Will Twitter Monetize Via Email Ads?

by Chris Abraham on May 9, 2009

Post to Twitter

This is complete speculation so bear with me.  Very recently, Twitter changed its email alert messages  from pithy text-only notices of new followers or direct messages to branded, graphical emails.

Pretty New Twitter Email

Well, Twitter has always been in a conundrum: if they monetize the sparse web interface, they’ll alienate their very touchy early-adopters and send people away in disgusted droves; however, if they place banners, contextual ads, or sponsored links into alert emails, then no harm, no foul.

I don’t know if you have every looked in your settings recently, but there is a lot of opportunity to set up your Twitter account to send you a lot of alerts and warnings, letting you know when you receive a direct message or when you score a new follower — especially if you’re someone like me, adding an additional 200-followers-per-day!

Twitter Notices Settings Page

So, what do you think?  Instead of Twitter shopping itself around to Google and Microsoft, maybe Twitter is shopping its inline advertising opportunity within the endless email alerts that it send me and many of you every hour of every day.

Do you think this is possible or probable?  Please let me know in the comments.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]


Share on Tumblr

Post to Twitter

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

Joe D'Andrea May 9, 2009 at 11:09 am
Mike Langford May 9, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Stevie May 9, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Chris Abraham May 13, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Joe D'Andrea May 13, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Adam Viener May 13, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Neil Capel June 7, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Leave a Comment

By submitting a comment here you grant this site a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution.

Previous post:

Next post: