To tweet or not to tweet – this is a question that plenty of affiliate marketers are asking themselves. It seems like every online marketing industry newsletter or magazine includes at least one article on Twitter in each issue. You can’t miss the mainstream media coverage either, as pundits come out extolling the virtues of the micro-blogging service or slamming it as the ultimate waste of time. Most affiliates have just one main concern about Twitter – how can they best leverage the service to make money.
While there are already entire books being written about using Twitter for online marketing, here are some basic thoughts for Affiliates who are still wondering how they can use the service.
Want to Drive more Traffic to your Website?
A number of online marketers were quick to identify Twitter as a way to drive traffic to their websites. Bloggers tweet a little info about each blog post along with a link to read the entire post. Companies post information on sales or special offers, with links to their e-commerce sites allowing followers to take advantage of the deals. Admittedly, some sites are easier to tie in to a Twitter account than others. If you are just tossing up a quick landing page for an offer you are only likely to promote for a couple of weeks, then spending time creating a Twitter account related to the offer may not be worth the effort. But, if you are creating a site that will have some staying power, you should definitely look at the micro-blogging service as another way to drive traffic to your site.
Build up a Group of Followers/Fans
Twitter can be a great way to grow a loyal fan/user base. This can be very valuable when it is done in conjunction with a well developed and actively updated website (such as a blog or portal site) where you are already driving traffic and repeat visitors. Unlike a typical website or traditional blog, Twitter can be very conversational, allowing for a significant amount of direct communication with individual followers, which can occur in almost ‘real-time’. If you can build up a large, loyal group of followers, you have the ability to direct them to visit your full website or other sites of your choosing. In some ways, your Twitter followers are like subscribers to an email newsletter. Just like a group of subscribers, your followers will stay opted-in to your messages as long as you provide them with information that they value. But, if they believe you are doing is trying to sell them on a bunch of offers that they don’t care about, they will stop following you.
Patience is a Must
A new Twitter account isn’t generally an overnight sensation. While there are a variety of services available that claim to be able to help you grow your number of followers more quickly, it still takes time to build up a loyal group of followers. So, if you are going to incorporate Twitter into your marketing programs, be prepared to invest some time before you start seeing significant results.
You Can’t Beat the Cost
One of the biggest advantage Twitter offers is that you don’t have to pay to have an account or build your list of followers. The traffic you get from Twitter is basically free. Other than your time, there don’t have to be any additional costs involved in managing a Twitter account. You can pay for a cool Twitter background, hire someone to post for you, or pay for any number of services that may or may not help you gain more followers, but none of these are required to build a successful Twitter account.
Posting Affiliate Links in Tweets – Good or Bad?
This topic seems to generate a lot of debate in the Twitterverse and the online marketing community. The Twitter purists vehemently oppose the practice, with some fearing that marketing tweets will eventually come to make up the majority of posts on Twitter. A marketer might argue that if people are clicking on the links, they must find them valuable, so what’s the big deal? Advertisers are beginning to take note of the situation and deciding how they want to address the issue. In August, Amazon.com changed their policies and stopped paying out affiliate commissions on sales driven from Twitter. It is hard to know if this will become a trend among other advertisers or affiliate programs. These aren’t the only factors to consider when deciding whether or not to include affiliate links in your Twitter posts. If you plan on developing a large list of followers that you will monetize over time, then including lots of affiliate links in your posts will likely be counter-productive, regardless of whether or not more offers stop accepting Twitter traffic. Remember, you want to give your followers something of value, in order to keep their interest. Throwing offer after offer at them isn’t likely to make for a long lasting relationship.
Think Before you Tweet
Twitter doesn’t deliver an obvious benefit for every type of affiliate marketer. So, before you jump on the site and start putting time into developing a new Twitter account, you have to think about whether the site’s capabilities are a match for your affiliate marketing initiatives. If you have a blog or a site with a lot of content, then it may be an easy decision to make Twitter a part of your efforts. But, if you are more focused on email marketing or utilizing PPC campaigns to link directly to advertiser landing pages, then Twitter may not bring a lot of value to your current efforts.
Related posts:
- Twitter Bait
- Twitter Turbocharger
- Twitter Rockstar
- How to Use Twitter: Twitter Marketing
- Twitter Marketing – The Quick Way Of Making Money Online
 | Hi, this is Néstor Pabón I'm just a regular "Joe" who discovered internet marketing back in 2004, and by 2005 had replaced my day time job pay check, and doubled it by mid 2006. If you liked this article and would like me to share with you how I make my living online subscribe to my Newsletter for more tips and "insider" strategies. |
