Written on April 1st, 2008 at 12:04 am by Darren Rowse
ProBlogger Launches PayPerTweet
Press Release: For Immediate Release
Contact: Darren Rowse
1 April 2008
ProBlogger Launches PayPerTweet
Get paid to Tweet
Over the last two years Twitter has grown exponentially in its use by tens of millions of people around the world. Even ProBlogger’s founder Darren Rowse is Tweeting Here.
With millions now using Twitter on a daily basis its only natural that companies and individuals would wish to have a presence on Twitter. We’re already seeing companies start their own Twitter accounts but increasingly we’ve been approaches by companies and individuals looking to be mentioned in Twitter streams in return for compensation.
Along side this an increasing number of Twitter users have become frustrated that despite having accumulated tens of thousands of followers on Twitter that they’ve so far had little success at monetizing their ‘followership’.
Enter ProBlogger’s ‘PayPerTweet’ service.
Companies
Establish a Twitter Presence in no time.
PayPerTweet delivers online word of mouth marketing, brand building and traffic generation through one of the world’s largest consumer generated advertising community and marketplace.
Twitter Users
Monetize Your Tweets.
Get paid for tweeting. Write about web sites, products, services, and companies and earn cash for providing your opinion and valuable feedback to advertisers. Disclosure not required - (but we might change this later).
Earn Extra Cash by ReTweeting
Opportunities will exist in the coming weeks for our ‘ReTweet’ program whereby Twitter users help messages to go viral for advertisers by joining together to ReTweet the paid Tweets of others. This of course adds value for advertisers but also earns gets you more Buck for your Tweet.
Already we have secured the cooperation of 50 prominent Twitter users with a combined followership of 250,000. This group is willing to tweet about you, your site or your product for cash.
Payment is on a CPMF basis - (Cost Per Thousand Follower). Please enquire for prices.
For more details email us at 142008@problogger.net. Also keep up to date with all the latest on PPT at ProBlogger’s Twitter account.
Update
Of course, this post went up on April Fools Day. You can read more about the back story of this post here.



133 Responses to “ProBlogger Launches PayPerTweet”
Jake Bouma
April 1st, 2008 12:29 am
April fools?
Missy Caulk
April 1st, 2008 12:30 am
Your a hoot ! LOL
WTJ
April 1st, 2008 12:33 am
this is suspicious but good idea.
Don M
April 1st, 2008 12:33 am
Hahaha. Good one.
stefan
April 1st, 2008 12:33 am
… great, Darren!
the mailadress to me is ingenious: 142008@…… :-)
*lol*
John
April 1st, 2008 12:35 am
Awsome idea, love it. Emailing you now for prices!
Rebellious Arab Girl
April 1st, 2008 12:35 am
I wouldn’t want money for Twitter because it is supposed to be a social networking fun media and not a place filled with advertisement. I think we spam our websites enough with ads that I don’t think people on Twitter want to see more of it.
Grant
April 1st, 2008 12:35 am
What a great idea - I’ve just emailed you. I had heard that Scoble was taking paid posts, how did you sign him up?
Jeremy Neal
April 1st, 2008 12:35 am
Is it April 1st in Australia already? I thought it was still March:)
Cloudia
April 1st, 2008 12:36 am
ha ha
Rick Mahn
April 1st, 2008 12:37 am
That is a good one Darren - thanks for the chuckle this morning. Heh, it’s not April here yet, but I’m watching for the good ones!
John
April 1st, 2008 12:37 am
Arab girl,
Digg, Stumble, Facebook, Myspace, and all the rest are also social media sites. I don’t see you complaining about people promoting their businesses on those sites, which is about 50% of all content for a couple of them.
Jason
April 1st, 2008 12:37 am
I like it. When can I sign up for the beta? HA HA
45n5
April 1st, 2008 12:37 am
this is SO wrong darren.
as someone who loves twitter this is just going to ruin it.
and what about disclosure?
This is nonsense and I hope you reconsider.
Mark
45n5.com
Rehuel aka Stretsh
April 1st, 2008 12:38 am
This one had me smiling. It took you just 30 minutes to convert an idea in to a business opportunity.
I think your tweeting experience in the US really got your attention more to Twitter.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this will work in practice.
Kitta
April 1st, 2008 12:38 am
So you’re saying I could ‘pay’ people to Tweet “thinking @Kitta should be our leader and we should all bow down or bring her free shoes”?
Hmm. Interesting… :op
unclewilco
April 1st, 2008 12:38 am
Lovely plumage on that bird
Ange Recchia
April 1st, 2008 12:39 am
LOL!
wilson ng
April 1st, 2008 12:39 am
Its still 3 hours from april 1…
pixites
April 1st, 2008 12:40 am
yo! I’m in;)
Shannon
April 1st, 2008 12:43 am
Joke now, Darren, but I bet someone WILL run with this idea.
Sangesh
April 1st, 2008 12:43 am
LOL Darren, Tomorrow’z April Fool’s day.
p.s.: I’m already a twitter follower btw.
Leanne
April 1st, 2008 12:44 am
You *know* someone’s gonna do it….
Nick Cernis
April 1st, 2008 12:44 am
I walked right into this one too! From an advertiser’s perspective, the idea is just so attractive. Very funny, Darren!
Gary Jones :: BlueFur.com
April 1st, 2008 12:47 am
April Fools!!
Laura Spencer
April 1st, 2008 12:47 am
What I want to know is how far ahead your time zone must be. It’s still March where I am…
Jonathan Fields
April 1st, 2008 12:50 am
lol!
I’d like to also announce I’ll be monetizing my morning songs in the shower.
I will happily accept payment for briefly promoting your blog to my neighbors, who can hear me sing in the shower every morning.
The service will have a very reasonable CPM rate, too, since only 1 or 2 people will hear it each day, and I will bundle complimentary shout outs to other drivers during my morning commute for the first month!
Actually, I’ve just received e-mails from a bunch of other prominent showerers who are on-board as well. Act fast, we won’t stay dirty for long!
Mr.NiceGuy
April 1st, 2008 12:50 am
Sounds great idea. Let’s see how would this get viral in the future
Gyutae Park
April 1st, 2008 12:52 am
I call bluff on this one as well… April fools in Australia. :P
Deb Ng
April 1st, 2008 12:52 am
Since it’s only March 31st here in NJ does this mean I can’t laugh until tomorrow.
Sally
April 1st, 2008 12:57 am
lol Jonathan!
I think you are definitely onto something there ;)
WTJ
April 1st, 2008 1:01 am
it’s already april fools in aus
carrotmadman6
April 1st, 2008 1:01 am
Already 1st April out there… i’ve still got 6h to go… LOL! :D
NextInstinct
April 1st, 2008 1:06 am
Thanks for extending my Aprils fools ;~)
(still the 31st here).
@Mark45, Relax!
Darren has integrity.
There’s a difference between GuitarPlayer doing an honest, positive review of a new Gibson, with ads in the same issue,
and spamming your friends for $20.
You’re on ProBlogger.
alli
April 1st, 2008 1:10 am
Cracks me up you are in April already! Happy April Fool’s! Good job.
Jason Bartholme
April 1st, 2008 1:11 am
Har, har, har. I had the email composed and ready to send.
Touche, Sir. Good one.
Mae Jane
April 1st, 2008 1:13 am
hehehe this made my day. I call bullsh*t! funny funny darren!
Chris
April 1st, 2008 1:20 am
April 1st already? I honestly believed this one!
Ken Jones
April 1st, 2008 1:22 am
Your post’s been up for just over an hour and I’m amazed at the number of people who’ve already commented. I’m even more amazed by the number of people who’ve made comments telling you what a bad idea this is. The whole thing’s got April Fools written all over it (or at least in the email address you gave - how about a follow up post with some choice examples of the inevitable email you end up getting?)
PS I tweeted @you about pay-per-tweet to promote your pay-per-tweet service. As an Aussie in the UK I’ll even be happy if you just want to pay me in Tim Tams and Cherry Ripes (really hard to get them over here).
Jim Goldstein
April 1st, 2008 1:28 am
LOL Classic! How do I sign up!?
jan
April 1st, 2008 1:32 am
PPT… right!
Only missing is a nice April’s Fools accompanyiing website to make it even more realistic…
Nice one, Darren!
Denise
April 1st, 2008 1:34 am
The email given seems to not be working Darren! Interested in this keep me posted!
Starfeeder
April 1st, 2008 1:36 am
aweeee…. for a 2nd I was like w00t! What? This real! lol, then I read that first comment :p
http://twitter.com/starfeeder
Soren B. Jacobsen
April 1st, 2008 1:40 am
I will be taking the exact opposite approach than that taken by Jonathan Fields. I am going to stream my shower singing everywhere.. and there will be a pay for silence service which will provide the salvation of a mute button!!!!
Elizabeth
April 1st, 2008 1:45 am
I want to be the president of the PayTweeties fan club.
Make Money Talks
April 1st, 2008 1:47 am
Now let’s buzz the april joke :)
Denise
April 1st, 2008 1:55 am
oh please please don’t approve my comment!! Darn that Brian
Raesmom
April 1st, 2008 1:55 am
heh. Good one. And to think, I was all prepared to read cautiously April 1st. Guess I should start today.
marhgil
April 1st, 2008 2:00 am
happy April fools! how about paypercomment? i’m paid to comment here. LOL!
Lawrence Salberg
April 1st, 2008 2:10 am
Darren, I’m shocked that you would stoop to this - not the April Fool’s Joke - but that you would unleash this idea onto the internet because it’s only a matter of days now before Ted Murphy and his minions at Izea unwittingly swipe this idea for their continued assault upon integrity, and prostituting millions of high school and college students with it.
Although, come to think of it, at least it might take a ding or two out of Twitter’s geek-reign, so maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I’m still weekly amazed that grown men say, in all seriousness, “I’m going to Twitter about that”. Yeah. I feel so void of manliness just sitting and typing on a laptop in a cafe, but the Twitterheads have found a way to feminize us even more - one Twitter at a time.
So, all in all, I say… carry on Ted Murphy! Maybe Darren’s idea can single-handedly destroy both Izea and Twitter. We’ll forever be in his debt!
The Masked Millionaire
April 1st, 2008 2:15 am
Even if a joke…I learned the proper way to construct a press release.
The Masked Millionaire
http://www.TheMaskedMillionaire.com
Karen Sugarpants
April 1st, 2008 2:22 am
Oh Darren. You NUT.
Jeremy Steele
April 1st, 2008 2:30 am
Darren must have been up a bit too late….
jeannette
April 1st, 2008 2:37 am
Would like some information in this!
Bill Stevens
April 1st, 2008 2:40 am
Well, it’s still the day before April Fools Day for me and this was pretty dang clever.
Gayla McCord
April 1st, 2008 2:48 am
Kids on Spring Break - under the influence of cold meds and totally schnookered with the tweet before I viewed the post. I’ve been had! Kudos — the first time in several years. Good one Darren. I was preparing my “oh so sleezy” rant.
Missy
April 1st, 2008 2:52 am
I’ll be monetizing my daily runs. For $20 a pop, i can place bumber stickers all over MY BODY, and as i run i will be your billboard, to promote your company or blog.
Atleast 50- 100 people watch me run daily. Get seen today!
Just paypal the money to: APRILfoolsRespond@yahoo.com
Scott Fillmer
April 1st, 2008 2:53 am
That is hilarious… I love it. More power to you, hope it goes over well, can’t wait to hear a progress report on the project.
Sean
April 1st, 2008 2:57 am
It’s its.
Todd Austin
April 1st, 2008 3:01 am
Dang it! You had me there, till I remembered you Aussie’s are a day ahead.
jayvee f.
April 1st, 2008 3:13 am
nah, seems too real to be an april fools.
:P
Ian
April 1st, 2008 3:17 am
I am way ahead of you with my Pay Per Poke system, where I have 40,000 Facebook users ready to poke someone to death at any time.
Beware. We are everywhere…
Rudy (aka radix33)
April 1st, 2008 3:26 am
Too early!
http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?day=1&month=4&year=2008&hour=00&min=00&sec=00&p0=274
Karlana
April 1st, 2008 3:30 am
I’d so use this program!
Dennis Ray Nestor Jr.
April 1st, 2008 3:34 am
What more SPAM! HAAA you got me Happy April Fools!
Kfir Pravda
April 1st, 2008 3:41 am
My thoughts - http://pravdam.com/2008/03/31/problogger-luanching-pay-per-tweet-sad/
This is the saddest thing I’ve heard in the community for a long time.
Stephe
April 1st, 2008 3:43 am
Love it. Will you send out the first cheques on April 1, 2009?
Hawksdomain
April 1st, 2008 3:51 am
This is so unfair for us in the States. I’m not even through with March AND it’s Monday…….. But, it is a good one! :)
m
April 1st, 2008 3:55 am
great release. sign me up!
happy april fools to ya
Derek
April 1st, 2008 3:56 am
Lol, at first I forgot about the time difference and thought that this would be the new hot craze driving people to sign up with Twitter.
PlasticPilot
April 1st, 2008 4:01 am
Good one Darren. If you did not knew fish-skin can improve planes efficiency, check my blog tomorrow (8PM CET)…
Emmett Jones
April 1st, 2008 4:03 am
That was pretty good. That time difference had me going…
Shweta Gupta
April 1st, 2008 4:33 am
That was a really good one !!!! I was looking for gags and my friend just forwarded me this link :)
Prosperity Writer
April 1st, 2008 4:34 am
i read the whole post in awe! when i read the first comment, its the only time i figured i’d been had! lol
Bill Dyszel
April 1st, 2008 4:43 am
What a wonderful program! By sheer coincidence, my new line of Blogging Pajamas go on sale tomorrow (NYC Times). Perfect for those stay-at-home, tweeting bloggers and blogging tweeters and bleating twoggers and whatever else!
Bill Dyszel
Rahul Bansal
April 1st, 2008 4:49 am
Darren Sir,
I know this is trap to fool us.. ;-)
Nice one anyway… lolz…
-Rahul
Chuck Reynolds
April 1st, 2008 4:51 am
I wanna get paid to tweet! lol… and it’s not April Fools yet to pull jokes! ;)
CindyS
April 1st, 2008 4:57 am
Oh I’m all atwitter with the possibilities. Happy April 1!
Terra Andersen
April 1st, 2008 4:59 am
I was wonderful why everyone was saying this wans’t true… it’s not April 1st yet here in the States — it’s still March 31st… *=)
Asokans
April 1st, 2008 5:02 am
One of the first April Fools Post, I saw this year. Before I started reading the comments, I was really thrilled with this new concept.. hmm
Malin
April 1st, 2008 5:41 am
Damnit, if it only was true :P
Jason
April 1st, 2008 5:43 am
Darren,
I have emailed you at the provided address and have yet to receive a response. Please get back to me because I’m very interested in the price breakdown.
I have had great success for my latest product on PayPerPost and this could be just as good, if not better. I’m willing to start with a full-network run so that could mean lots of money and a good testimonial for your service!
Jason
Selene M. Bowlby
April 1st, 2008 5:45 am
LOL - Good one! Took me a second for it to sink in, since it’s still March in the US. I saw your tweets, though, so this makes sense now, lol.
Genius email address, too! :)
Miss Britt
April 1st, 2008 5:46 am
Damn. I was alllll for it.
Jason
April 1st, 2008 5:46 am
Cracking idea for an April Fools joke :)
LiveCrunch
April 1st, 2008 5:50 am
Darren I was born today ! at 8:10 am 27 years ago
Can’t fool me… even though i wish you ware the CEO of tweeter!
Amanda French
April 1st, 2008 5:55 am
What I want to know is this: How can I monetize my family? I have all these cousins, and I’m unclear on the ROI. http://twitter.com/amandafrench/statuses/780343134
RyanMF
April 1st, 2008 5:59 am
Well damn. I retweeted before I read the comments OR noticed the email address. I’m an April Fool and it’s still March in California.
I just hope you don’t give the real idiots any “smart” ideas.
Patrick Curl @ There's a Blog in my Soup
April 1st, 2008 6:19 am
Wow, I totally sent an email, of course it didn’t work. LOL! Totally had me… of course he couldn’t start a new business, he went bankrupt:
http://www.theresabloginmysoup.com/problogger-darren-rowse-is-filing-for-bankruptcy-what-are-we-to-do/
Sonia Simone
April 1st, 2008 6:49 am
Darren you are SO NAUGHTY (and I am SO GULLIBLE).
Beautifully done, hats off.
Mark Sinderson
April 1st, 2008 6:53 am
You almost had me until I realized it is the 31st of March (already). You’re going to generate a lot of tweets with this one. Good work!
fishy
April 1st, 2008 6:58 am
this is great. i’d be joining right now so i can pay for my chemotherapy.
GeekMommy
April 1st, 2008 7:02 am
Almost got me… but only because people *have* already posited this idea for real
http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps - search for ‘twitcash’
The good news is that you’d be hard pressed to find “50 top twitterers” who would be willing to lose their reps for something like this heh.
Great April Fools joke tho! :)
ravi karandeekar
April 1st, 2008 7:11 am
good one!
Psychotic APE
April 1st, 2008 7:22 am
It’s against Twitter’s TOS to take compensation for posting advertisements or material on twitter. You are NOT allowed to monetize messages on Twitter, don’t believe me - read the Terms of Service and EULA.
This little operation could be sued, and your account closed. Plus Twitterers aren’t dumb - they’re going to be able to tell what’s an ad and what’s genuine. Not to sound bitchy, love the blog, but this is a really really bad idea. Almost as bad as Skinner’s idea for ‘Timmy and the T-Rex’ movie.
Psychotic APE
April 1st, 2008 7:24 am
ok I’m stupid, I naturally assumed the post date was Mar 31st - but you wrote April 1st (so this is a post from the future eh?).
my bad :O
David Wilkinson
April 1st, 2008 7:48 am
Damn. And there was me thinking it was still November. ;)
Excellently done.
C.C. Chapman
April 1st, 2008 7:57 am
I would have thought people wouldn’t fall for this after it was done last year as well.
http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2007/04/getting_paid_to.html if curious
Chris Thomson
April 1st, 2008 7:59 am
Haha, good one Darren.
gamermk
April 1st, 2008 8:15 am
…got me.
B.L Ochman
April 1st, 2008 8:44 am
nothing like getting a jump on April Fool’s Day. Love it!
PhoneBoy
April 1st, 2008 8:51 am
Nice one, Darren. But I agree with some other commenters: someone is going to turn this into a business.
CHAN
April 1st, 2008 9:15 am
haha. good idea Darren :D
lisa (kystorms)
April 1st, 2008 9:38 am
hmmm, not remembering you are in Australia, I bit on this one… color me red faced :-)
Michelle Greer
April 1st, 2008 9:41 am
You guys laugh, but I seriously know someone who got a free gym membership by saying he would Tweet how awesome that gym was if they didn’t make him pay.
I was wondering about that Tweet, because it really was a crappy gym. What a disservice to the Twittosphere!
Dee Stewart
April 1st, 2008 9:42 am
Great gag. Now I have to out my thinking cap on. :)
Paul Chaney
April 1st, 2008 9:44 am
Somebody’s going to do it. Just wait. Oh, and please, no one tell Ted Murphy about the idea, ok?
DotComMogul
April 1st, 2008 10:39 am
lol … good one. I just posted my April 1st post too. I believed this one for a minute or two
Michael Henreckson
April 1st, 2008 11:02 am
It would be disgusting if that actually happened. The good news is I could un-follow whoever sold themselves to such shameless advertising. :)
Hafiz Dhanani
April 1st, 2008 11:43 am
Happy April Fools to you to Darren!
No one in their right mind would launch a new service on April 1st.
I almost believed this until I thought back to Patrick Altoft’s post about april fools.
Des Walsh
April 1st, 2008 12:36 pm
boom boom!
Kyle Dylan Conner
April 1st, 2008 12:48 pm
Ugh.
I really don’t want to follow someone and than have an ad pop up.
This is going to ruin Twitter. I seriously hope you reconsider.
I love the fact that Twitter is mostly ad free.
Don’t ruin the experience.
Afghan stripper
April 1st, 2008 1:42 pm
Would you consider promoting NSFW websites?
Paul Villacorta
April 1st, 2008 2:28 pm
Happy April Fools to you!
Almost.. you almost got everybody there!!
PayPerTweet I love the name :)
kokkada
April 1st, 2008 3:06 pm
Ha, Ha, Ha……
April fools?
kokkada
April 1st, 2008 3:20 pm
Ha, Ha, Ha……
very good April fools post.
Niro
April 1st, 2008 9:40 pm
lol… Nice one
Desi
April 2nd, 2008 12:10 am
I just wrote you an email for requesting info, but I immediately got a failure notice, I do not know what was wrong, so I am writing here, hoping it is ok.
I am an Italian blogger and web writer, I would like to receive more info about the great opportunity given by PayPerTwitter.
I already have my own account on Twitter (http://twitter.com/desiitaly) and I am available to write about companies, products, services, websites and so on.
I look forward to hear from you, thanks in advance,
Desi Zavatta Musolino
Shannon
April 2nd, 2008 12:42 am
First I thought–He’s genius! Then I remembered it is already April 1st in Aus. ;) Oh you got me good.
Steve Coulson
April 2nd, 2008 3:16 am
Wow - you came up with EXACTLY the same idea I did last year. How funny
http://www.twitterati.org
Believe it or not, I DID get at least 50 prominent bloggers who actually signed up bwahahaha
John
April 2nd, 2008 3:22 am
Happy April Fools
Pras
April 2nd, 2008 4:04 am
Hi Darren, ha ha…great post for April 1st.
Agent 001
April 2nd, 2008 5:59 am
Even if its a joke its a good idea.You can earn a lot go and do something.
Diana Tan
April 2nd, 2008 3:35 pm
Hi Darren,
A lot got fooled by this post. Me included. Happy April Fools. haha.
Chris Guthrie
April 2nd, 2008 4:23 pm
I thought this was real at first hah hah!
http://www.chrisguthrie.net/which-april-fools-posts-fooled-you/
I wrote about it above. I think the best part is that you posted it just 4 minutes into April Fools. That’s what sold me on it.
If it would have been posted mid day I don’t think I would have fallen for it.
Simon
April 2nd, 2008 11:23 pm
Yes you got me too, though it was the 31st here…however I think the idea has to be discussed/considered sometime. Only problem’s disclosure, not enough space on tweets probably…
Anne Zieger
April 3rd, 2008 7:17 pm
Yeah, I know Darren was pulling our leg. But to me, the idea actually sounded pretty good(http://whatmattersonline.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/paypertweet-not-such-a-crazy-idea-after-all/.)
After all, what’s the difference between pay-per-tweet and pay per blog entry (now a fairly common practice), other than the need to keep entries extremely short?
Matt Mikulla
April 10th, 2008 3:31 am
I found this article through google, so I didn’t see the date. I was a little peeved at first.
Very funny.
Jan Alvin
September 1st, 2008 12:16 am
I’ll try this one out.
Parantar
November 5th, 2008 10:29 pm
wanna try this paypertweet. hehe
Online Book Reviews
November 11th, 2008 10:54 pm
I want to try this pay per tweet so ill be emailing you soon. Cheers!
MonFineis
November 20th, 2008 5:10 am
If you’re going to get paid to tweet you should have disclosure. Otherwise people WILL find out and people will lose credibility in the twitterer and the company. Companies might as well have their own twitter accounts (or pay someone to do that full time) and if their tweets are of value, people will follow and re-tweet. All I’m asking for is a just little disclosure (just a little bit).
AP
May 25th, 2009 2:29 am
The easiest to make money is to sell more stuff to an exisiting group of people. Twitter is still in it’s infancy and would prove to be more valuable if it could offer analytics/metrics to track just how many people saw a tweet or retweeted a tweet.
Advertisers want to get in front of as many people as possible. But, it makes more sense to me as an advertiser if I could choose my demographics i.e. I want woman to see my tweet from the east coast ages 14-27. . .etc.
I don’t know how you accomplish the above marketing tactic with a pay per tweet program, but if I have 100 new people visiting my site and they are not likely to buy my product or service, then that same 100 people doesn’t have real value to me other than clicks, which is not enough for some advertisers like me.
I think a Pay-Per Tweet Program makes more sense for a large advertisers with an establish brand.
Just my thoughts for now.
Comments will be closed off on this post 90 days after it was published. Apologies to those this impacts but it's a regrettable and temporary measure to combat a growing comment spam problem. See our most recent posts where you can comment here.