How Twitter could make money immediately

Feb 05, 2009 5 Comments

Dear Twitter,

I heard that you still aren’t making any money. I’m sorry to hear that. I have an idea how you could start making money right away and your users would love you for it, too. Build an iPhone app that doesn’t suck.

I know what you are going to say, “What about Twitterrific or Tweetie?” Sure, these programs are a good start, but there are things that you could provide that would make me want to shower you with money. Here are some examples.

Group Handling
I follow over 1500 people and it would be really handy to be able to group them and follow only a sub-set of these people while on my iPhone if I choose. Plus, I want to have the grouping information available on twitter.com AND on my iphone so I can add/edit/delete groups and the contacts in the groups from either location and have it update both.

Auto-Complete @reply & DM Names
When I want to send a message to somebody specific, I don’t want to have to type in the whole name every time. To message @toddhuish I should be able to type @to and by that time it would show me a fly-out of all people I follow starting with @to. This feature would also be nice if it was available at twitter.com as well.

Aside from these missing features, you’ll want to be sure to include the popular features handled by other apps like Tweetie. Multiple accounts, tabs for @reply and DM messages, stored searches, etc…

If you make this app available for sale through the app store, I guarantee you’d be on the top seller list in no time at all. I’d certainly pay $2.99 for it and I know many others who would do the same.

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Best regards,

John Hawkins
@vegasgeek

Related posts:

  1. I’m done with auto-follow on Twitter
  2. Has #FollowFriday on Twitter jumped the shark?
  3. The 5 Phases of Twitter
  4. Why/How do you Twitter?
  5. Become a Twitter Rockstar

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook
Social Media, Technology, iphone apps

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

5 Responses to “How Twitter could make money immediately”

  1. carmen Feb 05, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    It was really cool meeting you last week! Are you heading over to the Frog again tonight?? I won't be there today, but for sure I'll be there next week.

  2. Robert F. Ludwick Feb 06, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    The problem is, they'd get undercut by other app developers out there. Not only that, TwitterFon already has some of the features you're talking about, such as going to a Twitter user's profile and hitting a DM button.

  3. vegasgeek Feb 06, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    Hey Robert. Of course there are other products out there that do some of the things. But, if THE company puts out a product, the average user is going to try that product first. Then, if it sucks, they move on to plan B and plan C. But, if the product is decent, they are most likely to stay with the product. You are always going to have power-users who are going to be out looking for the biggest-baddest-bestest apps around, but believe me, there are plenty of sheep who will buy directly from Twitter that they'd be able to make a nice chunk of change.

  4. vegasgeek Feb 06, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    Hey Carmen, good meeting you, too. Yeah, we went last night. Next week we are going to the twestival but then we'll be back at the Frog the following week. See you there!

  5. MakeMoneyPonce Mar 25, 2009 at 6:23 am

    Ussing twitter is a anhother way to make money, good for you.