Twitter | Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

First Results from Sponsored Tweets CPC Ad Campaign

Earlier this month SponsoredTweets announced they are now accepting advertisers for their new CPC model. Their only previous method for advertising, was simply to pay whatever that tweeter was looking to receive. For most advertisers this usually resulted in extremely high click costs, even with ClickWatch in place to prevent high ad costs.

With the new CPC model in place, it opens a whole new world for advertising on Twitter. You no longer have to worry about ending up with high click cost numbers, and this allows more functionality and control over your ad campaigns.

Last week I set up my own ad campaign to promote Six Figure Affiliate Blogging and targeted only “blogging” and “affiliate” related tweeters. The results are below.

So far 128 different users have sent out a tweet, and only 120 legitimate clicks have been sent in. Sponsored Tweets has done a really great job at managing fraud, as they have captured 640 clicks that they describe are from “Clicks that are from bots or were considered fraudulent, duplicates, generated from click farms or otherwise considered invalid.“. If these weren’t weeded out, it would have ended up costing me an extra $64.00.

My settings are to pay out .10 per click to twitter users that send out my message, but SponsoredTweets takes a 60% cut, which brings it down to .04 per click in the marketplace. I think the 60% rate is way too high, and makes most of the advertisers look really cheap, but they are actually willing to pay double what it looks like. You can see the rest of available CPC tweets to send out below.

If the volume was there and ST didn’t take such a big chunk of the deposit, I think there would be a lot more action. This would also make for a great opportunity to push affiliate offers, as you have a set price you are paying per click.

So how is my campaign actually perfoming? So far only $12 of the $300 I deposit was spent. Of the 120 valid clicks that came through, the landing page converted at 13% vs. the 60% average it’s seeing from most others promoting it. Roughly 15 leads for $12… not looking too good, but we are only 5% into the total spending of my ad campaign. I might end up raising the CPC to see if more tweeters decide to pick it up in the marketplace.

UPDATE: Today Twitter came out with news that they will no longer allow third party advertising through the use of their API. This will dramatically affect companies like SponsoredTweets and Ad.ly. Ted Murphy (founder of Izea / SponsoredTweets) had the following to say. The biggest take away is the following quote from Ted;

“We are going to make some changes to the way Sponsored Tweets works. We will no longer be publishing directly to your account through the Twitter API. Instead you will have to write the tweet yourself in whatever Twitter client you see fit.

Yes, it will be a more manual process. Yes, we liked the old way better too. But we want to comply with Twitters guidelines and be a good ecosystem partner. We have always made adjustments to our system to remain in compliance. Twitter has allotted 30 days to make this change, we will try to get it out as soon as we can. Until then it is business as usual.”

- Try SponsoredTweets

24 May, 2010 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Twitter

Buy Twitter Followers

Since internet marketing first started, email addresses have been scraped, sold, bulked up and spammed to death… so why should Twitter be anything different? Yesterday Jonathan Volk wrote a post on a service called Followers for Sale. The concept is simple… pay these advertising networks to bring new followers to your Twitter account. In addition to Jon’s post, I also had a request this week to review a paid Twitter service on another blog I run. With two Twitter services gaining my attention in one day, I thought it would make for an interesting case study to see how well these companies work, what they charge and if these followers will actually stick around… or most importantly, are of any value!

First I had to go out and find what services are available. The best way of doing this is just going to Google and searching “buy twitter followers“. You will get a big mess of results.

The best way to setup this case study and to measure results, is to create a few new Twitter accounts and use them separately on each of the Twitter follower services. This is also necessary because Twitter limits the amount of people you can follow daily. Using the same account along with each of these services would be a huge red flag and would ultimately ban your account.

For this Twitter Follower case study, let’s use 10,000 followers as the price point and what I will order for each Twitter account.

Here is a list of paid Twitter services and their rates.
BuyTwitterFriends.com = 10,000 Followers for $49.99 (0.0049 each)
TweetSourcer.com = 10,000 Followers for $60.00 (0.006 each)
UnlimitedTwitterFollowers.com = 10,000 Followers for $74.95 (0.0074 each)
Twitter1k.com = 5,000 Followers for $104.97 (0.0209 each)
SocialKik.com = 10,000 Followers for $150.00 (0.015 each)
USocial.net = 10,000 Followers for $447.30 (0.044 each)
Tweetcha.com = 10,000 Followers for $474.99 (0.047 each)
PurchaseTwitterFollowers.com = 5,000 Followers for $249.99 (0.049 each)

As you can see, there is a bit of swing between follower services. USocial.net being the most expensive. For this study, I will use the first three providers, test results, the possibly compare to the most expensive solutions and see if it’s actually worth the money.

The majority of these sites specialize in bringing you “untargeted” followers, but for a higher price it’s possible. If you are looking for a self managed and cheaper solution, I’d recommend Tweet Adder. Instead of paying a service to send a select amount of users for a one time cost, you can use your own software to continually bring in new targeted followers every day, and for multiple accounts. It can be a pain to follow users, then remove the ones that aren’t following you back… but you can build up a 10,000+ Twitter account for under $100 with adder software programs.

I’ve setup the new Twitter accounts, made orders with the first three follower services listed above. Now we just play the waiting game and I will report back next week on first results.

20 April, 2010 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Marketing, Twitter

Twitter’s New Ad Platform: And the Future of Sponsored Tweets?

How exciting! It’s time for a new social advertising platform to go live. First we had Facebook, then MySpace and PlentyOfFish all opening up their networks with killer advertising platforms. With amazing demographic targeting we haven’t really seen before, it opened a whole new world for affiliate marketers. With another platform being released, we are all anxious to get in early and reap the profits of being first to place new ad campaigns. However, what should we expect to see from the Twitter ad platform?

For anyone who has used SponsoredTweets or Ad.ly, you may have been given a taste of what you might see. Unfortunately for many, advertising through sponsored messages on Twitter hasn’t been everything is cracked up to be. It’s often hard to pull a profit and the CPM prices are usually too high. It will be interesting to see how Twitter’s advertising platform compares not only to the likes of SponsoredTweet and Ad.ly, but also how much they are changing advertisers.

TechCrunch broke the news and provided even more details on Twitter’s new ad platform and what we can expect:

Here are the details outlined in the articles:

As we previously described, the new system serves up ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries.
Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of the search results page, with small text indicating they were sponsored. The Times piece notes that companies could use this to combat negative tweets (they can place a positive tweet at the top of the page)
A Promoted Tweet isn’t guaranteed to stay afloat for a long time — if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter is calling “resonance”, it will be pulled, and the advertiser won’t pay for it.
One ad will be shown at a time

Initial ad partners include Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo
Advertisers will be paying on a CPM basis initially, with plans to adjust the model once Twitter can better gauge how people are engaging with Promoted Tweets

As with most ad platforms, it’s usually limited to only a few major companies in the beginning while tests and ad results are being studied. Once the platform opens to the masses we will see an onslaught of new advertising like Twitter has never seen before. Will Twitter end up going through the same hassles as Facebook Ads in continually updating their terms and conditions, while allowing less and less affiliate related offers.

Branding can only go so far, so let’s hope for something unique and special from those first big name companies who are advertising on Twitter.

Remember when the idea of getting paid to send out “Sponsored Tweets” to your Twitter followers? It didn’t go over well and many were disgusted and hated the idea. Now with Twitter releasing their own advertising and have stated “In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser.“… everyone will have to accept the fact that Twitter is a real business too and needs advertisers.

A few sites have already been reporting their thoughts on the new platform.

AdAge - “Twitter Has a Business Model: ‘Promoted Tweets’”
NY Times – “Twitter Unveils Plans to Draw Money From Ads”
TechCrunch – “Full Details On Twitter’s Long-Awaited Ad Platform: Promoted Tweets”

What are your thoughts on the new Twitter Ad Platform and how does it affect the future of businesses like SponsoredTweets and Ad.ly?

13 April, 2010 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Twitter

Sponsored Tweets is a Serious Business

Maybe it’s just the new budgets in the beginning of the year… but it looks like some of us are just killing it with earnings on Sponsored Tweets. This month was easily my best month with Sponsored Tweets, and that’s even with turning down a few offers. Why would I turn offers down?… some just aren’t relevant at all. With that being said… the business on Sponsored Tweets has just exploded lately.

SponsoredTweets has one of the best monetization concepts around. As a Twitter user, you just need to click YES or NO to accept a new advertised tweet. How much money is being made in whole by “sponsored tweeting”…I don’t know exactly, but it’s enough to make a full scalable business. Sponsored Tweets isn’t the only game in town… Ad.ly is also a huge player in this space, however in the past several months I’ve had an account with them, I’ve had only ONE tweet request. Ad.ly has the big name advertisers, and the backing of many Twitter celebrities… but something just isn’t ticking like it is at Sponsored Tweets.

Back to the money… it’s not enough to retire or quit your day job… nevermind, it is! Let’s get serious… no one is really going to retire from tweeting, because anyone who is making that much is already in a position where they most likely don’t have to work. But to keep things fun, let’s just look at some of the earnings going around. John Chow just posted an image of his Sponsored Tweets account with his $4,000+ in earnings. I asked how long of a time period that was for, and he said about a month and a half. That’s pretty damn good for clicking an approval button! Let’s bring it up another level. Another big name is Jeremy Schoemaker of course. In a post a few months ago, Jeremy talks about how he sometimes makes over $15,000 a month for sponsored tweeting!

Even if you had the extreme following and brand awareness on Twitter to make $1,000 a month, that’s still an very honorable figure. However, in reality, most people are using Twitter for fun, see what other people are saying and just to be part of the group. These big name players are the exception… but there is definitely enough money to go around!

With this month being my busiest month yet for Sponsored Tweets, I’ve also come across a few new advertisers. Three new advertisers I had request a tweet this month are below, each with their own reasoning for ordering a sponsored tweet and how they got their message across.

1.) ShoeMoney System – Jeremy already had all the branding and following he needed to easily fill the 500 lead cap on his new ShoeMoney System program. However, that didn’t stop him from ordering a ton of targeted sponsored tweets by well known names in our affiliate industry. I’m not sure on his end numbers and ROI, but Sponsored Tweets was able to get his message around to a targeted audience in a short period of time.

2.) $DGDM Awareness – This was the first stock related sponsored tweet I’ve seen. I also decided to promote this one because I found it quite interesting. I do a fair amount of stock trading, but didn’t jump on this one. The tweet url went to a site by 8020m which gave an overview on DGDM stock and why you should own their stock, and highlighting company achievements. During the past week, this penny stock went from .10 to .75! If anyone else decided to buy this stock based on their paid tweets, it would be hard to tell.

3.) MyHosting / Affiliate Summit West – Bringing awareness to an event that you’re attending is an excellent idea. MyHosting.com has tweets going out to display they had a table at Affiliate Summit West, then to promote their $100 activation bonus on new hosting accounts. Both relevant ad copies, and unique to anyone attending ASW.

This is just the beginning… it’s only a matter of who can find the best ways to monetize their Twitter traffic, and who can monetize your Twitter followers with new ad buys. Which side will you be on… or can you manage both?

30 January, 2010 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Make Money, Twitter

LeapFish and Make-a-Wish “Tweet a Cause”

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LeapFish Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

What has Twitter brought into your life? From a business aspect, it’s opened up worlds and brought us together. However, what is the real value in Twitter for those who aren’t making money online? While I was at BlogWorld in Las Vegas, there was a lot of discussion about raising money through Twitter. This was an excellent concept, just for the fact that you can easily participate and reach millions of people with a single click. Soon, charities may no longer need to waste funds on tv advertising, pamphlets or ad campaigns. If we can get more people to participate and come up with new methods for generating money and helping those in need, the future of raising money just be a “tweet” away.

The “Make a Wish” Foundation has created the Make-a-Wish Tweet-a-Cause and is putting the power of Twitter to work! In a partnership with LeapFish, the Make a Wish foundation is looking to raise $10,000 to send Jacob and his family to Disneyland. Jacob, age 4, has a rare and life-threatening disease that has affected him since birth. Personally, I went to Disneyland once when I was very young, so I don’t remember it that well. What I do remember and know, is that every child, (especially those less fortunate), should have the chance to dream and visit such a place as Disneyland in their lifetime.

So let’s send Jacob to Disneyland!

As mentioned, Make a Wish foundation and LeapFish are combining forces to make this “wish” possible. Every time a user “retweets” the text line below, LeapFish will make a donation of 5 cents to the Make a Wish Foundation until the $10,000 and been raised.

Click HERE or copy / paste the following into your Twitter client:

Just tweeted 2 grant a childs wish! #LeapFish donates to #makeawish foundation for each tweet. http://bit.ly/3KgyQX Please retweet!

The campaign will run from November 16 through November 27, 2009. LeapFish will match each Tweet with 5 cents to a target of $10,000 which will get Jacob and his family to Disneyland. Click here to view progress chart and donation earnings.