Recently I have been testing a few options to make money on Twitter. I know, some of you will frown on this, but it is my Twitter account and I will do with it what I please. I used to be one of those people that frowned on sending ads out through Twitter, and I even said I would never do it. A few weeks ago, I changed my mind and decided to test a couple of services that pay you to send out advertisements with your Twitter account. I was surprised that there were actually ads that I didn’t mind sending out, and I have been able to make a few bucks without spending an enormous amount of time on it.
Sponsored Tweets was the first one I signed up for. The way it works is you sign up for a Sponsored Tweets account (affiliate link), which your Twitter account must be 90 days old and you have to have at least 100 followers. From there you are able to set your account up and fill out some information about yourself, using keywords to attract advertisers. Initially my “suggested price per tweet” was $3.50, but I didn’t get any offers at that price. I lowered my price gradually until offers started coming in. The good part about Sponsored Tweets, is you don’t have to accept an offer from every advertiser, if you don’t think your followers will like the add, don’t accept it.
Personally I like this one better, it allows me to pick the ad I want to send, and you get paid per click (price set by advertiser). If your ad gets RT’ed or if you send it out to multiple sources from Twitter, you could get more clicks, meaning more money. Once you sign up for an account with MyLikes (affiliate link) you can go through and pick something to send out, you get to write the ad yourself, and you can return everyday to send out an ad if you like. It is easier to get paid with MyLikes too, you can set your Paypal address up and they pay every Friday as long as you have at least $2 in revenue.
Yes, it does work, I have manged to make a little money this way, even more than I make on Adsense some weeks. Will you get rich, I don’t think so. But I think it is a good way to make a few extra bucks online. I don’t send out many ads and I always use #ads hashtag in the tweet so my followers know it is an ad. If you are able to send out ads that have products your followers may appreciate, then I don’t see anything wrong with it. The max I have sent is 2 tweets in one day, compared to the 20+ other tweets where I engage with my followers, I don’t think it is spammy at all.
What do you think? Would you consider it spammy to send ads over the Twitter airwaves? Have you used these services before and had any luck? Do you think your followers will get mad about it?
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How much money have you made through these services Keith? I am not sure whether I would truly try to make money through Twitter. I mean I love Twitter because it gives you an opportunity to talk to people. And yes making money through Twitter does work but it’s just the question whether I would send sponsored tweets to my followers.
I personally don’t like the idea but if I would try to make money through Twitter than I would use MyLikes.
.-= Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog ..The 3 Unwritten Rules of Blogging =-.
@Julius Kuhn-Regnier, It really depends on so many factors how much you can make. If you can make $10 a week sending out 5 Tweets with ads in them would you do it? If you have a huge following, those 5 Tweets could turn into $40 or more very easily.
I agree, I am not on Twitter to make money, and I am testing these services. It doesn’t seem to bother my followers yet, so I will continue to test with it.
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..How To Leverage Video Marketing – Become a YouTube Partner =-.
@Keith Bloemendaal, Experimenting is good. I would actually keep on experimenting. But as I’ve mentioned the idea of randomly sending das via Twitter doesn’t appeal to me.
Actually it would if all of the ads would actually help my audience in some way. But really only if the products are worth promoting.
.-= Julius Kuhn-Regnier´s last blog ..The 3 Unwritten Rules of Blogging =-.
Me and you were chatting on Skype yesterday about this very such thing. Like I said, “Just don’t overwhelm your followers and I think you’ll be all good.”
And also, as long as you don’t promote anything that’s really off and far from what your followers would actually buy/use, I think you’ll be all good as well.
.-= Mike Stenger´s last blog ..Do They Hate It!? Find Out With This Tool =-.
Keith, great post.
I have been hesitant about doing sponsored tweets on Twitter. I have about 11000 followers and I thought I would wait till I double that to see if I lost followers for tweeting adds. Plus I would link with such lower number of followers I wouldn’t make that much money.
.-= element321´s last blog ..Foursquare and Myspace Added to Hootsuite =-.
@element321, Currently I only have a few hundred more followers than you (lost 1200 after unfollowing everyone last week) and it is working for me to make a few bucks….
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Why You’re Wasting Your Time on Video Marketing =-.
I have yet to understand what to do with Twitter and until I do I am not going to try to make money with it but it certainly seems like a way to add some income.
@Ralph, Well, after looking at your Twitter account Ralph, I can see that. You don’t use Twitter, and maybe that is because you don’t know how. Try getting on it when you are online. Reply to a few people you know, like me, James Richmond, etc… and try to get some conversation going.
You may find that you like it
I prefer not to send out any “ads” on Twitter. I think the way to make money through Twitter is by sending people to my sites. Traffic is money, in the end.
.-= Anne Moss´s last blog ..Is Blocking Ads Unethical? =-.
I like the idea of adding hash tag… You won’t lost trust from your followers… It’s ethical though, and it’s one of the reasons of it continuous development.
.-= Bert Padilla´s last blog ..Martin Cooper: The Inventor of Cell Phone who gave up his iPhone for Droid =-.
Most people know of me as a mad scientist. I absolutely love to experiment. So, if that is who you are, then it is fine. If you honestly want to be an advertiser, then i think you need to become that. If you try to play the marketing games, people just won’t get it. Like Techcrunch is to technology, if you set out to become what it is that you want to become, then you become that. Art is nothing more than a goal. Paint what it is that you want to do, and it all works out. If you are simply playing, then you will become that too. I love being a gamer, just don’t get mixed up with who you are. This isn’t sound advice, I have become many things over the years.
@ToddGilmore, Sometimes I think you should have been a philosopher Todd! Not sure I even understand your comment! LOL
I always test things before going at them and announcing that it is working for me, this is another one of those tests where I found that it does work, and I don’t think it affected my followers on Twitter….
.-= Keith Bloemendaal´s last blog ..Post Structure: Podcast =-.
some people said to me Make money with twitter, but i dont know how i do, now iam very clear, thanks
.-= Muthukumar@dofollow backlinks free´s last blog ..watch Manchester United vs AC Milan Live Stream =-.
Hi Keith,
I tend to agree with Anne Moss, in that your traffic generated from tweeting should be your reward. I’m not saying no, and I actually tweet once a day about my own products on my Blog. I’m also just a little shy of the Twitter Police. TOS always lurks!
.-= Jeffrey´s last blog ..Thesis For Bullet Heads =-.
I think Sire was trying this out too. I haven’t tried it but I’m not so uptight that I think it’s evil. I have several accounts and I have considered testing just like you are doing. I think I’ll reserve my main Twitter account for social interaction though. I really enjoy that part. Good topic.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Do Banner Advertisements Work On Blogs? =-.
Hi Keith, I did have some sponsored tweets in the past with Magpike. But they said my blog was a syndication and decided to cut my account off.
Well. I don’t really care. Because my twitter is mainly for leads and traffic getting rather than advertisements.
I guess this makes sense if you have a ton of followers.
The line between valuable and annoying becomes very thin when you start advertising on twitter (or at least that is my guess). If you can ride that line, more power to you! It definitely is good to have this as an option.
.-= Chris Roane – MontanaProgrammer.com´s last blog ..10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Web Programmer 10 Years Ago =-.
well making money with twitter for me is Ethical b/c twitter is a great place for business promotion but its really work if you have lot of followers