How To Monetize Twitter: This Feature Worth $5/Month
While Twitter is one of the most power platforms for information distribution and self-promotion, monetization needs to be proven. @biz admits they are not enthusiastic about advertising, and they are looking into other options. Limiting spam and encouraging you to be more engaging, there’s a quick feature that can make them money now.
Often, I’ll go to a tweep’s profile page after reading an interesting tweet. A list of recent posts, a picture, a short bio, and a link, is all I can see. With services like twitbacks, you can easily add extra information to your profile’s background, but there’s no interactivity. What if you could add Html to that area?
I’d pay $5 a month for that feature. All of a sudden, you have an incentive to build a legitimate following instead of creating many spammy accounts. An example is shown below:
How to save 8% on cooling costs and get $1,500 for your home’s new roof
As a home owner, you know the importance of a good roof. But, did you know new advancements in roofing technology allow you to reduce your peak cooling demand by 10-15 percent? So, if you have central air or window cooling units, and you are planning on re-roofing your house, consider installing Energy Star approved roofing. You can expect your utility bill to be reduced by 8% or more. Go to the Energy Star website to find eligible products.
In addition to saving money on your utility bill, you will be eligible for a $1,500 tax credit. The tax credit is for 30% of the cost of roofing materials (up to $1,500). If they cost $5,000, you will get the full credit offered by the government.
To determine your energy savings, use Google Earth or Draft Logic to estimate your roof’s area. With this data, you can use the Energy Star Roofing Calculator or the DOE Cool Roof Calculator.
What is a tax credit?
You claim a tax credit when you file your federal income tax form on April 15th. If you owe the federal government $3,000 and you have a $1,000 tax credit, you only owe the government $2,000. It is a dollar for dollar reduction in the taxes you have to pay. Because tax credits save you money directly, they are better than the deductions you make when you give to a charity. The tax credits I talk about are related to renewable energy and energy conservation.
Below is federal form 5695 which is used to get your tax credit come tax season:
Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit 5695 - Get more Business Documents
New Journalism: how your tweets are replacing an institution
The events that led to this post:
The idea for this post came to me when I saw a car go through a living room. OK, I lied. I didn’t see the accident happen, but I saw the vivid aftermath. A classic fail. “I got to post this to twitter,” was the first thought that raced through my head. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my phone or a camera on me. If I had taken a pic, it would have looked something like the one above.
This event got me thinking about the power of twitter. We use twitter to converse, but it’s also a game using social proof and liking to target the subconscious.
You’re playing a massive multiplayer game:
You may only use twitter to follow your friends or interesting people, but new followers excite you. Maybe it’s you ego. Maybe you’re promoting a MLM scam. Whatever it is, you like it when your follower count grows.
If you think of twitter as a game, then you are both a player and a point to be had. As a player your objective is to get the most points. You become someone else’s point when you follow them. (This is a social thought experiment, so please don’t take offense)
As of this post, @cnnbrk has the top spot overall, but they are not the only winners. You can have the most followers in your geographic area or the niche you tweet about. Yes, twitter is a tool used by businesses, but in most cases, there’s an individual behind each account, adding friends and participating in the conversation.
You have an incentive to stay interesting, and reply to your tweeps. By doing so, your follower count is (almost) sure to grow.
How your tweets are replacing an institution:
An institution is dying. News dotting the world is more available than ever. This is not the death of the well written and researched editorial, but soon everyone will have access to the tools needed to post and consume breaking news on a hyper local scale. You neighbor saved a life. You witnessed the bursting of a water main. In my case-you saw a car sticking out of a house. These are all extremely local events with mass appeal. Mass appeal could mean your followers, but if the story is interesting, it could spread much further (through the use of retweets).
All of a sudden, you’re the reporter on the scene when breaking news happens. You’re the photo journalist with you camera phone in hand. With 140 characters you aren’t going to change the world, but your followers might spread a story. You do it for the reward of social proof. But most of all, you do it for the game. The upward ticking of followers.
Technology will advance, and soon your photos will be as good as those on the front page of the New York Times. You will stream video from any smart phone. You do it for social (not monetary) gain. While facebook tries, twitter is the only platform that can and will succeed at replacing the institution behind local journalism.
Please let me know your thoughts on my first blog post in the comments below.
