Can you really make money with Twitter?

I wanted to take a dive into how Twitter can help you build an online profile that drives revenue. In an interesting blog article I read this morning, It noted different ways that the Twitter service itself can make money off it’s free service offering. Can any of the models mentioned turn Twitter into a service that can drive revenue for the end user?

The article mentioned above touched on several points but two stick out at me; Direct advertising and Exclusive Material. Now the direct advertising idea is basically that a company can pay Twitter to send a global tweet a few times a day, reaching all users. Great concept but I’m sure that will come with a hefty price tag. The real question is how can you use that same idea to promote your site? While it may not be reasonable to say that you would be able to afford a global tweet if it were to ever come available, but you do have the power to gain as many followers as you desire. The best part is, you choose who and what follows you – sounds like a target market to me. Using that same principle, by building a network of users in an industry or trade that you are promoting, advertising becomes much more useful and realistic with Twitter – all free of charge.

Now having exclusive material is the other bullet point that stuck out at me. The idea here was that if a certain artist or celebrity were to post exclusive material, that people may pay to view the tweets. Now chances are nobody is going to pay to read your exclusive tweets on gardening, or whatever niche it is you are trying to fit into, but you can stay up to date on industry news and buzz. If you can be one of the first people to post industry news, you will gain followers quickly. Watch trending topics, not only on Twitter but on sites like digg and StumbleUpon. Easier said than done, but you will find that your tweets on trending topics generate more traffic for your profiles.

Without the gimmicky direct selling campaigns that are so common on Twitter, it does not seem realistic to be able to generate revenue solely as an end user on Twitter. What you can do is make use of some of the best free advertising at your fingertips, with the ability to target ten’s of thousands of end users that you have crafted over time. What you want to stay away from is becoming the spam only poster, make sure your messages have substance, not just a quick sales link.

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