How To Make Money On Twitter!

Yes, I'll admit it, I'm on Twitter a lot.  Lots of people ask me what I get out of it.  Well there's all the people that I'm able to expose to my business, but I'll save that for another blog post.  I find Twitter extremely valuable, but I know that there are those who will discount it if they can't make something happen with it quickly.  Twitter, like any other form of social networking is a long term strategy.  It's about building relationships, which takes work and time.  But I'm glad to share a way that I'm putting a little extra cash in my pocket along the way with very little extra work, just set it and forget it.

There are some people that look at Twitter and see a broadcast platform.  I'm not sure that I totally agree with that, but whether you agree or not, if you're willing to capitalize, there's some money to be made.  There are different services which actually broker a rental agreement of your background image on Twitter to an interested advertising party.  I want to share with you my experience with TwittAd.

Twittad will allow you to set your own price on advertising campaigns lasting either 7 days, 15 days, 1 month, or 3 months.  You can visit whatsyourtweetworth.com to get an idea of what to ask for.  In full disclosure, I've never actually got what I was told my tweet is worth, but it is a good starting point.  Remember, the cheaper you discount your price, the more appealing you are to potential advertisers. 

Twittad also has an opt-in feature where advertisers will post campaigns along with criteria for twitter users (age of twitter account, number of followers, number of tweets, geographic location, etc) and if you match those criteria, those campaigns will appear under the opt-in section of the website.  The opt-in campaigns are for designated time frames...either 7 days, 15 days, 1month, or 3months.  They are already set up and preview-able so that you can see what your profile would look like if you chose to accept the campaign.  The payout is listed so you'll know what you're going to make.

For either your listed campaign price, or an opt-in campaign, Twittad will automatically send 3 tweets from your twitter account.  The first tweet gets sent at the inception of the campaign, one in the middle and one at the end.  With the opt in campaign, you can usually choose those three tweets from a pre-written list depending on what type of language you like best.

When you get to the website the first thing you'll see is a dynamic menu stretched horizontally across the center of the page.  You can use that menu to see what other people are listing their accounts for.  Compare their follower count to yours to get an idea of how you want to price yourself.  You can also look at accounts that have recently sold.  This actually gives you the best idea of how to price your account to sell.  It actually breaks it down to the price per follower for each sold account to give you a perspective of what the market will support.

To get started all you have to do is create an account.  Twittad has provided some very helpful videos to explain exactly how to navigate their system.  Don't forget to complete your profile on Twittad and list your account for a price that you think is fair.

So how much money can you make on Twittad?  To be honest, it's not going to make you rich.  You have to accumulate at least $30.00 to be able to transfer the money into your PayPal Account.  I'm currently running my 3rd campaign and when I'm done, I'll have $35.50 to transfer into my PayPal Account.  This inspite of whatsyourtweetworth.com telling me my tweet is worth $1,666.11 per month (maybe someday).  The first two campaigns were associated with Elations, a healthy drinks company and my current campaign is sponsored by K-Mart of all people.  Each campaign lasted 7 days.  I always choose campagns that I'm comfortable with and that I think won't contradict with my own brand.  Yes, I have passed up opportunities because I felt they would reflect badly on me and my business.

Some people won't be comfortable with this at all.  Other may even be opposed, viewing it as selling out.  I'm of the Stephen Colbert school of thought when it comes to selling out - Go For It!  I look at it this way:  I'm going to be on Twitter anyway, why not make some money while I'm there?  If I'm comfortable with the product and the message, what's the harm in it?  Not every single person who follows me is going to see my background image during that time frame.  Mostly only new followers will notice.  In the 3 weeks that I've participated, I haven't noticed any difference in the volume of new followers.  It's not hurting me, and hey...Gas is on Twittad this week!

If you want to try it out for your own Twitter account, feel free to click the link below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist