Three Reasons Twitter Should Charge:
- Paying for commercial messaging has been key in reducing text message spam in the mobile industry. Making commercial users pay on Twitter would probably reduce the number of Spitterers out there. I’m getting tired of the Make Money crowd overtaking me. Paying for the service or for the number of commercial tweets sent would thwart these users.
- This is a solid means for growing revenue via Twitter. I want Twitter to succeed and grow. Using up investment funds to keep the lights on is like a ticking time bomb, especially in this economy.
- The folks at Twitter are kidding themselves if they think this is a communication medium with the lasting power of email. Twitter is awesome, but I have no doubt that there will be something better any time soon. If Twitter capitalizes on the commercial traffic, that will provide them with the capital needed to morph and advance the platform – keeping ahead of whatever might come next.
I also think it might be a great idea for Twitter to have API integrated applications pay for usage. This would clean up many of the ridiculous applications that are drowning Twitter in API traffic.
How Much Would I Pay?
Since my blog does actually make a profit through advertising and consulting fees, it’s pretty simple for me to calculate how much Twitter traffic has provided my bottom line. My blog gets between 5% and 8% of its traffic from Twitter. If I made $10k last year, I can attribute $500 to $800 to Twitter. Of course, I’d want to profit from Twitter, so if I paid $240 – or $20 per month – that would supply a tidy profit.
Of course, the Smippies will scream in agony… making money on the Internet? For micro-blogging? Hogwash! Quite honestly, I think great applications that enable communications deserve to make money.
If Twitter doesn’t capitalize on the traffic and reach it currently has, they may simply run out of capital while the next, improved Twitter hits the market and this fickle crowd moves on.
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