Everyone's a Twitterer, even Oprah!

It's official. After yesterday's episode of Oprah hit the airwaves, millions of Americans more have now learned about the phenomenon that is Twitter (You can follow Oprah on Twitter here). On yesterday's show, Oprah had the creators of Twitter on including Evan Williams, as well as Mr. Twitter popularity himself, Ashton Kucher, aka @aplusk. As you may know Kucher was in a heated battle with CNN's Twitter to see which of them could amass 1 million followers first. The movie star won it, and was saying how great it is that he can defeat a media giant like CNN, because it shows just how powerful social media really is. On an interesting note, Kucher promotes the celebrity gossip humor site blahgirls.com with his Twitter profile. And by the way, CNN has also achieved 1 million followers. It's starting to look like the next battle may be Britney Spears versus Ellen Degeneres for 1 million. It's also amazing how now that the 2008 election has passed, Barack Obama's Twitter is falling down the Top 10 list.. View the top Twitterers here

Also, there's talk about Google possibly buying up Twitter. You can already feel the moneymaking wheels start to spin.

In Google's earnings call, CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying:

"Without commenting specifically about Twitter ... you could imagine that ... it could be a channel for product information, marketing information, real-time information for which you can hang advertising products, whether it's a text ad or a video ad or so forth off of it ... It strikes me that's a logical strategy for them to pursue and something that we would be very happy to pursue with them and all other players in that space.” (via SIA)

As we all know Google is slowly taking over the web world, and if you're using Adsense you're probably aware there's Adsense for websites/blogs, mobile content, RSS feeds and domain names. So what's next, Adsense for Twitter?

If you're not on the bandwagon, now's as good a time as any to join, and Follow the Monetizer at Twitter. It's rare these days not to go to any company or superstar's website and not see icons or "join up" pictures for Facebook and Twitter. If the big folks are doing, the little folks can benefit just as much. I read an article discussing the concept of getting rid of the whole "follower count" on Twitter, because it makes those with less followers feel as if they're not being heard. That may be true, but there's plenty of ways to increase your followers, namely following others, holding contests and tweeting things that others will be interested in. Others have even mentioned that you should make it a habit to include hashtags "#" in front of key words when you send a Tweet. An example would be:

Learning a new strategy for testing #Adsense ads on my site.

In that Tweet, the word Adsense gets emphasis and picked up amongst searches for Adsense via Twitter. If you do this regularly, supposedly you can gain more and more followers. Also consider using search.twitter.com where you can type in specific searches across Twitter, then follow people who mentioned those keywords in their Tweets. These are just a few tips and tricks to get targeted Twitter followers based on your niche.

The Monetizer will be one of the first to admit I'm no Twitter expert, but have started learning ways it can be implemented into my various projects. You may hate technology but it's usually the businesses, brands and entrepreneurs who embrace it and find creative new ways to market who benefit the most from sites like Twitter.

Extra tip: Check out the Top Twitterers list and see what sorts of websites each are promoting. You may discover some new monetization ideas from their sites, blogs, etc for your niche!

Follow the Monetizer at Twitter!

Joel Comm's Twitter Power - Follow the Leader?

Once again one of the gurus of internet money making, Joel Comm, has released a book about you guessed it, making money on the internet. This time however, Joel has intelligently tapped into the Twitter craze with a book appropriately titled "Twitter Power". While I've yet to read the book cover to cover, from scanning the Amazon.com free preview "Surprise Me" sections and Table of Contents, it looks like a valuable asset. For some of us that is...

One thing I always recommend here at The Monetizer Blog is reading, but doing it as cheaply as possible. It's the best way to learn or research a subject you're interested. Others might tell you "no buy this special report or 100 page e-book, it's better". Many of the special reports and e-books that cost money are made up of information that's already floating around for free. You can find blogs about every subject, and while they aren't always expert opinion, you can gain all sorts of ideas. Libraries are free, unless you're late in returning books. It's good to be able to access just about any info you want these days for little money. Plenty of people have written about Twitter and Darren Rowse of Problogger has even created a site offering tips from himself and other Twitterers, called www.twitip.com.

Chapters of Twitter Power Include:

* An Introduction to the Social Media Landscape
* Getting Started the Right Way on Twitter
* Building a Following on Twitter
* The Art of the Tweet
* Leveraging Twitter for Team Communication
* Using Twitter to Drive Behavior

When it comes to Twitter, Joel covers the things that many bloggers are already talking about, such as making a professional looking background for your Twitter profile, linking to your blog or site on the profile, how to make your About Me memorable or descriptive in few words, and more about how to make Tweets that help you in marketing. Chapter 10 just by looking at the Table of Contents, may be a valuable resource but it lists out each of the various Third Party Twitter Tools you can use. Joel may offer insight into their uses or helpfulness, but you can also gain this through visiting the respective sites. Again, Joel is smart to capitalize off these topics by putting all the "ideas floating around" into book form and you've got to respect his business sense in profiting from the popular internet topic. It's always possible there are some "golden nuggets of info" in his book that make the book worth its current cover price, but I believe this book will be more valuable to those who are new to Twitter or businesses looking to gain an edge there. The rest of us have read these ideas on multiple blogs from John Chow to Problogger. So for the average Twitterer, we may already have the Power Joel is describing, without reading his book.

Follow the Monetizer at Twitter

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time is currently available at Amazon.com

Make Money Online - Up Your Twitter Status!

(Become a Twitter celeb!)

Months ago The Monetizer was a member of Twitter but didn't quite see its value or have much reason to use it. However, the more I read about those who are successfully using Twitter to their advantage, the more it makes sense to "go with the Twitter flow". Let me give you some new ways to look at Twitter and some things to do to increase your Twitter followers, which in turn will help you attract new blog readers, contacts, networking opportunities, site visitors and money spenders!



1) Pimp your profile - Like many say, branding yourself is the way to make the big bucks with a blog. If you've already got an Entrecard logo, great! Use that as your small Twitter icon, or use a really, really good picture of yourself. Try to make it professional or catchy.

Also consider getting yourself a free Twitter theme background, or modifying one/creating your own. If you see someone else's Twitter background you like, do a right click on it and "View image". You can always save theirs and use it as a reference (don't steal!) To upload your new background, simply go to the "Settings" tab on your upper menu for Twitter, then go to "Design", if you scroll down on that page you'll see a button that says "". Click that and you can upload your new background, then click "Save".

Also make sure you have a link to follow you at Twitter somewhere on your site(s) and blog(s).


(Monetizer follows Guy & some of his followers)

2) Follow the followers of top gurus - I picked up this tip at NickMarks.com's blog post, but it has worked well for me so far. Within a day I've been able to move from around 200 followers up towards 500. My goal by month's end is 1,000. Consider following the followers of John Chow, Problogger, Guy Kawasaki and John Reese, just to name a few with a lot of followers who are in similar niches as Moneymakers. Even if you're not in the IM or Moneymaker niche, they can still potentially bring you people so don't discount the followers!

Check out this recent post about 20 Celebs on Twitter. Use them to get followers as they might relate to your niche, or even if they don't!



3) Use these Twitter tools - Twitterfeed, Twittercounter.com, Twitter Karma, TweetDeck, and TweetLater. Twitterfeed allows you to plug in your RSS from your blog so anytime you post a new blog, it will be Tweeted to Twitter for you, with a link to your blog post and a line of intro from your post. TweetLater is a great automator tool where you can set up your Twitter account so that you automatically follow and direct message anyone who follows you. You can also set it so if someone unfollows you, you unfollow them! The Your Twitter Karma site is helpful in that it allows you to import your list of Following and Followers, and then unfollow any of those your following who don't follow you back. Great for management purposes. Tweetdeck will allow you to see what's being said about anything, including you, your blog, product, etc!

4) Check out this insightful blog post by Guy Kawasaki. He details exactly what you need to do with Twitter and why. Great stuff.

5) Follow The Monetizer on Twitter, I follow back :)

Twitter is becoming the "It" tool of the times, so if you're not on "Twit", get on it, and start Tweeting!

Here's to your success!
The Monetizer

PS - Got any cool Twitter tools, tips or stories? Feel free to share em in the comments section below!

20 Celebrities Who Use Twitter

These days if someone asks "What's Twitter?" the other person might ask them what rock they've been living under. Everyone's on Twitter these days from your roommate to your neighbor to Team Obama. The following is a quick list The Monetizer generated over at twittercounter.com. It's a nifty site where you can enter your twitter username and it predicts how many peeps will be following you on Twitter by a certain date. The site also has a top 100 list, which lists Barack Obama at the #1 Spot. There appears to be several celebrities on Twitter who you may be interested in following in addition to our current president. Some of the following include politicians, athletes, internet entrepreneurs, musicians, internet celebs and comedians.

Here's a look at some of the famous people Tweeting:

http://www.twitter.com/kevinrose
http://www.twitter.com/britneyspears
http://www.twitter.com/lancearmstrong
http://www.twitter.com/algore
http://www.twitter.com/The_Real_Shaq
http://www.twitter.com/ijustine
http://www.twitter.com/MCHammer
http://www.twitter.com/jimmyfallon
http://www.twitter.com/JohnCleese
http://www.twitter.com/coldplay
http://www.twitter.com/leolaporte
http://www.twitter.com/rainnwilson
http://www.twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain
http://www.twitter.com/TonyRobbins
http://www.twitter.com/problogger
http://www.twitter.com/DaveJMatthews
http://www.twitter.com/brookeburke
http://www.twitter.com/TinaFey
http://www.twitter.com/StephenColbert
http://www.twitter.com/guykawasaki


Several names might not be of the household variety to everyone so here's some extra info on them... Kevin Rose is the founder of Digg.com, iJustine is a famous video blogging chick who just brought cupcakes to Twitter's office, Leo Laporte hosts technology TV shows, Guy Kawasaki is an entrepreneur and author of enlightening books such as "The Art of the Start". If you don't know someone else on the list, please consult Google.com :)

(Source: TwitterCounter Global top 100)

** UPDATE:

Check out this recent blogger's post about Shaq on Twitter. Yes it's the "Real Shaq"!

Happy TweetsGiving & Thanksgiving!

Hello to all twitters who love to tweet..It's not only the Thanksgiving holiday this week, but there's also Tweetsgiving going on..it's a mouthful just like the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes we'll all be enjoying. So what exactly is this "Tweetsgiving"?

Tweetsgiving is a special project created by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Epic Change. Their objective is to show just how powerful social media is, by raising funds in the amount of $10,000 to build a new classroom in Tanzania. They have just 48 hours to do it, and as of my last check, they were at $3,622.29 and climbing, 36% of the way towards their goal. TweetsGiving started Tuesday at noon and ends Thanksgiving day at noon.

One way to get involved in this is to spread the word. You can do that via your blog or social media profile, or even via a tweet on your Twitter profile. They ask that you share something you're thankful for and include the #TweetsGiving tag, plus a link to: http://tinyurl.com/4thanks

You can also participate by choosing to donate at least $10. You'll be able email a TweetsGiving tweet to tweetsgiving@gmail.com. Your special tweet will be painted on a brick used to build the classroom in Tanzania.

For $100 or more you'll be noted on their website as a "Top Turkey" along with your Twitter profile link. You can also choose to do some shopping at http://shop.epicchange.org/ where your purchases will help add 1 or more bricks to the school project.

So get tweeting before you start eating! Drop by the official Tweetsgiving.org page and follow @TweetsGiving for all the details on this wonderful and generous social media project!

To all Monetizer readers and moneymakers, may your Thanksgiving be full of happiness, lots of great food and prosperity!

As the Twitter Tweets Twhirl...

About a week ago The Monetizer realized he had gained about 35 followers on the fun website called Twitter. Twitter is the site that poses the question "What are you doing?" then gives you a little box to type about 140 characters or less about what you're doing. These little updates you send are called "Tweets" and friends on the site interested in what you have to say become your "followers". You can post your updates by the Twitter site, IM apps, or even your cell phone. Twitter has been proposed by many internet marketers and bloggers as a great tool for promotion and getting new ideas for your blog. John Cow even proposed in a recent blog entry that it could be more up to date than RSS feeds for notifying people of your new blog posts.

While 35 followers isn't a ton (some users have 10's of thousands of followers), it's a decent enough number to make the Monetizer want to use Twitter even more. So I decided to create Twitter accounts for a few other blogs I run, just to test the waters. I also downloaded a great little app called Twhirl. This is sorta like an AIM for Twitter with many helpful extra features. It's a program you download to your PC or MAC, and then login to your Twitter account(s) through it. This way you can quickly send out a Tweet from your desktop, rather than logging into Twitter. (Note: you'll need to download a copy of Adobe AIR prior to installing Twhirl).

Another site to consider using with this is Twitterfeed.com. On this site you can register yourself, then put in your blog's RSS feed to be fed to your Twitter account. As you post a new blog entry, Twitterfeed will send that to Twitter, in essence broadcasting your new post to anybody who may see it (followers or people who see it on the timeline).

Consider getting with Twitter as these days just about everybody's doing it. It can be a powerful little promotional tool for your blog when used properly. Depending on your blog's theme, you should search on Twitter for people who may be interested in your blog. For example if you blog about baseball, try looking up "Red Sox" or "Yankees" or "MLB" on Twitter. Browse through your results for members and follow those who have updated within at least the past week. They may soon be following you, subscribing to your blog and creating a great new connection or referral source for your blog site.

Follow the Monetizer on Twitter here.

Some other useful Twitter resources to look at:

50 Ways to Use Twitter - Squidoo Lens

17 Ways You Can Use Twitter by Dosh Dosh

The Gaming of Twitter by Zac Johson

The Power of Twitter by interwebers

Twitter vs. RSS by John Cow

Why I Love Twitter by Problogger