Make Money Online with Sponsored Tweets

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Making money online isn’t easy and I am always looking for new ways to make some extra cash which is why I was excited to learn that IZEA CEO Ted Murphy unveiled his newest money making venture, Sponsored Tweets.

Sponsored Tweets is a new Twitter advertising service that allows advertisers the opportunity to leverage Twitter users to hock their wares. The idea is simple. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking tools available and big name stars like Ashton Kutcher, Lance Armstrong and others are using it to reach massive audiences keeping them up to date with what they are doing.

Bloggers and everyday tweeters can make money by signing up with Sponsored Tweets and allowing advertisers to use their twitter stream to advertise products and services. You have the option of writing the ad copy yourself or letting the advertiser do it. You can also set your own price.

If you are looking for a new way to generate some ad revenue without clogging up your blog space and you have a decent amount of twitter followers, this may be just the thing you are looking for.

Already, a lot of top name bloggers and celebrities have signed up to use Sponsored Tweets. Names like Neil Patel, John Chow, Holly Madison, Sister Hazel should ring a bell.

You begin by putting in some basic information about your twitter account, setting some keywords, a price and how you want to be notified of new ads pending.

Then you just sit back and wait for the cash to roll in, right? Not exactly.

Your success with this tool is going to depend on several factors. Your twitter followers (the more the better), the content of your tweets (keep in mind this is about networking) and the frequency of your tweets are all going to contribute to your success. In essence, the more followers you have, the more conversations you carry on, the more people you reach, the more you can charge advertisers for leveraging your account.

Is Sponsored Tweets going to change the landscape of twitter advertising and making money using twitter? Maybe. Am I going to be testing it out, definitely. I’ll keep you posted and let you know what kind of success (or failure) I find with this tool.

Popularity: 2% [?]

To Follow or Unfollow, That is the Twitter Question

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Twitter has exploded in popularity over the last year. I know I was a little late to the game and considering I’ve sent out 2,145 updates since joining, it pales in comparison to some of the heavy twitterites (i just made up that word) out there.

I created my twitter account to communicate ideas that don’t warrant their own full post. I work full time for a bank and don’t always have time to write a full blown post about some of my ideas, especially stock trades which happen frequently.

To that end, I have a couple hundred followers as you can see by my widget in the sidebar. However, I don’t follow every single one of my followers. There are several reasons for this.

  1. I believe there is a limit to the amount of information you can digest from a single source in any given day.
  2. Not everyone has something interesting to say, or their tweets are so infrequent it wouldn’t matter if you followed them or not.
  3. I don’t believe in automatic reciprocal following. See my first point as to why.

Taking these points into consideration, I still find it difficult to follow the 100 or so tweeps that I follow now. My basic criteria for following someone is this:

  • Do they have something interesting to say that meshes with my own interests
  • Are they business/career oriented in my same profession
  • Are they friend/family/Coworker
  • Do they regularly tweet links I find interesting/useful

With these basic guidelines, you can see why I can’t/won’t follow everyone that follows me. Don’t take it personally, I always try to check out who the new followers are and if you meet my criteria above you’ll get a new follow from me, otherwise just realize that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with a half dozen conversations let alone hundreds or thousands.

Also realize that my tweets primarily revolve around stocks, investments and bussinesses that I am involved with. I truly think it is a great way to get word out about something new to as many people as possible that you might otherwise not reach. This is because of the power of hashtags and the twitter search engine. In fact, Twitter has gone a step above and beyond and put on your home page, topics that are most being talked about so you can get in on the conversation from right there.

So next time you are feeling bad about unfollowing someone, just remember they are probably using their own criteria for following just as you do.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-02-14

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  • Already have my Wondercon ticket for the 27th. Are you going? we can meet up. #
  • homemade beef stir fry FTW! #
  • Don’t microwave your phone, it’s EEEEVIL! http://tinyurl.com/5rzhxl #
  • Beer o’clock! #beer #
  • Just because he’s left office doesn’t make him unaccountable. http://tinyurl.com/cujcy2 #
  • brutally honest beer labels http://tinyurl.com/bw4yhb #beer #
  • Jelly Babies #bestcandy #
  • Tracked my food for the last 10 consecutive days. accountability rocks! http://www.livestrong.com/profile/flagusco/ #
  • nice mellow Friday so far. Put all the fires out for the week already. Starting playing Sim City 4 last night for a blast from the past #
  • i hate when work gets in the way of my twittering :) #
  • I’ll be working the Lifestyle Festival on Monday http://tinyurl.com/dj9fj9 #
  • Just two days until the Amgen Tour of California, and the finish for stage 2 is in my town! Color me excited! #
  • Do you enter Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweeps and if so, do you actually order anything? #
  • Today’s 28 days of comics brought to you by the letter “J’ http://tinyurl.com/as5o3e #
  • Market still feels very schizophrenic at best, can’t decide what it wants to do with tech. #
  • $EMC holding $12 support level on the day, breakout at $12.50 #
  • Just ordered some accessories to complete my Cmdr Riker costume for Wondercon this year. #
  • anyone attending or have attended DEMO? Interested in hearing your thoughts. #
  • Happy Erollisi Day fellow Everquest 2 players…if you are out there. #
  • watching latest episode of Totally Rad Show. Epic. #
  • Want to try Everquest II for 14 days free? DM me for an invite. #
  • day off today for Ultrasound Appt. had a nice walk this morning along the cliffs and saw two humpback whales. I Love Santa Cruz #
  • Are you subscribed to my RSS feed? Keep up with all the latest on my blog http://theproficientinvestor.com/feed/ #
  • Today’s 28 days of Comics brought to you by the letter “H” http://tinyurl.com/as5o3e #
  • Poll: “Do you buy stocks hitting higher highs and/or short stocks breaking lower lows?” http://poll.fm/t2h2/ #
  • Santa Cruz getting a Whole Foods. http://tinyurl.com/aj9nnw #
  • Looking for someone to hook me up with this so I can test and review it on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/dk2q4j #
  • have you been blessed by the @Twope yet? #
  • $EMC well above the $12 resistance from last week. I smell a breakout. #
  • $AAPL has broken the $100 support level. The trend is your friend. #
  • Our SharePoint Env was upgraded over the weekend, now everyone is crying “the sky is falling!” – Just love doing tech support. #
  • Today is yesterday’s tomorrow. #
  • Logging in to play some EQ2 on the bazaar server. Anyone else play? #
  • Just read Push 1-4. Anyone seen the movie yet? I’m curious as to the story and how they pull it off. #comics #
  • ouch, that hot dog set me back 560 calories for the day. #
  • going to costco for some free snacks and a hot dog. mmmm #
  • February’s 28 days of comics continues. http://tinyurl.com/as5o3e #comics #
  • Woodstock’s pizza is good. Got the chicken/garlic/tomato with wheat crust. #
  • Just ordered some Woodstock’s Pizza for dinner. Yum! #
  • Leave Michael Phelps alone! I wish people would just drop this already, I’m tired of reading about it. It’s just pot people, let it go. #
  • good morning twitterverse #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-02-07

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  • I almost want to see “Push” but then I saw Dakota Fanning is in it and I can’t stand her. #
  • how is it that “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” is still in the top at the box office? It’s number 2! #
  • wow, i ate really well today so far, even working in a couple high gravity beers for tonight and I still have 450 calories left to consume #
  • here’s the original Bacon Explosion recipe page http://tinyurl.com/bcbde7 #baconexplosion #
  • Bacon Explosion! http://tinyurl.com/cpkot6 my heart hurts just watching that. Clear! #
  • Doesn’t anyone care about growth anymore? #
  • Even the fool got it partly wrong. http://tinyurl.com/da5pxv The trip had been on the books long before TARP funds were taken by $WFC #
  • $WFC closes at 19.14 a share, up +17.64% Good day for my 401k :) #
  • RT @fforward styrofoam cup art | http://tinyurl.com/cx28p5 #
  • ***Today’s Tweetbomb**** Everyone type “@Flap Friday #Tweetbomb” and hit update @Flap BOMBS AWAY!!! #
  • 3 free full games from Amazon until February 10th. Also 600 you can download directly http://tinyurl.com/btwr89 #
  • $AAPL flirting with 100.00 resistance. #
  • $SFLY still looking good. nice call @timothysykes #
  • not all banks = fail. $WFC is up 15% today. #
  • on meeting with Wachovia engineers. Mergers are fun! #
  • Great post on fire building by @tferriss http://tinyurl.com/dndmgd #
  • tracking all my food/exercise now on Livestrong.com http://www.livestrong.com/profile/flagusco/ #
  • $AAPL up 2.62% today. yum. #
  • Just entered to win the BlueFur laptop contest. You can win by following @bluefur and retweet. http://tinyurl.ca/?K8PENBH9 #
  • me: I want life insurance. minnesota life: sorry you are too fat and you drink beer. #
  • How do you like my new Surf design? http://www.cafepress.com/SurfTees.339565197 on sale now at Cafepress. #
  • RT @tweetbomb @thdpr Whassssssup #tweetbomb” and hit Update. BOMBS AWAY!!!! (RT it) #
  • Code scrambling brains…energy low…must find food. #
  • raining on and off today in SF and Santa Cruz. What drought? #
  • New blog design is up. Still have some tweaking to do but check it out and let me know what you think #
  • been up to my eyeballs in code all day…headache arrives. Curse you computer career! #
  • RT @mrskutcher the many uses of cheetos http://tinyurl.com/57k8nc . The “cheesiest” Elvis painting ever! #
  • following @tweetbomb this should be interesting. #
  • Working on adding some new contributors to the blog. Pardon the mess while I remodel #
  • It’s too early and too cold this morning. So begins my commute #
  • I tire of my blog theme so quickly. working on a new one. #
  • episode 19 of The East Wing Podcast is up. http://eastwingpodcast.com/episode-19 It’s the best of 2008. #
  • woohoo my friend just dropped off half a case of FRS! Love having friends in low places :) #
  • RT @followbike Bergmönch, the Bicycle that Folds into a Rucksack : Nice! http://tinyurl.com/ct3urv This is badass! #
  • bah tax return rejected…wrong AGI from 2007. Filed again. #
  • Zumanity water bowl game http://www.zumanitywaterbowl.com/game.cfm #
  • I’ve just entered to win a Flip Mino HD. You can win by following @JohnChow and @MarketLeverage and retweet. http://xr.com/flipcontest #
  • RT @scsentinel Google Earth’s latest version explores the oceans, with help from UC Santa Cruz scientists: http://tinyurl.com/asu9rs #
  • is it too early to wish for Christmas presents? I want this: http://tinyurl.com/dbnymu #
  • removing pops/clicks from audio, took 45 minutes. #
  • Watch all the Super Bowl 2009 commercials here: http://www.myspace.com/thebiggame #
  • editing Episode 19 of http://eastwinpodcast.com should be up tomorrow. Subscribe to it through iTunes. #
  • follow @fforward, they have the technology. always something interesting from them. #
  • Finding local twitterers with http://nearbytweets.com/ by @briancray is awesome! #
  • taxes are done. now i want my refund California! #
  • doing my taxes wheeee #
  • Do you have your tour de france t-shirt yet? http://shop.cafepress.com/design/20698145 #
  • oh yeah number one fav commercial tonight was Jason Statham in the Audio spot! LOVE IT! Right @alexalbrecht? #
  • fav new ads: Hulu, Doritos, Macgruber. brilliant. #
  • too much good food and drink tonight. bummed about the cards losing. #
  • Go Cards! #
  • watching “Against the Dark” straight to dvd steven seagal movie. I wonder if my life insurance policy covers zombie infection? #
  • went bowling today for brother-in-law’s birthday. Rolled a 140 and a 171. not bad for having not bowled in 4 years! #
  • watching Fringe. Man i love this show. It’s what X-Files would be now if it were still on and moved on from the whole UFO/Alien plot lines. #
  • This is BS. If my money is being held for 30 days I want interest. http://tinyurl.com/axh5au #
  • Good morning twitterverse. Off to the farmer’s market and a nice morning walk. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-01-31

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  • What would Lost’s Sawyer call you? http://tinyurl.com/3bhlf8 I’m “Snuffy”. #
  • getting my wife hooked on “Legend of the Seeker”. I’m a sucker for those kinds of shows. #
  • issue one of Marvel Zombies 3. Love it. #comics #
  • For those wondering, the blog that got hacked was http://teamsuperfriends.com which is an aggregation of movie,comic and video game news #
  • Anyone read the new Marvel Zombies comics? I just picked them up Wednesday. #comics #
  • If you use Wordpress, you’ll want to download the WP-Security plugin to plug vulnerabilities like the 0-day SQL injection that hit my blog. #
  • draw with your voice! how cool is that? http://tinyurl.com/b3jats #
  • Finished Rome Season 2 last night. What an amazing show. #
  • one of my new fav beers. http://tinyurl.com/3e5pwn #
  • one of my blogs got hacked yesterday. spent the morning repairing the damage. #
  • time for me to catch the baby bullet train back to San Jose. Time for a drink on the train! #
  • $WFC up $4 today after reporting 79 cent/share loss but 75 cent/share profit for 2008. Loving my 401k contributions right now. #
  • Just hit 200 followers. I’m so special :) or not. #
  • Fresh off a 2 year suspension @floydlands is also racing in the Tour of California. Looking forward to seeing you in Santa Cruz. #
  • why does a woman’s haircut cost $50 just to trim it a half inch off the bottom? #
  • watching Rome Season 2…its such a shame they canceled this series. #
  • after playing GTA IV for hours, I have “Back in the New York Groove” stuck in my head. Thanks Rockstar Games! #
  • unbelievable, GTAIV just crashed during the end credits! Rockstar Games Fail! #
  • just curious, of those of you that play games, how many watch the end credits? How many of you watch movie credits? #
  • just finished GTAIV. Definitely best game of 2008. #
  • Just began following Demi Moore @mrskutcher welcome to twitter Demi! #
  • Geithner confirmed as Treasury Secretary #
  • still one of my favorite videos/bands of the 80s http://tinyurl.com/5zk6lz #
  • ooh only 4 more followers to hit 200! woot. #
  • note to self: keep all computer equipment purchase receipts. Scratch one video card return. #
  • RT @kevinrose My Top 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers: http://bit.ly/qhBN #
  • Order a case of XS Gold Plus energy drink. http://tinyurl.com/5we2ez #
  • tumbler full of ice + 1.5 parts Kahlua + milk = adult chocolate milk! yum! and watching new episode of 30 Rock on hulu. love Saturday. #
  • heading out for a walk and then Swift Street Courtyard Bike Fest in support of the Amgen/AEG Tour of California. #

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No Plugin Needed – Tweet This Post

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As you may know, one of the social networking tools I use quite often is Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging platform that lets you share ideas, links, blog posts and converse with other twitter users in real time.

Twitter stores posts chronologically from all the people you follow so you can keep up with what they are doing throughout the day or night.

If I am online, you can bet I have twitter open in a separate window and refresh my stream often. It’s one of the ways I get news and information from like minded people and it’s an exellent way to socialize and meet new people. A couple weeks ago I listed my twitter feed on a forum post at Entrecard and since then my followers have increased 50% to nearly 200 followers.

Today I discovered another way to get more exposure through twitter and again through social networking. If you run your blog using Wordpress you can add a simple line of code that will alert your readers they can tweet your post. Adding this functionality can increase your overall traffic which in turn has the potential to drive more earnings your way.

How is this accomplished? I have to give credit to JohnChow for the original code (to which he gives credit elsewhere) and it should be noted that I had to modify John’s original code to make it work for my blog. Thanks for the tip John! One of the reasons is that my installation of wordpress prefers dynamic linkage wherever possible and doesn’t always render HTML links properly. The following code works for this blog:

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://twitter.com/home/?status=Reading @Flagusco – <?php the_title(); ?> <?php bloginfo(‘url’); ?>?p=<?php the_ID(); ?>”><img src=”/blog/images/tweet-this-small.png” border=”0″ alt=”Tweet This!” align=”absmiddle” />Tweet This Post!</a>

Notice the php code I have used compared to what John posted. The reason why is because I can copy and paste this code to any blog using Wordpress and the only things I have to change are the URL to the images folder for the little bird and the @name for the proper twitter account I want to reference (of course I only have the one).

Now when you read an article you find interesting you can let your Twitter followers know about it. You can say a little bird told you. There are plugins that do this but then you have to constantly update the plugin when something changes. This code is optimized for any wordpress blog.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-01-24

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  • game system decided to give me the KSOD treatment this evening. Installing new vid card and trying to fix the OS now. #
  • Thank you Lost. You just won me back as a fan. Great start to the season. #
  • 8am on a Friday…first meeting of the day. Ugh. #
  • LOL curious case of the undone button http://tinyurl.com/b8shuq #
  • just watched Bolt w/fam. pretty good movie, loved the animation and good voice casting. #
  • just watched Diggnation 185 and 186 today. @jimmyfallon, @alexalbrecht, @kevinrose you guys are hilarious together, fav episode ever! #
  • heading home early, my boy has a fever today :( #
  • shopping for 2 br rentals in Santa Cruz area. Anyone have a 2br house for rent? #
  • RT @feliciaday helping @jimmyfallon create a WoW character. funny stuff. http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/ #
  • had a blast at the warriors game last night, despite the fact they lost 121 to 120. #
  • going to see the Warriors in Oakland tonight with my friend, should be good times. Can’t beat $8 seats! #
  • sweet iPhone/iPod touch stand for travelers http://tinyurl.com/a8yodw #
  • RT from @tferris learn any new language in 3 Months http://tinyurl.com/9strn4 Love it. #
  • Did I mention yet that we are having a new baby this year? Our second. Very excited about that. Due date is August 23. #
  • Jebus WTF is going on with $WFC? Feels like mass exodus and fear/panic for no reason. #
  • I’m so happy President Obama isn’t trying to be my buddy. I don’t want a buddy for president, I want a leader who can inspire a nation. #
  • I like hearing the workds “former president Bush” finally! #
  • We are about to become an Obama Nation! Amazing! #
  • Just read the Barack Obama edition of Spider-Man which was actually just a small story at the end of “Platonic” gave me a chuckle. #
  • whoa, just felt a little tremor here in Santa Cruz. Confirmed here: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc51215555.html #
  • sacrificing myself for the greater good. Seeing Paul Blart: Mall Cop tonight with a friend and his kid. The things I do for my podcast! #
  • I could go for some Coldcock malt liquor right about now. http://tinyurl.com/8puzjk #
  • $2000 Blog Anniversary Giveaway! Follow @iphoneincanada & Retweet to win a Sony Portable DVD Player & $100 for charity! http://bit.ly/3uzi #
  • Just watched Defiance. Despite the criticism it’s getting I think it’s a well told story and deftly acted and well cast. #
  • Just finished Role Models. Made me want to go LARPing really bad! #

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