Contextual Advertising, Banner Advertising, Email Marketing, Joint Ventures and more.

• The higher the Bukisa Index, the more money you earn.

How can I track my earnings?

You can login to your account at any time and see how well you are doing. Just login and check out "My Earnings". You can view a complete history of your earnings and your payment history.

When do I get paid?

Generally, payments are made 30 days after you have reached your payment threshold. The payment threshold is usually $10 but you may wish to set a higher threshold for your payments.

• Payment is made via paypal.

If your account balance is less than US $50 at the end of the month, we'll roll your earnings over to the following month, until the payment threshold is reached.

How much does it cost to sign up to Bukisa?

Joining Bukisa is free, publishing content is free and so are all the other functions of our site, such as voting, commenting and inviting friends in to your network.

What are some of the other benefits of joining Bukisa?

As a publisher on Bukisa your content will receive a wide range of publications. You can use this to strengthen your online identity and branding.
By filling in your online profile people can learn more about you and the services you provide, thus earning free publicity for your business.

Ready to Join? Signup now.

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What is Pluck On Demand?

Pluck On Demand is a new self-serve product that adds contextually relevant content and social media to your site, increasing pageviews and user engagement while earning you incremental revenue.
How does it work?

• A. Pluck On Demand uses a simple widget implementation. Once installed, it contextually reads pages on your site and offers users links to relevant content. When a user clicks on a link, a new page is generated within your site where the full article or video can be viewed.
• B. Pluck On Demand activates a vibrant new community on your site, allowing user comments, recommendations, profiles and more.
• C. Content and social media widgets are pre-packaged with display and video advertising, earning you incremental revenue.

Watch the video below for more information.

Add content and social media to any website -- powered by Pluck On Demand

How Can Facebook Crack its Advertising Problem?

Image by israelavila via Flickr
Why can’t Facebook monetize those users? New York Times writer Randall Stross recently wrote a piece about Proctor & Gamble’s foray into social networking advertising. The thrust of the story can be found in a quote from Seth Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks:

“Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better.”

Few people take the number of fans a company has on Facebook to be a serious indicator of social media advertising success. And as 24/7 Wall Street notes, advertising on social networks is simply not as relevant as search engine advertisements. Couple this with user blindness and you understand why click through rates are, well, abysmal.
So what are Facebook and the other social networks to do? How do you monetize those 130 million pairs of eyeballs in a consistent and long-term way?

Why consumers click

First, we have to understand that there are two major reasons consumers click on online ads:
Either consumers knows it is an ad and see it’s what they want, so they click - OR -
consumers don’t know it’s an ad and see it’s relevant, so they click.
The first scenario is targeted and relevant advertising. The second scenario is what I call “Internet Ignorant.” Essentially people don’t realize that when they search for Ford Ranger, the top link in the cake yellow box is an ad. Those of us who are technologically adept deal with this every day and are blind to the ads, but millions of people who use the Internet less frequently click on these types of ads, especially on well designed websites where content surrounds the ads.
Of course, this isn’t exactly why we want people to click on online ads. You’ll get conversions, but not as many as from the first scenario. And the “Internet Ignorant” scenario doesn’t work for Facebook anyway - its user base is Internet savvy, blind to ads, and Facebook isn’t about to throw some floating ads in the middle of our profiles.

What can we learn from Harry Potter?

So how does Facebook get people interested in its advertising? We have to look towards two of the most successful types of advertising around:

• Search Advertising
• Movie Trailers

As discussed earlier, search advertising is lucrative because it’s targeted and relevant to exactly what a person is looking for at the exact right time. So precision targeting is part of the equation.
But what about movie trailers? Why are they part of this puzzle? It’s simple: no other type of advertising is consistently sought after and watched over and over again like a movie trailer. Half the fun of a movie is the trailers themselves. Come on - how many times did you watch the trailer for The Dark Knight? And are you seriously not going to watch the next trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Movie trailers are extraordinarily interesting, visually appealing, and are often advertising a product that has already sold us, especially as it approaches the launch date.

Translating this into something that works

So am I suggesting that Facebook throw up video ads for The Day the Earth Stood Still? No, though they might actually get a lot of views with some sort of relevant video ad. No, here’s what I’m saying:

1) Relevancy is not enough in advertising. It’s about relevancy and timing. You must catch a person at the moment he or she most desires a product. Lucky for Facebook, they have status updates, which is a close approximation to what people are thinking about at a given moment. Advertising on social networks should focus on time-based actions and then factor in relevant interests (i.e. favorite music), based on when the consumer last added it to his or her profile. This is part of why I believe Twitter could be lucrative - it is nothing but time-based updates. Plus SMS advertising does pretty well, if Twitter so chooses to include it.
2) Facebook must find ways to convince users to seek advertising. Damn, I must be nuts, especially with the advertising blindness of the Facebook generation, but the best advertisements are simple in message, easy to remember, and desired by consumers. Almost all movie trailers and some select TV ads continue to rack up YouTube views. This only helps to enforce branding and slowly change the mindset of the consumer.

These lessons are not just for Facebook or social networks, but for all websites struggling to monetize their users (i.e. YouTube). It’s time to dramatically rethink how we serve and interact with our online advertising. Facebook and other social media websites need to be proactive in shaping the campaigns of their advertisers. Banner ads aren’t engaging or relevant. Text ads are only sometimes relevant and rarely engaging, so how do you target them better? Video ads can be both, but how do you serve them unobtrusively but still get enough views to be profitable? And how do you get enough inventory?
Relevancy, timing, and desire must all be present if social media advertising is to ever succeed. As I’m sure Goldstein already knows, you can’t distract users online and expect to make revenue. You have to make them want it.
Now while I rack my brain some more on this puzzle, I hope you’ll post some of your theories in the comments.
December 15, 2008 - 4:07 pm PDT - by Ben Parr

Web TV Right Now – And the Future

Image by Lee Bennett via FlickrWeb TV Right Now – And the Future