Once upon a time there was a ground-breaking MMORPG – massive multiplayer online role-playing game called Everquest. After its success, several other online games were born, died, and straggled around. Even today, World of Warcraft reigns supreme and popular.
In the beginning, people earned the equipment and money they used in game fairly. Killing monsters, going on raids, etc. Then all of a sudden virtual items appeared on eBay. Bam! The makers of Everquest came down hard on people who sold virtual goods for real money. Networks sprung up around the world and “farming” became commonplace. You could go onto one of these sites and pay $20 real money for 100 platinum (money) or $5 for a robe of quickening, etc.
But better yet, an entire character, say a level 57 necro dark elf for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
We are entering that era for Twitter accounts very soon.
Who can forget Drew Carey offering Drew Olanoff $25,000 for @drew? That is just the beginning.
As more and more companies are still thinking “i better jump on the Twitter bandwagon” they find their company names taken, maybe unused, or sometimes even heavily used – it doesn’t matter. What are you to do if you own the business “harisson sports” and @harrisonsports is taken?
Buy it.
Make no mistake about it, Twitter squatters are here, registering every singly twitter name they can think of, hoping companies will buy them out (instead of merely suing them). So what do you do if you just HAVE to have that @ name of your choice?
#1: Follow the account of @name you want to purchase.
The user will usually receive an email letting them know you have followed them. If they follow you back, you will then be able to direct message them.
#2: Make them an offer
Most Twitter accounts can probably be purchased for under $1,000, so start low.
#3: Make arrangements to purchase the domain
I would recommend you ask the seller to put the auction on eBay for the amount agreed upon with a buy-it-now price of the agreed upon price. That way you will be covered by all of the eBay seller/buyer policies.
#4: Complete the sale
You give them the money via PayPal or other, and then you should get the username and password. If something goes sour, follow through with a complaint on eBay. (see why I recommended that avenue?)
Selling a Twitter account us going to be more and more common as we enter in the next phase of Twitter users. Expect “power users” to create and grow Twitter profiles with thousands and thousands of followers only to sell it to the highest bidder, or on a “per-follower” basis to an advertiser. As selling your twitter account becomes more commonplace, people will begin to be more careful about the people they choose to follow.
Think of MySpace and Facebook.
Remember when the buzz was getting thousands of followers on MySpace? People had “adder programs” that would go through and automatically ask to be friends with each other. Then, the account would be sold to an advertiser, or they might use it themselves to market products and services to you.
People got tired of this, and Facebook began. People were more careful about whom they selecting as friends.
Twitter – you are next.
How close do YOU think we are for selling of Twitter accounts to be commonplace? Are we there already?
