Twitter looks set to unveil another revenue raising stream, with the creation of a new account, @earlybird, that will carry special offers with brands paying to feature on the channel.

The development was first reported by Read Write Web, and while it hasn’t exactly been confirmed by Twitter, the company’s spokeswoman told Read Write Web: “There are interesting things in store for @earlybird. Keep waking up early and you might be the first to find out what they are.”

In the last couple of months Twitter has unveiled sponsored trending topics, sponsored tweets and its own URL shortening feature, which will provide analytics for, among others, brands tracking the impact of Twitter campaigns.

A channel or channels devoted to shopping offers makes a lot of sense for Twitter in that it’s already proven to work – most famously with Dell’s resale channel, which has sold over $6m worth of goods in two years.

Also, it won’t require complicated opt-in or opt-out decisions for users. You follow if you’re interested and if not, you don’t. Good for users and good for the Twitter brand, as it poses less risk of enraging its users – Facebook is, no doubt, paying close attention here.

The account as you can see is protected at the moment, but it is already being followed by 258 people.