

Tumblr introduces highlighted posts for $1 - jonathanmoore
http://staff.tumblr.com/post/16980189397/highlighted-posts

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jonathanmoore
Here is a screenshot example of what a promoted posts looks like in the
dashboard - <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.

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enoptix
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?

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jonathanmoore
I am using CloudApp (<http://getcloudapp.com/>) to upload screenshots I take.
Quite the handy tool.

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harryh
+1 to this. CloudApp is AWESOME.

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kmfrk
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.

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wmf
At Tumblr's scale, thousands upon thousands of dollars isn't worth worrying
about.

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replicatorblog
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...

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jamesu
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.

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spinchange
Honest question: Revenue streams of the host company are an important
consideration in choosing a blog platform for you?

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pavel_lishin
Seems reasonable. If they run out of money, where does your blog go?

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jonathanmoore
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-
bet...](http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-beta)) as
basic HTML, images, assets, theme, etc.

With that said, Tumblr has a very bright future ahead of them.

~~~
pavel_lishin
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
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.

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pavel_lishin
Sure, but they're still around. Or are you implying that the President and
Corporation, Inc. would bail Tumblr out to keep their blog up?

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callmeed
I just purchased a highlighted post to announce our new publishing platform
for photographers (<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-
pub...](http://getbokeh.tumblr.com/post/16999137678/bokeh-now-in-public-beta-
create-your-portfolio)

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

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jrockway
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.

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liamcampbell
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.

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DennisP
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.

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shortformblog
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>

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bitsm
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).

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

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

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grizzlylazer
It's about time tumblr started generating revenue

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evanwalsh
They have already been selling themes

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unicornporn
And the money they made from it probably didn't pay their unearthly Amazon
bills.

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gsiener
this

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

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masonlee
Twitter should be paying attention to this experiment.

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danso
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.

