Twitter has been getting so much press for the last six months or so, even though they don’t have a revenue model. Therefore many sites have been trying to think and develop ways to make money from Twitter. Here is a quick list of some of those companies.
Be-A-Magpie – Be-A-Magpie is a simple solution that allows Twitter users to make money based upon sponsored Twitter messages. Twitter users opt in to the service and then define what frequency and ads they run on their Twitter account. Once the ad is run they get paid for that tweet.
Twittad – Twittad is a marketplace in which Twitter users post their accounts and advertisers are allowed to opt in and run a campaign on a specific account. Twittad allows advertisers to purchase on a PPF system, which is pay-per-follower. Therefore, the more Twitter followers you have the more money you can make.
Betweeted – Betweeted is a new advertising solution for Twitter in which users can signup for the service and then pick from a list of CPC and CPA campaigns. This is a new service and I dont really understand why I as a user would choose to use this service when I can just cut out the middleman and do the CPC and CPA myself.
There is another music streaming service that we didn’t mention in our Top 10 free music streaming services and that is Spiral Frog. Spiral Frog is an ad-supported music download service which has had a huge amount of hype since launch.
Today it has been reported that Spiral Frog might be in a bit of trouble and heading towards the deadpool. These reports come from executives within the struggling company. Why is Spiral Frog in trouble? When launching Spiral Frog was in a growing advertising market in which was still yielding good CPM (cost per 1000 ads) rates, however now in the economic downturn these rates are quickly dropping. Therefore, companies need to keep increasing pageviews and presence to stay ahead of the curve. Spiral Frog has been losing a lot of traffic of late and this combined with the big licensing fees they had to pay upfront for major label catalogues means their in a lot of trouble.
There are only a couple of options that will save Spiral Frog. Firstly, a miracle could happen and they could turn around the traffic and the revenues, but that’s not going to happen. Secondly, they could get more funding and sell part of the shares, but they are running out of shares so I don’t think this would happen either. Finally, the only real option is for someone to step in and purchase the company just before they run out of money and get a bargain basement price.
To be fair in the past Spiral Frog has had a lot of issues and they have been in trouble a couple of times. This is probably what has lead to Spiral Frog getting a lot of media attention. I think Spiral Frog will be acquired by the end of 2009, its the only decent option of the company.
Google Reader has for a long time been my RSS reader of choice. The design has been simple, easy to use, lots of customisation options, ability to group and more.
Last week Google released a new version of Google Reader and I thought I would take a little time and review it for everyone.
(old)
(new)
Key changes include collapsible navigation, updated look and feel, friends get promoted and more bundle feeds.
Friends get promoted
Shared items have grown up and gotten their own section in the navigation pane. You can collapse this entire section and use the title to see everything your friends have shared, or leave it open to track friends with shared items. (Don’t forget that you can add new friends in “Sharing settings“.)
More bundled feeds!
Previously Google has some default bundles that you could subscribe too, in a variety of areas. Previously this was very limited and there were only about 10 areas. Now they have added huge amounts of bundle feeds for pretty much every major niche. If you go to “Browse for stuff” then you can see bundles.
Collapsible Navigation
Each section of the navigation pane now has its own options menu and minimize/maximize controls. You can collapse each major section of navigation down to one line and focus on only the things you choose to use.
Updated look and feel
The look and feel has changed a lot in this new version of Google Reader. I personally would have liked it if there was an option to return to the old version or at least have a variety of versions. The new version is very neutral, with white and a very light blue being the main colours. However, I find post a lot harder to read in this new version. Recently Gmail received a variety of themes in which users could choose from, I really hope this isn’t too long in coming to Google Reader.
Overall
Overall the changes to Google Reader were needed, except in the case of changing the colour scheme. I think the colour scheme changes are definitely a step backwards, but this can be changed when hopefully they release a themes range to choose from.
Myspace seems to be finally improving their user interface. Today they released a new beta home page which can be selected after sign-in. For so long myspace was just winning the race in social networking by sheer number of users and customizability options. However, since Facebook has opened up, there seems to be much more of a struggle and Myspace need to pull their finger out and get the site looking professional.
There are still a lot of issues on myspace that annoy me, for example music launching on a profile once it is opened and some profiles are just so high in flash and other objects it just shuts down my browser. With these new interface and nav options it seems to be looking a lot more professional and even has little web 2.0 looking buttons.
Options now include module selection and customizable colour combination. The new profile editor is only available for Internet Explorer users. Well I suppose one step at a time!
