Social network services pay for user posts

Those who spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet now have the chance to earn cash from their obsession.

Worried you spend an unhealthy amount of time on Facebook and other social networks? Want to get paid for your digital obsession?

At least two services are offering just that.

Bubblews, a social network that came out of an extended test phase last week, pays users for posts that attract traffic and advertisers. Another company, Bonzo Me, has been doing something similar since early this month.

They are hoping to cash in on what they believe is the next big trend in social media – paid content.

“I don’t think this free content model is sustainable,” said the technology analyst Rob Enderle. “You can’t sustain the quality of the product if you aren’t paying people for the content that they are creating. And you can’t pay your bills if all you are getting are ‘likes.”’

Sandy Youssef of New Brunswick, New Jersey, likes being on Facebook, but she also intends to start posting video on Bonzo Me just in case she shares something that becomes a big hit.

“We are living in an age when the things you post on the internet can go viral, so you may as well get paid for it,” she told Associated Press. “It’s time to spread the wealth.”

Bonzo Me is paying its users up to 80 per cent of its advertising revenue for the most popular posts.

Bubblews’ compensation formula is more complex. It is based on the number of times that each post is clicked on or provokes some other kind of networking activity. To start, the payments are expected to translate into just a penny per view, comment or like. Bubblews plans to pay its users in US$50 increments, meaning it could take a while for most users to qualify for their first pay cheque unless they post material that that goes viral.

“No one should come to our site in anticipation of being able to quit their day job,” said the Bubblews chief executive Arvind Dixit.

Gerry Kelly of San Francisco has already earned nearly $100 from Bubblews since he began using a test version in January. His Bubblews feed serves as a journal about the lessons he has learnt in life, as well as a forum for his clothing brand, Sonas Denim.

Facebook has been thriving while feeding off the free content of its 1.3 billion users. The Menlo Park, California, company now has a market value of about $180 billion, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranks among the world’s wealthiest people with a fortune of about $30bn, based on the latest estimates from Forbes magazine.

Advertisers, meanwhile, are pouring more money into social networks because that is where people are spending more time, particularly on smartphones. Facebook’s share of the $140bn worldwide market for digital ads this year is expected to climb to nearly 8 per cent, or $11bn, up from a market share of about 6 per cent, or $7bn last year, according to the research firm eMarketer.

Although it still isn’t profitable, thanks largely to its 255 million users Twitter’s digital ad revenue this year is expected to rise to $1.1bn, nearly doubling from $600 million last year, according to eMarketer.

Facebook and Twitter have become such important marketing tools that celebrities and other users with large social media followings are being paid by advertisers to mention and promote products on their accounts.

* with Associated Press

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter