Twitter Monetization: How to Make Money With Twitter

May 9th, 2008 by Saad Kamal | 39 Comments

Everyone seems to like twitter these days which is a really cool way of staying in touch with your customers, friends & colleagues. Basically twitter has presented itself as a micro-blogging platform where a user can shout out anything they want to his ‘followers’ within the limit of 140 characters.

I have just started twittering since last month (*yes I’m pretty late starter!) because initially by looking at it for the very first time, I couldn’t find any ‘value’ that it has for my work & my social life. However after reading a convincing post by Aaron Wall, I thought of giving twitter a try. Since then onwards I have been using twitter all day long, just to keep track of some of the leading experts in the Internet & Search Marketing field as well as to have some ‘fun’ with my online buddies.

Anyway the whole point of doing this post is to highlight some of the key monetization elements that an individual can explore using twitter. I assume you have the basic knowledge of what twitter is and how it works, so I will directly deep into some ideas which can make you earn money from your twitter.

make money with Twitter

Direct Advertisement - If a lot of people are following you in ‘twitter’ or in other words if you have a ‘wide reach’ to a large number of twitter users, you can probably look into direct advertisements for monetization.

Recommendation – You can recommend a particular product or service on behalf of your advertisers & peruse your followers to take an ‘action’.
Promotion – You can help your advertiser to promote a new product or service to your twitter followers.

It works pretty much like niche marketing because, say if you are an Internet Marketer, It is very likely that most of your followers in Twitter are also from the same area which is why they have ‘followed’ you in the first place.

Affiliate Marketing – I was listening to Shoemoney’s podcast yesterday where he talked about how affiliate marketing can actually be blended within Twitter.

Affiliate Links – If you are recommending a Product or a Service to your followers, you can always embed your affiliate link in your tweet. (e.g. Using a service like TinyUrl.com)
Sales Pages – Instead of taking your followers to another website using your affiliate link, you might just want to promote your own product & services and sell them directly via your sales / landing page.

This is an area where every one can really look into. For instance say when one of your followers is asking for suggestion to choose a web host, you can always suggest him the best one from your experience but at the same time use your affiliate link which can earn you some quick cash.

Paid Review– This is pretty much like the direct advertisement, however the only difference would be, instead of blindly suggesting a product or a service to someone, you can actually do some ‘paid reviews’.

Product – You can do a paid review about a particular product (e.g. Internet Marketing software)
Services – You can do a paid review about services that your advertiser offers. (E.g. SEO Services, Web Hosting Services etc.)
People – You can also do a paid review about people. For instance, maybe you can review someone’s web design skills, or you may promote someone’s ‘twitter’ account for instance.

Sponsored Contest– An advertiser may want to run a contest via a popular twitter user to get feedback about his product & services or just to create some brand awareness.

Feedback – Example - “What New features would you like to see in Product X”?
Brand Awareness– Example- “Describe product X in 140 Characters” or “Tell us why you like product X within 140 Characters”. The best answer can be given a cool prize sponsored by the advertiser.

Sponsored Advertisements– There isn’t must difference between this & the direct advertisement. However when I was creating the mind map, this ‘branch’ did somehow pop in, so have decided to include it. I guess the main difference would be that all the tweets which are actually sponsored advertisements can get a predefined prefix which will help your followers to identify them as ads.

Auto Ads – There can be a mechanism or a ‘new’ 3rd party service which can actually help you to distribute or Tweet the “Ads” when you are ‘not’ tweeting or say when you are idle. An ad interval can also be set so that your frequent sponsored ads don’t annoy your followers.
Sponsored Actions– Well this might sound like a weird idea but, I feel that some aggressive marketers might like it. Example – “I Love #Google. Re-tweet this message and WIN yourself a GPhone”. Since a hash-tag is used, all the massages can be tracked using that and a lucky winner can actually be picked from the pool.

Some of you may think that all these ‘monetizing’ options can actually turn twitter into an ‘evil’ place and slowly reduce its value. But let’s face it, if you aren’t fully utilizing all the areas of twitter today, somebody else will – tomorrow. But of course you should set a ‘limit’ on how many ‘such tweets’’ you are going to do on a day, so that your followers still consider you as a valuable contact rather than a commercial junkie.

So that’s all folks, if you like my article, you are welcome to add me in your Twitter - @saadkamal. Happy Twittering!

Comments

39 responses so far ↓

Todd Mintz on May 9, 2008 at 11:47 am

Uh, I think that other than the “Sponsored Contest” idea, most of these ideas are doomed to failure and would cause the person to be instantly shunned & unfollowed. Even with “Sponsored Contests”, you have to establish yourself in the community like Zappos…a bunch of real people who happen to run an online shoe website before you can even think about trying such a promotion.
Samirb on May 9, 2008 at 12:00 pm

I’m going to agree with Todd on this one. Monetizing twitter will be as unpopular as monetizing IM. Someone just did a contest and people complained about spam from all the @ replies. It’s a lot better to use your twitter account to build a community then use that reputation to leverage affiliate sales or a newsletter.
Saad Kamal on May 9, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Thanks Todd & Samirb for your views. Well basically it all depends on ‘how’ you are going to use this..and also whether you consider Twitter as a marketing tool or whether you think twitter is just a tool to tell others about what you had for lunch…

And obviously this isn’t going to work for ‘everybody’. People will only follow that they ‘want’ to follow. And even though they often post a lot of irrelevant and personal stuffs, it doesn’t really make us to ’stop following’ them =)

We like them thats why we are ‘following them’. And any recommendation that comes directly from them are basically considered ‘useful’.

But yes as I mentioned over doing this might cr8 some obvious problem. But certainly i consider twitter a marketing tool and there are lots of areas (application) of twitter that are yet to be discovered.
Barbara Ling on May 9, 2008 at 6:26 pm

I personally the best way to make money with Twitter is to use it for building your trust factor and NOT attempting any direct money-making from it.

The greater your network extends, the more people will know about your sites/blogs/etc. and the higher your traffic will become. It’s up to you to decide what to do with that traffic.

Data points,

Barbara
François-Xavier Bodin on May 10, 2008 at 2:54 am

Bullshit.

1.0 ad world desperately trying to hang to - not so new but worth a future - values such as :
- fair relationships
- trust
- moral

Don’t try to follow me, I’ll block you.
suzymiller on May 10, 2008 at 3:40 am

Like everything in life it is good to explore all the possibilities, and unpopular though your thoughts are Saad with many Twitter users, you are only speaking out loud the thought process of marketeers who use the application.

Personally, I have found the real value of Twitter to be in the building of a community and shared information and resources. I believe the marketing potential is in giving followers access to blogs and websites that may then exploit the marketing techniques you outlined. But the key thing is for a tweet to either connect with or provide something of value to another person, so any direct marketing potential needs to be one level down at least.

I don’t think seeing marketing as a dirty word is helpful since I do my marketing via a genuine enthusiasm to share something that is really good and useful. But I have lernt that even when offering something for free via Twitter, if it is anything at all to do with your business, all you have to do is be upfront about it. Pimping is fine as long as you call it what it is.

Real marketing is about informing and connecting with your potential marketplace, so Twitter definitely has a role to help find out what people want and how they feel about products, services, issues etc. I think it has a fantastic value regarding market research and testing out ideas with early adopters. Most of all however, as a way of boosting your own confidence in your ideas and keeping going via the support of the group - that is where Twitter is really of value to me.
eMarv on May 11, 2008 at 11:01 am

Excellent posts Suzy. I agree completely with you. (BTW, good-looking site you have.)

It really is about community building. The Zappos example is probably the best out there. There some other corporates out there that are trying to make it happen, too. They really have to show that they have real people behind the curtains. Most people naturally like straightforwardness, honesty & insight, online & off.

Saad, I understand you are just expressing your opinion. Everyone is entitled to one (especially on your own blog :). I will not automatically block if you decide to follow. As long as you don’t commercialize your account too much. :)

Have a great twitterday!
eMarv
Glenn on May 13, 2008 at 12:22 am

I am now following you on twitter.. nice post :)
impNERD on Sep 28, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Although the concept is interesting, how is this any different than instant messaging advertising that has been tried?

Yahoo tried inline adlinks for about a day and so many people complained that they turned it off by default.

There is some potential for Twitter advertising, but I really don’t think inline adlinks are the place for it to go.
SEO on Oct 15, 2008 at 12:49 am

Some how there has to be a good way to makes butt loads of money with Twitter. Not just nickles and dimes…
Join on Nov 27, 2008 at 9:14 am

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MarathonMatters on Jan 15, 2009 at 9:24 pm

“Top 10 Ways to Make Living As Witty Writer Who Wears Sweats & Twitters All Day” http://tinyurl.com/83moye
Art Vandelay on Feb 2, 2009 at 1:26 pm

i’m currently at blogger http://www.littleaboutmuch.blogspot.com and will certainly give twitter a try.
John Lewan on Mar 7, 2009 at 3:07 am

There is a very good article on how to get started on twitter - an excellent step by step beginners guide. I read it got on twitter within 15 minutes. Following the steps, I managed to get about 300 followers in 2 weeks. Hope this helps you to.

ReadTwitter for beginners
radith on Mar 19, 2009 at 6:17 am

i don’t really like the idea of monetizing twitter, though it can’t be helped right? capitalism.. but yes, i can’t be naive, i came here by search engine via keyword ‘monetize twitter’.

and the conclusion i earned here is unles we have many peoples following us, it’s useless. and how can we gain thousand of followers is based on our updates there.

i do agree with the limitation idea. don’t overdo it. the same with our blog/website. I myself, hate a site with ads everywhere.

nice article btw :)
AndyM on Mar 28, 2009 at 4:51 pm

I joined twitter recently to post the latest UK UFO sightings submitted to my website. The UFO site earns a few pennies a day through low paying google adsense . I’m no internet guru so any tips on leveraging twitter to both build traffic and improve monetisation to my site http://www.uk-ufo.co.uk would be most appreciated.
In the few months from set up my current traffic and growing is 175 uniques a day/350 visits (so people are coming back ) .Traffic from twitter is about 10 visits a month.
Teenum on Mar 30, 2009 at 10:05 am

I think twitter is popular because its all about the people rather than the brands. Still it is eary days and it will be interesting to see just how effective these methods may evolve to be.
sam sall on Apr 9, 2009 at 7:42 am

Thanks ,this the best tips i read so far
Klikbank on Apr 11, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Or you can use Magpie to monetize your Twitter profile.
Cashing Online on Apr 17, 2009 at 8:25 am

Thanks for the good and helpful information .
Perspective Shift Chris on Apr 17, 2009 at 4:15 pm

Great post. I only recently started using Twitter as well. I guess we’ll see how all of this works out :). Keep up the good work! Take Care.
Twitter Loco on Apr 19, 2009 at 8:23 pm

There is many ways to make money with twitter.

The first thing you need is a following. it is no good using these methods if your only being followed by 5 people.
Mike Kephart on Apr 26, 2009 at 11:08 pm

I agree with a lot of these past posts especially the one who mentioned Twitter is all about creating a following! I’ve been using Twitter for a few weeks now and have gained a massive momentum to my new website http://UnemploymentKiller.com, I have a community setup and encourage my followers to join like minded people looking to learn how to make money online. Come check it out if you want an example I have a video tutorial on using Twitter + Open Inviter API + TweetLater.com to explode your traffic and sales. Come check it out if your interested.
prasanna on Apr 27, 2009 at 2:21 am

Yes we can make more money with the twitter
simply visit http://www.twittad.com/a/Ajh
Michelle on Apr 27, 2009 at 12:35 pm

I have tried Twittad, but they don’t have many advertisers yet. I would take a long time to earn money with them. I like Magpie the best because I’ve made over $50 so far with just 1 tweet a day from them. There are services like adjix which create shorter links with tiny ads they pay you, but again, not much. Someone needs to hack the Twitter money making machine… there is still plenty of room in this area!
Anthony Landolfo on May 6, 2009 at 11:05 am

Twitter monetization is a great idea!! Check out http://www.betweeted.com/invite.asp?rID=25 and use Twitter to post pay per click advertisements for your company.
Eny siti on May 15, 2009 at 4:58 am

Good information.I have hearing from people about making money with twitter. But I don’t know much about twitter.
Siddharth on May 16, 2009 at 9:20 pm

Here is another way, http://bit.ly/533sV, it allows you to place ads like google ads but specifically for twitter
delta squadron bonus on May 18, 2009 at 2:22 am

Great post, twitter is turning into a sales fest! There are some great marketers to follow on twitter but the majority are just sending sales pitch after sales pitch. So, follow the content providers, retweet good content and every now and then pop an affiliate link in there. Linden
kakay on May 22, 2009 at 12:25 pm

twittad is better to monetize your twitter. it is free.
Matt on May 24, 2009 at 12:22 am

You can treat Twitter as your opt-in list.. The more you have the more you cna monetise it. You may promote your affiliate program there.. Anotehr way to make money from affilaiet iss through PPC.. You may refer to the Ebook worth $67 with 87 pages making money information. Very helpful and i have applied and made some quick bucks from there..
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Dwi on May 24, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Ok its time to search follower, 15.000/mo, its work see this site http://tinyurl.com/instanfollower
john on Jun 10, 2009 at 1:23 pm

i promote at the moment only software and services i have used and found to be useful otherwise your readers will associate you with junk prime example
of software i promote which sells on its own merits
great conversions
http://www.hide-my-ip.com/?id=3625
james on Jun 17, 2009 at 3:55 am

I more than likely won’t use twitter. Why would you when you got some of the cheapest products on the net. My site will go live today sometime and nobody can stop me! Just think of my site like newegg.com, but only more exclusive.

ihaveproducts.info
Sathish on Jun 22, 2009 at 8:29 am

Its good idea we can fallowing all our friends….
Ragnar on Jul 3, 2009 at 10:43 pm

Thanks for sharing this one.
Jobs Vacancies Nigeria on Jul 9, 2009 at 7:11 am

That’s a very nice post!
The easiest way of making money in twitter is Sign Up With PPL Affiliates,promote your links and make your $$.
Nice post…
George on Jul 13, 2009 at 1:47 pm

This by Saad, the points you expalined are very valuable and should not be ignored. One can also make money on twitter by posting links, This contextual advertising offered by RevTwt, it is a new way of making money on twitter, with RevTwt you have control on what types of links you want to appear on your tweets.
krishna on Jul 14, 2009 at 7:49 am

excellent post on twitter