Internet Marketing With Twitter

So you've set up your account...now how do you go about making money on Twitter?

The first thing you have to do is increase your followers. The easiest way to do this is to go to free websites like SearchTwitter.com or Twellow.com and search for people in your particular niche. Then you can start to follow them. What often happens is that this is reciprocal. When you follow someone, they often feel obliged to follow you back. By doing this, you know that most of your followers are going to be interested in your niche.

Another thing you can do is to send your followers a direct message (maybe to thank them for following). If they respond it will increase your rating within the Twitter community. You can also send direct messages to high profile Tweeters. If they respond then you get massive Twitter 'bonus points!' (not really, but your status and rank will improve on some websites that log Tweet statistics).

If you have a really good tweet to send to your followers, ask them to RT it (Re-Tweet it). This means that all their followers get to see it too, thus significantly increasing your 'hit' rate.

Please bear in mind that there is currently a limit on Twitter that you can only have 2000 followers unless you are also following about the same amount of people. Therefore it is important that you only follow people who are following you. If someone doesn't follow you back, you should give them 2-3 days and then unfollow them. This means that you won't run the risk of having your account suspended by Twitter.

Again, this process of following/unfollowing can be automated. You can also use a free service like Your Twitter Karma which will remove all those who are not following you at the push of a button.

Of course there is nothing to stop you opening many accounts for each of your niches or products, it's a great way to get around the Twitter limits.

The easiest way to make money is to join an affiliate program such as ClickBank and search for the latest products to promote. Choosing the best converting products is the subject for another lens or blog post but it should be fairly obvious which ones are doing well. If you can, try to promote continuity programs such as membership sites. The reason for this is you don't just get a one-off payment, you get recurring payments which is obviously a major bonus.

So now you have a product to promote, what do you do next?

First of all, don't try selling straight away. Take time to develop a relationship with your followers by sending interesting and varied tweets. Leave it a month or so before you go in for the hard sell. Keep writing your tweets (up to 10 a day is good) and every now and then drop in a link to one of your affiliate products or websites.

I wrote an Article on the importance of developing a relationship with your list which you can read HERE.

Although this was written specifically about email opt in lists, it applies equally well to your Twitter followers

There are some things that you need to consider when using Twitter.

Although it is a good idea to re-tweet occasionally and ask for your own tweets to be re-tweeted (gets your tweets out to a much wider audience) as a general rule you shouldn't do it too often. It can show that your tweets have little substance or that you lack imagination.

Also, try to avoid tweeting the same tweet multiple times. It makes your followers think you don't have much to offer them and you might even get accused of spamming and have your account shutdown.

Remember to include some really interesting and amusing tweets. The people with the most followers make good use of their 140 characters. It's surprising what you can actually say when you remove all the fluff and filler. You can use automated software to help you 'scrape' interesting tweets from any web page and automatically post them at scheduled times to your followers.

It really is important that you give a bit of yourself to your followers from time to time because you will gain their trust and respect (hopefully!) and are more likely to make a sale. But here is an important point to consider...Try not to promote useless products or you may find that your followers will start unfollowing. Try to either buy or evaluate it yourself. That way you can make a much stronger and more honest recommendation.

From time to time, send your followers links to other people you think they might be genuinely interested in. Even if it has little benefit to you personally. It shows that you are not just in it for yourself. What can sometimes happen is that your follower will follow someone you recommend and they in turn follow them, who then follow you (if you follow my meaning!)