I recently logged into my Sponsored Tweets account, and for the first time, I saw a long list of open opportunities, all of which would be paid by the click. I really didn’t get all that excited at first until I submitted a few offers.
Some of the offers were from previous advertisers I’ve written for, so I went ahead and accepted them without much thought.
Some received a click or two, nothing that would make me rich, but the more I thought about it, I realized those clicks could add up to more than what I charge for sending out one tweet from a traditional offer.
This new system could grow into a source of income that slowly builds over time, especially as my Twitter following continues to grow.
I’ve heard many complaints about the lack of opportunities, but now that there’s a new way to get paid, a slew of new opportunities are opening up. So if you’ve grown frustrated with this service, perhaps now is the time to revisit the site and tighten up your tweet-writing skills and give it another try.
If you’re not familiar with Sponsored Tweets, before you run off tweeting every opportunity that comes your way, keep in mind that people can be turned off by blatant advertising. Each time you tweet an ad, you run the risk of losing some followers. Each time you tweet an ad, you must also include the #ad hashtag or include the word sponsored - the site will not allow you to process your tweets without these disclosure statements. (This is good advice to follow any time you tweet an ad of your own, for example an affiliate link, you need to be disclosing the fact that it is an ad or you may get reported by an irritated follower.)
Here’s what I do:
Before I accept any offer, I click on the “More Info” link and check things out for myself. I visit the destination link to see if it’s a reputable company with a professional looking site.
If I feel comfortable with the site, I begin constructing my tweet using some of the description they’ve already included.
I try to make it sound as non-ad-like as I can, although that’s not always possible when the advertiser wants certain words included.
For for this Lunchables example, which is actually for a good cause, it shouldn’t be too hard to generate a tweet that at least a few people will be interested in clicking.
I always start by selecting my disclosure statement from the pull down menu. I prefer to use #ad and I prefer to place it at the end of the tweet.
So my Lunchables tweet went something like this:
Did you know that Lunchables has a new program to sponsor educational field trips for deserving students? http://sptllyy #ad
Using questions really piques people’s curiosity and makes the tweet seem less threatening. Try this when writing your own sponsored tweets. 
When you’re satisfied with the tweet, hit the “Tweet This” button. That submits it to the advertiser for approval. Once it’s approved, you’ll receive an email telling you that it’s approved for payment. That doesn’t mean you’ve already gotten paid, it simply means that they’ve agreed to pay you based on how many clicks your tweet receives.
The downside
They will tweet it when they want – you can’t tweet these on your own. That means it might not get tweeted at a peak time and the tweet may go unnoticed.
They try to compensate for this by offering to retweet it again a day or so later, but again, you have no control of exactly when it will tweet.
Despite these things, I’ve enjoyed my Sponsored Tweets account. It has been providing me a stream of income that has slowly begin to grow and increase.
Again, I suggest accepting offers with caution and that you take the time to construct a non-threatening tweet.
If you put yourself in the place of your followers and consider how they might feel about a particular tweet, that will help you make a better decision about what you are tweeting. If it’s not something that you would be willing to retweet for a friend, you shouldn’t be so willing to do it for a few extra dollars.
For those of you seasoned Sponsored Tweeters, what has your experience been with this service? What advice would you offer a beginner? What tips or tricks do you use?
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About Kiesha Easley
Thanks man!!!!!!! very very sexy tune about twitter earning
blogging School recently posted..What is Gold Membership in freelancer.com?
You know, I never really got into the whole twitter thing. It did then and does now just seem pointless to me. I mean, you can do the same thing on facebook. Just my two cents.
Shane
Cost Of Concrete Driveway recently posted..How To Install A Ceiling Fan Pretty Much All By Yourself
Its quite incredible. It is hard to believe but I must believe and try this one. Thanks for sharing some tips. :)
This is the first time I heard about Sponsored Tweets. Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope I can get some moneys from Sponsored Tweets :)
Hi! You inspired me to continue blogging. I thought i was hitting a dead end. I learned a lot from you. Keep posting articles like this.
Carson W.
Blogger
visit us at:menscardigansweater
wow, I just know that seems like the slanting twitter can make money too, thanks for the info
skyscapers recently posted..Currency Exchange Calculator Why Not Use One
I have a twitter account and din’t know this even existed but my question is should you wait until you have enought followers before even trying this?
Arlene recently posted..Five Reasons You Should Stay The Course
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Arlene,
I would definitely wait until you have a decent amount of followers. Otherwise, you won’t get enough clicks. Also, they have a minimum number of followers that you have to have to qualify.
just wanted to let you know that the minimum number of followers is 100 – meaning that you have to have at least 100 followers. Don’t be discouraged though because just give yourself some time and before you know it you’ll reach that (at least) number of followers.
The Adsense Consultant recently posted..Welcome!
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi,
Thanks for sharing that info. Much appreciated.
Oh, and one more thing.. you don’t have a sign up to receive blogs each time you update…
.-= Amelia Champion´s last blog ..Building Backlinks to .edu Blogs =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Yes, I do. There’s one at the top Right Sidebar. It looks like a little envelope – that’s if you want to receive updates via email. If you want RSS, click the RSS symbol right next to it.
Kiesha, I love your blog.. everytime I look there is something there that I get excited about reading!
.-= Amelia Champion´s last blog ..Building Backlinks to .edu Blogs =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Amelia,
I’m glad my writing excites you – that’s the goal and my purpose. Glad to help :)
i have signed up with service but have not really tried using it…your tips are very workable and useful.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Mk,
Glad you found this post useful. Like I said, you won’t get rich quick. It might be worth the try.
I too had participated this kind of programs but till now I didn’t get any money.Anyway your post gives a good picture. I am gonna try this.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Charley,
Glad to see you here. Good luck!
hey Kiesha,
Great earnings. I still haven’t used sponsored tweets.
Btw. I think Mylikes is much better than sposored tweets and the referral earning is also good.
Thanks !!!
~Dev
.-= Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..How To Professionally Conduct a Interview? =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Dev,
I actually do have a MyLikes account, it’s just that I have limited time and I don’t like spreading myself too thin over too many social networks.
Have you tried Ad.ly? I recently joined sponsored tweets, but for now I prefer Ad.ly.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Dre,
Yeah, I have an account, but I don’t use it – I don’t want to add two sources of ads to my Twitter stream. Plus, I’m a minimalist, if I’ve already got one thing working fine, I rarely like to duplicate it with something else that’s doing the same thing. It’s too easy to get distracted that way.
I signed up for them like a year ago or so, but I knew it would be worthless because I was just a new twitterer or whatever you call em, anyway…Do you think its cool to do it even with such low following?
.-= Wilson´s last blog ..One Billion Pesos of Wisdom for the Week =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Wilson,
It might not be as beneficial with a lower following, but you could always refer other people and earn a percentage of what they’re making. It’s definitely worth at shot at least.
Hey Kiesha,
This is great! This is the first time I’ve heard of it. Thanks for the details on it.
Chat with you later…
Josh
.-= Josh Garcia´s last blog ..Adopt This Specific Leadership Skill and Be Prepared For Success =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Josh,
I’m glad this was helpful to you. I kind of felt like it was old news since this change went into effect last week – but something told me not to assume everybody’s heard. I’m glad I listened to myself :)
Twitter: bbrian017
says:
I still haven’t used any sponsored tweets. I sign up to one program but I’m only using the referral system.
.-= bbrian017´s last blog ..Are you being social the right way? =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Brian,
Honestly, the referral power is endless. Nothing is sweeter than receiving money I didn’t directly earn. :)
I actually discovered this new addition yesterday. I think it’s a really great feature they’ve added and it’s going to be really helpful to advertisers, twitterers, and Sponsored Tweets themselves :).
Hope you’re doing good, Kiesha :).
.-= Shirley Osei-Mensah´s last blog ..10 Keys To Success – My TEDxTalk At TEDxYouthInspire 2010 =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Shirley,
I’m good – no complaints. I think it’s a great feature and it does seem to benefit all parties involved.
Hi Kiesha,
Another great tip in increasing revenues :) Though, I’ve seen so many articles giving stats that shows traffic from twitter are of low value, since it has a very low chance to convert (if you are selling something or have affiliate programs I suppose). But in terms of traffic, I think it can really drive them well, but not really sure with the relevancy.
But with sponsored tweets… hmm it’s very interesting :) another innovative method that I have learned from you (aside from hosting a guest post contest). Thank you big time kiesha! I’m officially starting to enjoy my stay here :) keep it up!
Regards,
Jason Acidre
.-= Jason @ How to be Successful´s last blog ..5 Best Self-help Materials on How to be Successful updated Thu Jun 3 2010 7:49 am CDT =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Jason!
Glad you’re enjoying these posts. If you’ve got a decent and active twitter following clicks can add up quickly. You can also earn a percentage of what your referrals earn, too. I think it’s something like 10% – not a lot, but if you think in terms of volume – if you have 100 referrals bringing in 1.00 each, that’s $100.
By the way, I stopped by your Squidoo Lens and gave it a thumbs up and “favorited” it. :)
Hi Kiesha. SponsoredTweets is a good source of revenue for bloggers but today I heard the news that it is banned by Twitter. Twitter has just changed its TOS, you can read the announcement on Twitter blog: http://blog.twitter.com/2010/05/twitter-platform.html
Here is an excerpt:
It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for all advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem. For this reason, aside from Promoted Tweets, we will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API.
So I recommend that we should be very careful at the moment, stop paid tweeting and wait for the next move.
.-= Tek3D´s last blog ..Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Tek3D
Thanks for your thoughts. However, that statement was from last week. They were able to negotiate the terms with Twitter and are not banned.
http://sponsoredtweets.com/twitter-thumbs-up-sponsored-tweets/
Hi there, nice that you are so popular that have a different income sources. For my blog i use sponsored links or sponsored tweets just for keeping my blog on-line.
.-= Felix A. Murphy´s last blog ..Whether you are buying or selling make sure you check out these websites =-.
Twitter: weblogbetter
says:
Hi Felix,
Glad to hear it’s working for you and helping you support your blog.