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#Magpie – Spam or Just Another Ad Network?

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So, I was looking through a design gallery when I came across “Magpie” – which claims to be able to make you so much money by overtaking your twitter account at random intervals and posting an advertising tweet.  I signed up, but quickly quit after seeing some of the tweets coming out of it:

1

Hm… three tags right after each other with the same web advertising on it, with seemingly no contextual significance linking the account holders.  Is that a fluke?

2

Hm again – two magpie sites in the same order one right after another.  This is seeming less and less contextual/random and more and more just random tweeting.

3

OK, now that’s just getting annoying and frustrating (especially because those people have the option to post that link manually) – but they also can let Magpie do it for them.  Did they? or did they not? I’m not sure.

4

It’s just so random.  Maybe that’s because there’s only so much contextual advertising they’ve gotten (not sure how new this site is) but until they can better attempt to randomize (or at least fake randomize) their tweets, then I’ve gotta veto it.  And, if anyone starts Magpie tweeting me, I won’t immediately unfollow them – just point them in the right direction.

Your thoughts?

EDIT: GeekMommy is having this same debate as we speak.

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Cool idea, hadn't heard of it before this post. Not sure I would like someone using my account to post ads, now matter how much they paid. It takes a while to establish a good list of followers posting only content I think they will enjoy. I think this would take away that trust I have built.

@startmysong

I use a service called Twittad which allows you to monetize your twitter account in a much less obtrusive way. There business model isn't as sound as Magpies but the service is much more palatable (and probably profitable).

I don't know... people are making the argument that a Twitter Monitization service would dilute the true, pure nature of the tweets. I am inclined to agree, but even the advertising i *DO* put onto twitter, I try to give it some sort of benefit to my users (a screencast I did, a blog post on whatever topic, etc).

I don't know... people are making the argument that a Twitter Monitization service would dilute the true, pure nature of the tweets. I am inclined to agree, but even the advertising i *DO* put onto twitter, I try to give it some sort of benefit to my users (a screencast I did, a blog post on whatever topic, etc).

I'm not a fan of Magpie for a variety of reasons, but the main one is just that it drastically diminishes the value of Twitter if you have to spend half your time on the service wading through ads.

I wrote a fuller breakdown of my Magpie thoughts on GeekMommy's blog, so check out: http://geekmommy.net/2008/11/19/tweet-like-a-nightengale-not-like-a-magpie/#comment-1013 and the original Magpie post that I wrote at: http://thefutureofads.com/2008/11/03/magpie-tries-to-make-twitter-an-ad-network-fails/

I think Magpie is awful, but I might not be following your argument here. The context magpie looks for is the things you twitter about the most. So an ad for a WordPress developer would be a perfect match for them to slip into your feed (and you'd just love that, right?), whereas an ad for a clothing store would be a fit for @nashvogue.

Take the first three posts you use as an example up there -- the ones about custom, handmade clothing. Two of the three definitely post about Etsy and crafts-related things, therefore the magpie ads posted under their accounts are likely relevant to their followers. (The third, "fewtiq", posts all kinds of links -- maybe a couple are crafty.)

So I'd say the service works, but it's still evil. At least it stays somewhat honest by putting the #magpie tag at the front of each ad.

Cool idea, hadn't heard of it before this post. Not sure I would like someone using my account to post ads, now matter how much they paid. It takes a while to establish a good list of followers posting only content I think they will enjoy. I think this would take away that trust I have built.

@startmysong