Why should you run your own Twitter clone site?

July 1, 2008 – 1:54 am

It has occurred to me that many of our clients or potential ReVou customers would drop us an email or pose us a question during online chat asking “What can I do with another Twitter clone site?”. While it is true that competing head-on with a market leader such as Twitter.com might be difficult given the resources, funds and member base, it is not entirely impossible to run your own site like twitter or site owners can focus on more specific industries or different areas which a microblogging service can easily be added into using our ReVou software. The key emphasis is to have a sustainable business model using a microblogging application like ReVou on your website be it a brand new site or an existing website which you would like to integrate with ReVou.

For those who have no idea or looking for inspirations on how ReVou can help you create an entire new business on the web to make money and get more traffic , I have broken down the Twitter micro-blogging business model into 4 categories:

1. The “Generic” Twitter clone website

The “Generic” Twitter clone sites are defined as microblogging website that are catered for the mass-market which in many cases looks and feels like the Twitter.com itself.

Examples:

http://www.jaiku.com

http://www.beemood.com

http://www.twoorl.com

http://www.yonkly.com

http://microblogr.com

Would be ideal if:

· You have an existing website and would like to integrate a micro-blogging service just like Twitter.com, just like Jaiku with Google.com. The main idea here is not only to make more revenues by extending this service but rather also create user retention as they interact more using this platform with fellow members

· You are running a social networking website, community forums where you have a large member base to tap the power of micro-blogging

2. Geographical based Twitter clone website

Similar to the “Generic” Twitter clone with the exception that these types of websites are based on the various geographical locations such as China, Germany, Japan and so on.

Examples:

China Twitter Clone

http://www.komoo.cn – OMG that is soooo twitterish

http://www.fanfou.com

Portuguese Twitter Clone

http://www.gozub.com – Using ReVou Script

Japanese Twitter Clone

http://www.timelog.jp

http://www.feecle.jp

Germany Twitter Clone

http://www.dukudu.de

http://www.frazr.com

France Twitter Clone

http://www.noumba.net

Would be ideal if:

• You are looking to start your own twitter clone site targeted in your own local region. We also have clients who operate twitter clone sites who are working with their own local mobile phone service providers to integrate their custom SMS interface into ReVou micro-blogging script
• You are looking at better chances of success at running a Twitter clone site targeted on a specific country usually where you are located at. By running a country specific twitter site, you can also command higher web ad revenues since the user traffic are more targeted (i.e by geographical location). Many client then ask this question, “Wouldn’t that essentially reduce my potential users since I can capture more users on a global scale?” Think of this simple logic: If there are more than 1.4 billion people worldwide using internet, what makes you think you can get all of them to use your service? Let’s say you are targeting at the China market which has more than 170million internet users. If you can effectively focus your marketing campaign at getting users in China to use your micro-blogging service, that would be almost as good as trying to get that many users on a global scale (plus without the risk of head-on competition with market leaders)
• You are intending to offer micro-blogging in your country which has not be fully exploited

3. Industry-Centric Twitter clone website

In my opinion, this would be the best business strategy to implement a Twitter clone site because unlike geographical-based twitter clone sites you are not restricted to the number of countries and possibly compete with existing twitter clones in these countries. What I would recommend is always to start-off something you are best at therefore an industry-centric twitter clone site will be my #1 choice as there are virtually tons of industries which you can tap into by merging the idea of micro-blogging with the industry you are in. Let me give a couple of quick examples:

#1 Peter runs an online affiliate marketing website and he is thinking of new ways to retain more members on his website and also to find a more effective way to promote his products/services to current/new customers. RSS feeds on 1 hand is a one-way communication and forums though with the ability for interaction between users, it only limits to web-based communication. ReVou microblogging software enables Peter to implement micro-blogging capabilities to his website by allowing his “followers” to get updated information about what he is doing (for example his recent campaign on “Making $10,000 in 21 Days with only a domain and $50 startup fees”). By doing so, it will bring greater interest to his members to find out how effective is the campaign via micro-blogging and Peter can also update his profile whenever there are any new affiliate marketing seminars. During seminars, he can also post live news update to his micro-blogging site thanks to ReVou micro-blogging software.

#2 Henry is in the real estate industry for more than 10 years and he is trying to find a new business idea to bridge the gap between real estate agents and their customers. He discovers that ReVou is an excellent platform that provides this innovative service where customers can get real-time news on property prices and news related to property which advice what they should do with their property or the current property market fro reliable and credible sources (real estate agents or agencies). Not only that, customers can choose receive news via SMS, their favorite IM such as MSN or Gtalk as well as reducing the spend time reading blogs, newspaper trying to extract news information related to property market. Real estate agents on the other hand can interact with the customers, close deals via ReVou microblogging platform. In short, ReVou provides a whole new experience between real estate agents and customers which provides quick and accurate up-to-date information.

Examples:

It is my sole purpose not to give any examples here because the aim is to get you to involve in the industry you are FAMILIAR with and not trying to find out which is the best industry and then start up a Twitter clone site.

4. Twitter with a “twist” Twitter clone website

Twitter with a “twist” are typically sites that try to “innovate” twitter by adding new ideas and functionality to micro-blogging such as adding pictures with messages or even audio files.

Examples:

http://www.twitxr.com – Twitter with pictures

Twitxr allows you to share pictures from your mobile phone. ReVou application currently allows you to share pictures via the web interface when posting messages

http://seesmic.com – Twitter with videos

Online Video Tour about Seesmic.com

http://www.plurk.com – Twitter with timelines

Plurk has an attractive timeline view, a karma system, in-line comments, and many other nice nanoblog features

http://www.blip.fm – Twitter with music

Each message has a audio attached. Blip also allows the user to buy the song via Amazon.com

Would be ideal if:

• You are a person with a bagload full of ideas which you can create the next twitter with innovative features. This would be a success if you are able to merge your idea with Twitter, by bringing micro-blogging to a whole new level
• You are a hardcore programmer who likes to meddle with source codes, add new features to your twitter clone site
• You are an investor or have funds since creating Twitter with a “twist” using our ReVou application will involve custom programming and unless you are a programmer. You need to be prepared to fork out extra funds to start up such a website

ReVou offers 100% full source codes for the programmers out there who are interested in making their own unique Twitter website. We also offer custom programming services for webmasters who have no programming knowledge but has interesting ideas which we can help in turning these ideas to reality.

More great ideas? Share with us here!