So what do you get out of twitter?

You ended with the word 'newsletter'. That's exactly what some marketers do via their squeezepages, by diverting traffic from twitter.

Twitter - not a great sales targeted traffic, but great for building your list via a squeezepage, where sales can always be pitched later, again and again.

You're getting the wrong idea. Twitter is not designed for selling stuff. Twitter is about building relationships and like John says, great for building a list. I get many benefits out of it such as building some cool relationships w/people and getting traffic to my blogs which turn into subscribers.

Twitter is more of a brand building tool as what most social networking is for. It's also a great way for people to know what you do and learn more about you. On Twitter, people want personality and good, informative information. If you sell sell sell, you won't go far.

This video by Perry Belcher will make a lot more sense to you as the point of it all -

I'll agree with Mike, Twitter is about building a relationship not for selling. I recently ponied up the cash for StomperNet and last night they had a great Webinar on this very subject. I posted a list of 50 tips for social media with most of these targeted to twitter on my blog that I got from the Webinar.

Heck I love Twitter just for chatting to folks while i work from home. Mornings tend to be the best between 9am and 10 eastern as people are in chatty mode vs just pasting links

Ive made some great friends all over the world through it

I guess Twitter is a great tool for connecting with people.... my take is, its best to set up separate accounts for marketing and personal so that we don't get spammed for something and get all lost in the sea of commercial messages.

Twitter is good for building relationships with others (internet marketers) and share experiences.It´s also good for getting new ideas for marketing and content for your blog.

I have several accounts on twitter and I post updates but as far as building relationships, forget it. Facebook is where you build relationships with those who care about what you have to say. It will continue to be a phenomenon but not for the members. The only ones who get the attention are those who do not need to build a relationship. I follow less people than those who follow me but I cannot possibly keep up with what every one is doing. Besides, 9 out of 10 people are trying to sell you something anyway and if you do not believe that or are too unwilling to accept it then go to twitter and count the number of tweets that are not promoting something. It's a joke to think it's twitter that is building a relationship with your followers. It is wasting your time. sorry but after a year of watching this, it's time to do something that actually works. Like most of the stuff on the internet, those who promote it are most of the time selling you something or trying desperately to get you to think they are your solution to whatever it is you are looking for. Writing articles and submitting them will get you about 10 times more friends and visitors to your website than twitter unless you are selling porn....period. If you are willing to put up tweets that can cause a stir like this post...Sorry folks...If what I wrote starts your blood to boil then you now understand what I'm getting at. IF what and how you post can stir a ruckus it will get you noticed. Forget building a relationship. Stir some blood and people will follow you...LOL

If you use wordpress to publish twitter can be a great way to promote your articles or blog posts. I use an addon called easyretweet that allows people to "retweet" your post with two clicks. I can often get hundreds of people to retweet my article within 24 hours.

If you check out Shawn C. Mason my Video blog #2 was posted yesterday and has gotten 89 retweets in less than 24 hours.

I've made a few sales directly from twitter traffic but it's far more effective for list building and relationship building.

Considering with RSS you can automatically update twitter with your blog posts how much work is it really? I built a following of nearly 4 thousand in just two months, without really doing all that much. I put out some content, and followed people talking about certian things..

There is good information in this thread. Thanks for sharing.