02 March 2010 | Author: J. Cave SEO Consultant

Twitter to try a new advertising model

It's a never ending story and one that has kept the microblogging platform continually in the headlines: Just how will Twitter make money?

It's not the first time Twitter has played around with an advertising model. Currently, those advertising on Twitter will see their ads displayed in the top right hand corner of a Twitter user's home page. However, it seems that Twitter - currently boasting 75 million users - is looking for a better and more successful way in which to generate advertising revenue.

According to Allthingsd.com, Twitter's Ad plan is basically to use that which has already been successful for Google. Adverts will be linked to Twitter searches, in much the same was as Google provides sponsored results in its own listings. And, just like Google, Twitter is trying to blend the adverts into the feeds as much as possible allowing advertisers just 140 or fewer characters in which to place their message.

Although this model has been discussed for quite some time now, the plans are still very much in the early stages. Questions as to how Twitter will price ads have yet to be worked out although with the $100 million (£67 million) funding the company received last summer, it seems they've got a bit of time to spare testing adverts and coming up with answers to these questions.

Since its beginnings, Twitter has grown from 5,000 tweets a day in 2007 to its current average of around 50 million. The growing userbase will hopefully allow Twitter to generate more revenue from the website and finally tell everyone it's solved the problem of how to commercialise its success.