All Things D writes that Twitter is already discussing Promoted Trends with advertisers, but only "in vague terms, and has yet to test it out."
If the blog's sources are correct, Twitter plans to price Promoted Trends at "tens of thousands of dollars" for exclusive placement each day.
It appears that Promoted Trends, if implemented, would allow a single advertiser to create a term to be featured alongside other trending topics on Twitter for a specified duration. If a user clicks on the trending ad, he would be directed to a search results page with the advertiser's promoted tweet listed at the top.
There's still a lot of work Twitter needs to do to make trending topics advertiser-friendly. Although the company has recently modified its trending topics algorithm, spam is still a major problem -- one that happens to be adversely affecting its World Cup tracking site. Still, the idea makes sense, and if Twitter follows through we're likely to see a few eager advertisers step forward to claim their places within trending topics.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, parema