Twitter Affiliate Marketing

Amazingly because Twitter is so relentlessly hyped throughout all media formats, there is still not an accepted and established method for using Twitter to make money through affiliate marketing. People are trying all sorts of stuff, but nothing for sure works as of yet.

This relative underexposure is actually a good thing because if you Twitter affiliate market with some degree of style and grace, you may be able to get ahead of the curve and rake in big dough in the process.

Here are three of our better thoughts on using Twitter for affiliate marketing purposes:

Relevant and Useful

If you've spent any time in the Twittersphere--did we really just use that word? Please kill us now--then you know that there are two main concepts that make Twitter a hugely valuable technology, rather than simply an over-hyped B.S. factory.

These two worthwhile words are:

1) Relevant
2) Useful

As an affiliate looking to use Twitter to grow your business, you need to keep those two concepts to the forefront of your mind at ALL TIMES. When you are relevant and you are useful, you are using Twitter in an optimal fashion. When not, then not.

Relevant and useful--be that and you can't go wrong.

Beware Systems

Affiliate marketing weenies (no offense) are breaking out all the stops to convince you to buy their new GUARANTEED Twitter affiliate marketing POWER PROGRAM, or whatever it's called.

Be very careful with using systems on Twitter. Many of these programs are simply automated Tweet-generating software that will turn people off to your Twitter account and may even get you booted off Twitter entirely. Nobody needs more Twitter spam!!

Especially if you've any bit of time and energy building a Twitter "personal brand," do not trust someone else's "powerful new system" to put your Twitter affiliate marketing on auto-pilot.

Someday, there may be a Twitter affiliate marketing system that is all that it's advertised to be and more, but today is not, to the best of our knowledge, that day. As of now though, computer software programs are not nearly as Twitter-capable as actual human beings who have something relevant and useful to share.

Computer software programs are very good, however, at spamming.

Tweet Your Reviews

One of the few proven-successful ways to use Twitter to increase your affiliate marketing income is to Tweet links to original content that resides on your website.

As most affiliate marketers know, product reviews remain the most affiliate marketing-friendly pieces of content, so this is a great place to start your Twitter affiliate marketing campaigns.

For example, if you write a review of a new affiliate marketing ebook, you would send the link to that review out on Twitter, and then you would include your actual affiliate links in your review. This is an indirect sales method but one that works well in the microblogging medium.

At the very least, using this indirect approach will not cause people to unfollow you and regard you as a shameless spammer. You are just someone who is seeking to provide value, and maybe grab a few dollars for yourself along the way, and what is so wrong about that?

Nothing at all. That's completely acceptable and advisable, on Twitter or off.