6 ms·

Tumblr introduces highlighted posts for $1

97 points by jonathanmoore 15y ago

liamcampbell 15y ago
Wow, this is a surprisingly non-terrible way to generate revenue. Good job, Tumblr. Ad placements and premium membership would have pissed off a good chunk of their users, but this is kind of a nice compromise.
jonathanmoore 15y ago
Here is a screenshot example of what a promoted posts looks like in the dashboard - http://cloud.jonathanmoore.com/Dsu4 http://cloud.jonathanmoore.com/Dsu4. Users have the option of choosing from several dozen feature options like "buy this", "very special posts", "super proud of this", etc. Right now it appears to be limited to one highlighted post per day, and with all purchases on Tumblr they give you the option of donating an additional $1 to EFF, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.
- enoptix 15y ago
  Off-topic but what are you using to serve up images on your site like that? Is it a custom script or an OSS solution?
  - jonathanmoore 15y ago
    I am using CloudApp (http://getcloudapp.com/ http://getcloudapp.com/) to upload screenshots I take. Quite the handy tool.
    - harryh 15y ago
      +1 to this. CloudApp is AWESOME.
- pclark 15y ago
  Say what you want about Tumblr but their visual design is gorgeous.
replicatorblog 15y ago
That is a really smart way to generate revenue. Traditional ad placements would be inconsistent with the experience. Of course your posts are essentially ads, but users can now unfollow people who get too spammy. Kind of plays on the Google model of letting people pay to highlight their offer, or in this case their content. Interested to see how it plays...
grizzlylazer 15y ago
It's about time tumblr started generating revenue
- evanwalsh 15y ago
  They have already been selling themes
  - unicornporn 15y ago
    And the money they made from it probably didn't pay their unearthly Amazon bills.
    - gsiener 15y ago
      this
jamesu 15y ago
One of the reasons i don't use tumblr is they dont seem to have a notable revenue stream. This sounds like a good step in the right direction.
- spinchange 15y ago
  Honest question: Revenue streams of the host company are an important consideration in choosing a blog platform for you?
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    Seems reasonable. If they run out of money, where does your blog go?
    - jonathanmoore 15y ago
      With most platforms that is a valid concern, but with Tumblr you can easily create a local backup your entire blog (http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-beta http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-bet...) as basic HTML, images, assets, theme, etc. With that said, Tumblr has a very bright future ahead of them.
      - pavel_lishin 15y ago
        Sure, but then you're stuck setting up again elsewhere - so why not do it from the start? Answer to rhetorical question: because we can't be bothered, so we'd rather just pick a provider who is more likely to stick around than not.
        spinchange 15y ago
        That's a totally reasonable consideration but the revenue model of the host platform isn't always the best indicator of its success or longevity. LiveJournal & Six Apart have longstanding revenue models but aren't hosting users like the President of the United States or large corporate media entities.
kmfrk 15y ago
And there are the thousands upon thousands of dollars that will come in from people who just want to try it out for fun, since it's only a dollar. Wicked smart.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- wmf 15y ago
  At Tumblr's scale, thousands upon thousands of dollars isn't worth worrying about.
- antr 15y ago
  My humble opinion: Probably due to the novelty of this feature, income will spike and then fade away. Similar to any other startup article appearing on TC. This service will stop being used pretty fast. The only way I see this service being successful going forward is by providing stats/analytics to users on post views, engagement, post virality, follower stats, etc. If this service is provided together with the $1 highlight feature, I do see a business going forward.
farrel 15y ago
Didn't Facebook attempt to sell 'Gifts' for $1 back in 2007? I recall they even got Susan Kare to design them.
- jrockway 15y ago
  Doesn't this make more sense, though? It's a combination of paying for advertising and paying for application features, both well-tested business models. Paying for random fake things that annoy your friends, however, is not as well-tested.
epikur 15y ago
The fonts look bad in chrome/win7, at least on my setup: http://i.imgur.com/eCGEL.png http://i.imgur.com/eCGEL.png
- artursapek 15y ago
  That's what it does, just a little tag? That's pretty unimpressive.
DennisP 15y ago
This reminds me of a business that was very successful for one of my brother's in-laws. It was a site where you could post free press releases. If you liked, you could buy one or more stars for your press release, and the more stars, the closer to the top it sorted. He bootstrapped in the late 90's without investors, his only co-founder was his wife, he grew it organically and got very profitable, ended up hiring a couple dozen people, and ultimately had a very nice exit.
danso 15y ago
Just tried it out on my Tumblr. Wonder if it will have any impact on whatever post-ranking/call-outs they already do. Unfortunately, I tried it on a Friday afternoon, which is not a good time to ever post anything. But I love the easy integration of donation to good causes. I'll be making a lot of $2 purchases out of impulse, it seems.
DavidShares 15y ago
Considering 43 million people user Tumblr, even if 5% of Tumblr users tried it ONCE - Tumblr would generate over $2 million dollars - yep. Now for the ones that use it more than once, that's extra revenue. This could easily generate $2-3 million in revenue in 2012, and maybe half a million or so each year thereafter.
shortformblog 15y ago
A lot of users are complaining about it right now, but to me, it seems like a genius way to monetize the platform. When things calm down in a couple of weeks and it gets used in the way intended, this will probably look much smarter in hindsight. Still would like them to figure out a way to help bloggers monetize their sites on the platform. That's the rub for bloggers trying to go "professional" through a Tumblr site — all the readers they get through the dashboard are difficult to monetize right now. Once they figure that out, it's going to be huge. Here was my cheeky attempt at using it: http://shortformblog.tumblr.com/post/16980898109/one-dollar http://shortformblog.tumblr.com/post/16980898109/one-dollar
nedwin 15y ago
Tumblr's previous paid promotion system was massively effective. I'm glad they've brought it back in this new form.
bitsm 15y ago
Forrst has a similar system for promoting user posts as an advertising alternative, though Kyle (founder) uses credits (called acorns) and there are several ways to earn credits, outside of simply purchasing them. It's a great idea: it's hard to get more "targeted" with ads than content that would have been posted within the community anyway. If anecdotal evidence is any guide, it seems to have been received really well within Forrst, and the backlog was huge the last time I looked (not enough pageviews to match demand).
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
callmeed 15y ago
I just purchased a highlighted post to announce our new publishing platform for photographers (http://getbokeh.com http://getbokeh.com). I'll report back in a few days on the results. FYI here's the post I highlighted: http://getbokeh.tumblr.com/post/16999137678/bokeh-now-in-public-beta-create-your-portfolio http://getbokeh.tumblr.com/post/16999137678/bokeh-now-in-pub...
masonlee 15y ago
Twitter should be paying attention to this experiment.

97 points by jonathanmoore 15y ago

Wow, this is a surprisingly non-terrible way to generate revenue. Good job, Tumblr. Ad placements and premium membership would have pissed off a good chunk of their users, but this is kind of a nice compromise.

jonathanmoore 15y ago

Here is a screenshot example of what a promoted posts looks like in the dashboard - http://cloud.jonathanmoore.com/Dsu4 http://cloud.jonathanmoore.com/Dsu4. Users have the option of choosing from several dozen feature options like "buy this", "very special posts", "super proud of this", etc. Right now it appears to be limited to one highlighted post per day, and with all purchases on Tumblr they give you the option of donating an additional $1 to EFF, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

enoptix 15y ago
Off-topic but what are you using to serve up images on your site like that? Is it a custom script or an OSS solution?
- jonathanmoore 15y ago
  I am using CloudApp (http://getcloudapp.com/ http://getcloudapp.com/) to upload screenshots I take. Quite the handy tool.
  - harryh 15y ago
    +1 to this. CloudApp is AWESOME.
pclark 15y ago
Say what you want about Tumblr but their visual design is gorgeous.

replicatorblog 15y ago

That is a really smart way to generate revenue. Traditional ad placements would be inconsistent with the experience. Of course your posts are essentially ads, but users can now unfollow people who get too spammy. Kind of plays on the Google model of letting people pay to highlight their offer, or in this case their content. Interested to see how it plays...

grizzlylazer 15y ago

It's about time tumblr started generating revenue

evanwalsh 15y ago
They have already been selling themes
- unicornporn 15y ago
  And the money they made from it probably didn't pay their unearthly Amazon bills.
  - gsiener 15y ago
    this

jamesu 15y ago

One of the reasons i don't use tumblr is they dont seem to have a notable revenue stream. This sounds like a good step in the right direction.

spinchange 15y ago
Honest question: Revenue streams of the host company are an important consideration in choosing a blog platform for you?
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  Seems reasonable. If they run out of money, where does your blog go?
  - jonathanmoore 15y ago
    With most platforms that is a valid concern, but with Tumblr you can easily create a local backup your entire blog (http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-beta http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-bet...) as basic HTML, images, assets, theme, etc. With that said, Tumblr has a very bright future ahead of them.
    - pavel_lishin 15y ago
      Sure, but then you're stuck setting up again elsewhere - so why not do it from the start? Answer to rhetorical question: because we can't be bothered, so we'd rather just pick a provider who is more likely to stick around than not.
      - spinchange 15y ago
        That's a totally reasonable consideration but the revenue model of the host platform isn't always the best indicator of its success or longevity. LiveJournal & Six Apart have longstanding revenue models but aren't hosting users like the President of the United States or large corporate media entities.

kmfrk 15y ago

And there are the thousands upon thousands of dollars that will come in from people who just want to try it out for fun, since it's only a dollar. Wicked smart.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
wmf 15y ago
At Tumblr's scale, thousands upon thousands of dollars isn't worth worrying about.
antr 15y ago
My humble opinion: Probably due to the novelty of this feature, income will spike and then fade away. Similar to any other startup article appearing on TC. This service will stop being used pretty fast. The only way I see this service being successful going forward is by providing stats/analytics to users on post views, engagement, post virality, follower stats, etc. If this service is provided together with the $1 highlight feature, I do see a business going forward.

farrel 15y ago

Didn't Facebook attempt to sell 'Gifts' for $1 back in 2007? I recall they even got Susan Kare to design them.

jrockway 15y ago
Doesn't this make more sense, though? It's a combination of paying for advertising and paying for application features, both well-tested business models. Paying for random fake things that annoy your friends, however, is not as well-tested.

epikur 15y ago

The fonts look bad in chrome/win7, at least on my setup: http://i.imgur.com/eCGEL.png http://i.imgur.com/eCGEL.png

artursapek 15y ago
That's what it does, just a little tag? That's pretty unimpressive.

DennisP 15y ago

This reminds me of a business that was very successful for one of my brother's in-laws. It was a site where you could post free press releases. If you liked, you could buy one or more stars for your press release, and the more stars, the closer to the top it sorted. He bootstrapped in the late 90's without investors, his only co-founder was his wife, he grew it organically and got very profitable, ended up hiring a couple dozen people, and ultimately had a very nice exit.

danso 15y ago

Just tried it out on my Tumblr. Wonder if it will have any impact on whatever post-ranking/call-outs they already do. Unfortunately, I tried it on a Friday afternoon, which is not a good time to ever post anything. But I love the easy integration of donation to good causes. I'll be making a lot of $2 purchases out of impulse, it seems.

DavidShares 15y ago

Considering 43 million people user Tumblr, even if 5% of Tumblr users tried it ONCE - Tumblr would generate over $2 million dollars - yep. Now for the ones that use it more than once, that's extra revenue. This could easily generate $2-3 million in revenue in 2012, and maybe half a million or so each year thereafter.

shortformblog 15y ago

A lot of users are complaining about it right now, but to me, it seems like a genius way to monetize the platform. When things calm down in a couple of weeks and it gets used in the way intended, this will probably look much smarter in hindsight. Still would like them to figure out a way to help bloggers monetize their sites on the platform. That's the rub for bloggers trying to go "professional" through a Tumblr site — all the readers they get through the dashboard are difficult to monetize right now. Once they figure that out, it's going to be huge. Here was my cheeky attempt at using it: http://shortformblog.tumblr.com/post/16980898109/one-dollar http://shortformblog.tumblr.com/post/16980898109/one-dollar

nedwin 15y ago

Tumblr's previous paid promotion system was massively effective. I'm glad they've brought it back in this new form.

bitsm 15y ago

Forrst has a similar system for promoting user posts as an advertising alternative, though Kyle (founder) uses credits (called acorns) and there are several ways to earn credits, outside of simply purchasing them. It's a great idea: it's hard to get more "targeted" with ads than content that would have been posted within the community anyway. If anecdotal evidence is any guide, it seems to have been received really well within Forrst, and the backlog was huge the last time I looked (not enough pageviews to match demand).

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

callmeed 15y ago

I just purchased a highlighted post to announce our new publishing platform for photographers (http://getbokeh.com http://getbokeh.com). I'll report back in a few days on the results. FYI here's the post I highlighted: http://getbokeh.tumblr.com/post/16999137678/bokeh-now-in-public-beta-create-your-portfolio http://getbokeh.tumblr.com/post/16999137678/bokeh-now-in-pub...

masonlee 15y ago

Twitter should be paying attention to this experiment.