I have been part of the Sponsored Tweets Pro program since 5/27/2011 now and have been with the program long enough to give it a comparison to having a non-pro account.
Prior to joining the Sponsored Tweets Pro program I was getting about 1-2 Sponsored Tweets offers per week at my current charge rate of $2 per tweet (which is $4 per tweet through the program since IZEA has a 50% fee).
Since joining the program I started receiving a very slightly higher number of offers around June/July/August time frame of about 3-4 per week, but the quality and content of the offers doesn’t often match the type of products/services I am willing to promote from my Dragonblogger.com account so this doesn’t translate into more earnings for me, just a few more offers.
Overall, SponsoredTweets is still my most profitable program for earning money with my Twitter account specifically. With SponsoredTweets I was able to earn over $180 even after I declined an additional $200 in offers that I didn’t feel were a good content match for my followers. (It shows you how picky I am when I reject more than 50% of all offers sent my way).
I also have 150 people who signed up for Sponsored Tweets under my referral ID, which provides me a 10% revenue from each sponsored opp they receive. Now when you get paid about $1 to $2 per opp this means only .10 to .20 commission per tweet, but it adds up over time. And some days I can get $2-$3 just in referral earnings and other days nothing.
Overall I don’t think the Sponsored Tweets PRO account was worth it for my own account with a following of around 11,500 Twitter followers. It may be worth it for other accounts, maybe smaller accounts to get notice or larger accounts to stand out. But since the price of the PRO account is dropped to $1.99 from the original $9.99 I am staying with it because I think the PRO will bring in more opp offers as more advertisers buy into the system.
With Sponsored Tweets consuming Magpie, we should start seeing more activity especially in the International accounts on Twitter.
I am still a big fan of Sponsored Tweets and IZEA continues to sign up new celebrity profiles on a regular basis which shows that the system is strong, I just think that it is becoming harder for smaller accounts to make earnings as more high profile accounts join and squeeze out the little guy.
I do think IZEA should make a “tiered” commission for themselves where they only charge maybe 20% for accounts charging $5 or less, and increase as user accounts charge more per tweet. I think if advertisers could actually pay $.50 to $1 per tweet, instead of $4 when a member charges $2 the advertiser could get more bang for the buck and members will see more revenue.
Sponsored Tweets also has a decent CPC service for choosing opps without being directly chosen, but the quality of advertisers here are generally lower I have found (as well as the payout rates).
-Dragon Blogger
