Magpie Expands and Diversifies, But Do You Still Hate It?

In case you missed it, Magpie is a service that allows you to monetize your Twitter account. They’ve recently announced some updates that may help more people take advantage of their service and make a little cash from their Twitter activity.

How It Works

You’re on Twitter all the time. You’re updating your status, sharing yourself with the world. Whether you have 10 followers or 10,000, you still have an audience and Magpie wants to take advantage of it. Basically, Magpie will monitor your Twitter activity and post ads based on what you talk about. You configure how often Magpie gets to post to your account.

What Changed

Magpie recently announced new “alignments” that will allow them to provide more advertising for users. One of the complaints I’ve heard about Magpie is that they don’t produce enough tweets. Keep in mind, each tweet is money. If Magpie isn’t producing any tweets, you are not getting paid. If you’re not getting paid, what is the point of the service?

So far, Magpie has been using a basic Pay-per-View model. You get paid everytime they post a tweet to your timeline. With their recent changes, they are also rolling out Pay-per-Click, Pay-per-Lead, and Pay-per-Sale. This means you have the potential to earn more money because you have more options.

Magpie gives you the option to pre-approve any ads posted to your account. If you had previously setup Magpie to automatically approve all ads, you’ll need to check your settings because this feature has been disabled in order to provide a smooth transition.

Should You Be A Magpie?

Many people are against monetizing your Twitter content. They feel that posting ads to your followers is disrespectful somehow. If you follow me on Twitter, you  have probably seen me complain about some Magpie users. On the other hand, I know a few Twitterers that use Magpie with some success. I never even noticed they were using it and I still look forward to their tweets.

Twitter is often referred to as micro-blogging. If blogs have ads to monetize their content, why shouldn’t a micro-blog have micro-ads? There are definitely Twitter users that abuse Magpie, but active Twitter users who actually engage and provide value to the community should be able to get a little something for their efforts.

I have an account with Magpie and I plan to use it.

Are you using Magpie? How do you feel about those you follow using it? Tell me what you think.