Twitter and List Building for affiliates

I thought that I could sell things through Twitter too. I learnt a lot about Twitter in the process, mainly that it isn't really a selling environment. You make friends with people so that they get to know and trust you. You give advice to them about things and perhaps then they "might" buy from you. Its a bit like what you should do in forums really.

Its easy to build your list in Twitter but harder to sell. I have a list of 10,000 followers and have not sold anything on Twitter.

Ummm... you should really resort to real advertising. Twitter is like you said, not a selling environment. You don't ever want to surprise people with sales pages and such. What you could probably do to make Twitter work is pitch CPA offers, since some of them are zero-cost to the user. Doubt it would be alot of money though.

As with all lists, the value is in the relationship you have with the individuals. Twitter has lower levels of engagement than email because of the platform model, however that does not mean you cannot build that connection with the list. You just need to think carefully about your Twittering strategy. Timing is an important consideration, along with the messages you share. Be too overt and you will lose their attention, too covert and you'll never catch them to start. No one said marketing was an easy business :rolleyes:

Thanks for the answers, yall. But of course I won't be using Twitter to spam offers and whatnot to visitors, just building a relationship with them. I know I'll be going under a pseudonym there.

Same thing with list building, though how would you continue the relationship with your list beyond your five/seven/ten day e-course (for affiliate products, not a personal product)?

I'm guessing just use Twitter solely to build my list, then let my list make the money. If I had a personal product I could use Twitter to sell it but I don't haha.

Here is a link to a twitter ebook that shows you how to build a list with twitter & make money:

Samantha Milner Presents Twitter Sneakiness make money online with twitter

kind regards


sam
X

Twitter should be used to simply direct your visitors to your new blog posts or website updates. I dont believe it is a good selling medium. However, it CAN be an effective part of your funnel. Get Twitter followers, Direct followers to blog, Get blog readers to subscribe to email list, Sell products to email list. Go to the bank.

Twitter is GREAT for marketing. Both spamming links and softer relationship marketing work there, but they do require different approaches.

Here's a post about getting started with soft marketing: A Plan for "Soft" Marketing on Twitter

There are also some less subtle methods on the forum.

Have you considered purchasing the product that you want to promote ? Or even tried to get a review copy so that you can be sure that the product you are promoting is of value and worth purchasing.

On twitter you are supposed to provide value . For example if you are promoting a service by a job recruitment company and you know they are good at it. Then you might promote it on twitter by keyword search. People look for job both online and offline, you do a keyword search on twitter search, reply to ppl who are looking for job, you recommend them the services/company.

This would serve two purpose :
1. You are not spamming, while you are helping ppl to find a better job
2.You get affiliate commission for ppl who signed up for there services,etc.

There are some other successful ways you can leverage twitter. I can go on but for now it's you to decide how you want it ?

Cheers,
Amit

I agree with keyblast5. Tweets are a bit like ads - you have a very limited space to create enough curiosity to drive traffic to your content somewhere where there's more space for you to give value.
It's always about giving value. The good news is that much like targeted mailing lists, you can create several accounts and create added value on those on a very specific subject thereby generating a very targeted list. Then you know exactly what to talk to them about.
I've never had a personal twitter account. It's sucks so much time out of you that I didn't even want to start. Nope, for me it's tweeting on a very specific topic, creating a targeted following and giving them intriguing tweets so they go to another website/blog to get more of the info.
I also use quotes which people seem to love and get a kick out of.

It's all about them knowing you, liking you and trusting you. And that's no different than with any other medium out there. so you've got to think about your tweets strategically as in any other part of your business. Give it some thought and add value. You'll then create relationships with a following that will buy from you.

I've had the luxury of having my ace cousin code an application for me so I can do this automatically. I automated all of it - the targeted tweets, the promo tweets, the quotes, following, defollowing. I think of a niche, press the button and it all starts. It's pretty amazing actually. Anyway, my point is that I have the luxury of trying out a lot of different accounts without all the work. Bottom line - it works. Just stick with adding value and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the Twitter answers, I'll be using it just to build my list. But one other question about the actual list - for affiliates, how would you continue the relationship beyond the five/seven/ten day course?