Tumblr introduces highlighted posts for $1

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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

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.

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.

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

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).

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

It's about time tumblr started generating revenue

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

Twitter should be paying attention to this experiment.

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.