Twitter eBay Fusion
Here is an interesting business model combining a well populated Twitter profile with eBay’s affiliate program. The amount of leverage that a Twitter profile commands is determined by the same factors which determine the leverage of a RSS Feed or an email list, namely the size of your following and the focus of your niche.
For our example let’s consider the niche of high end men’s watches. So you build up a large profile on Twitter by tracking terms like “Rolex”, “Omega” and “Movado” and then adding as many of these enthusiasts as possible to your profile.
You yourself should be staying on top of the latest happenings in the world of men’s watches. This can be easily accomplished by daily viewing of the top watch blog’s and forums. The very best of this information should be relayed to your Twitter following on an ongoing basis.
In this way you become an expert source of information while at the same time providing the valuable service of distilling the best wristwatch related content from around the web. In our attention-deficit, efficiency-obsessed culture this kind of filtering is extremely sought after.
As far as monetization, you should “pepper” your Twitter stream with occasional links to eBay auctions that are in some way exceptional. Perhaps there is a brand new, diamond studded, Rolex Presidential with a “Buy it Now” price about $5,000 dollars under market value. Or maybe someone is auctioning off a Movado formerly owned and worn by Yankee’s short stop, Derek Jeter.
You will have to test to find the ideal ratio of info posts to sales pitches. If you spam your following with to many pitches, chances are they will abandon you. On the other hand if you don’t ever pitch anything then you won’t be able to monetize your Twitter stream.
You can visit eBay’s website to research the exact amount that you would make on a particular sale, however for the purpose of this post I have chosen to use a grossly oversimplified estimate. Let’s say that as affiliate you walk away with about .75% of the sales price. So on a $20,000 dollar watch you should make at least $150 in commission.
If you get really good at this technique and your Twitter following becomes huge, the next step would be to sell Tweets as a form of advertising to wristwatch sellers on eBay.
I first got the idea of charging for Tweets when Darren Rowse of the ProBlogger.net website, announced plans to start a “PayPerTweet” network. By simultaneously charging eBay sellers to Tweet for them and using affiliate links, you have to potential to make money two ways on a single sale.
The above mentioned example is only one possible way to Monetize Twitter what other novel ways can you think of?
For specific information on the amount that eBay pays its affiliates click here, you can find a breakdown of eBay fees for US version of its site here.
Tags: Twitter, eBay, Internet Marketing
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May 10th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Twitter is cracking down on spam. And I would NOT suggest doing this. And, what’s worse, you quotes Darren Rowse’s Pay Per Tweet, which was AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Regardless of whether or not it was a joke, Darren’s post still inspired me with the idea. Regarding your point about spamming, as I mention in the post” You will have to test to find the ideal ratio of info posts to sales pitches.”
Many of the most respectable Twitter users regularly engage in some form of self promotion, even if it comes in the form of “New Blog Post: ” at myblog.com.