It’s hard to keep track of all the Twitter ad networks out there, promising you can make money through Twitter by running ads on your feeds.

This week I checked out two new (to me) Twitter ad networks: Twivert.

First, Twivert: this network is still in beta, and all the bugs haven’t been worked out yet, as they themselves admit on their website (which also has a couple of off-putting typos – Dear Twivert: hire a proofreader!)

With Twivert, you decide how many ads you want to run each day, under “Tweeting Frequency”. (I chose two). You can also choose the time slots you want ads to run in, which is great if your followers tend to be in one time zone.

I also chose the “Pre-approve Ad” option, so I wouldn’t have to deal with messages asking me to approve this ad or that.

You can also choose the subject matter you’ll accept for your ads, from “Everything” to “Dating” or “Politics” or whathaveyou. I narrowed down the subjects of ads I want in my feed, after some of my followers found one dating ad a turn-off.

Twivert also has a referral program, to reward you if you refer a new “twitterer” or advertiser.

There isn’t big money to be make with Twivert but can be a good option for you if you are looking for an easy, customizable, low frequency Twitter ad network to join.

By Kathy Shaidle

As I’ve said here before , SponsoredTweets is one of my favorite Twitter ad networks.

Now they’ve added a feature that makes them even better.

The new SponsoredTweets Firefox extension makes it easier for potential advertisers to find you.

Here’s how it works:

An advertiser (or anybody who wants to) installs the SponsoredTweets Firefox extension. From then on, whenever they sign into Twitter and look at the tweets coming up on their Twitter.com home page,  they’ll see a slight difference.

Now, if they are following someone who is already a SponsoredTweets affiliate tweeter (that’s you and me), they’ll see “Hire me for $X.XX”in gold type within that person’s every post.

The gold type really stands out. So if an advertiser is scrolling through their feed, they are that much more likely to see that you’re a tweeter who is looking for advertisers.

If the price is right – who knows? Maybe you’ll just capture the advertiser’s attention and they’ll hire you.

Even if you are not an advertiser, why not install the SponsoredTweets Firefox extension, for an easy way to see what your competitors are charging to run ads on their feeds?

(And if you aren’t already signed up to run ads for SponsoredTweets clients – what are you waiting for?)

I’ve found the SponsoredTweets Firefox extension pretty revealing! Check it out. It’s free and easy to install.

~ Kathy

Last week, I recommended Ad.ly as one of the two best ad networks for Twitter.

Now there’s a new reason to sign up with this growing site. You can now get “Twitter Analytics” via Ad.ly.

If you’re a blogger, you know how addictive it can be to check your “stats”: “How many people came to my blog today? Where did they come from?”

Get ready to get just as hooked on your Twitter stats, now that you can get them through Ad.ly.

Their system tells you how many “real” followers you have, as opposed to “bots.”

You can also get the male/female ratio, the number of retweets you get during different day parts, location information and lots more.

All that information comes to you free. For $9.99/month or $99.99/year, Ad.ly will give you more detailed reports.

Those reports will name your “20 most influential followers,” something called “sentiment analysis” and other stuff.

For free, I found out that most of my followers are male, and based in New York, Texas, Florida and California. My four “most influential followers” came as a big surprise — I wouldn’t have guessed any of them!

I don’t know enough about analytics to tell you how accurate Ad.ly’s metrics are. But the basic options are free, so you might find it helpful.

And of course, Ad.ly is still one of the best Twitter ad networks around, if you’re interested in monetizing your Tweets.

Be sure to check it out!

– Kathy (@kshaidle)

Garry M. Sayer’s 20-page report “Monetize Twitter” is mostly designed to promote “Twitter Treasure Chest.” However, it also contains some good information for absolute beginners on Twitter.

If you already know your way around Twitter, this report isn’t for you. That said, “Monetize Twitter” is a great free introduction to Twitter for any absolute beginners out there, despite some unnecessary repetitions throughout the text.

Unlike many of these free reports,  “Monetize Twitter” also touches on the down side of Twitter: such as what a time suck it can turn into once you get “into” it, and how the constant distractions that come with that avalanche of non-stop tweets can effect your productivity.

The report also debates the pros and cons of having more than one Twitter account; say, one for business and another that’s personal. Now that it’s easier to manage multiple accounts, this option is becoming more popular.

To that end, “Monetize Twitter” suggests “streamlining” tools to keep you productive and manage multiple accounts. I’m a fan of TweetDeck, and I’m glad to see it recommended here. The author also recommends TweetLater to schedule messages, but I prefer Twuffer.

The report mentions other apps I’ve never used like TweeTake (designed to safely back up your Twitter account info), and a search engine called Twitterment.

“Monetize Twitter” isn’t really an accurate title. This report should have been called “How To Be More Productive On Twitter.” The good news is, the report doesn’t just nakedly promote “Twitter Treasure Chest” – you have to click through to the author’s main link on the first page to even notice that.

However, unless you are a total Twitter newbie, there won’t be a lot here you don’t already know.

Then again, “Monetize Twitter” is free, so you have nothing to lose.

– Kathy (@kshaidle

In my previous post touting Ad.ly, I mentioned that I’d signed up for another “make money with Twitter” platform. That other platform is Sponsored Tweets.

Like Ad.ly, Sponsored Tweets matches you up with big companies who pay to send out tweets to your followers.

It sounds shallow, but my reasons for signing up with Sponsored Tweets were the same ones I mentioned with Ad.ly: their site didn’t look a fly by night operation. They’ve signed up some celebrity tweeters like Holly Madison and Carrot Top. And the sign up process was easy and smooth. There weren’t any weird “catches” or any fine print.

Sponsored Tweets suggests a “charge per tweet” based on your number of Twitter followers, how often you post, and other metrics. They suggested around $6 for me, but I pushed it up to $7, to see what would happen.

Sponsored Tweets asks other information, like keywords that best describe what you tweet about, your age and gender.

Just like with Ad.ly, you’re in control of which ads you accept. Sometimes you’ll have the option of rewriting an advertiser’s pitch, to make it more appealing to your particular audience.

They also encourage you to refer your followers to sign up with Sponsored Tweets. You’ll get a percentage of every ad they carry as well.

I haven’t made a ton of money from Sponsored Tweets since I’ve started. However, it isn’t a get rich quick model, unless you’ve got a high profile and tens of thousands of followers already.

So far, the results with Sponsored Tweets are the same as I’ve had with Ad.ly: I’ve run a few campaigns, my followers don’t seem to mind, and Sponsored Tweets paid me. And the folks I’ve referred have made money, too.

I’d recommend Sponsored Tweets if you want to explore the world of making money with Twitter.

~ Kathy

First impressions count. And when I first visit a lot of “make money from Twitter” sites, I don’t stick around or sign up.

If these guys can’t even afford to create an attractive, trustworthy looking site, why should I believe their moneymaking claims? If it looks like a fly-by-night operation, and acts like… well, you know the drill.

So far I’ve only signed up with two of the big “make money from Twitter” enterprises out there. Ad.ly is one of them.

I’ll admit it: Ad.ly makes a great first impression, with their cleanly designed site and no-brainer, no-surprises interface.

Ad.ly isn’t shy about posting pictures of the big names they’ve already signed up to run their clients’ ads, like Dr. Drew and Stephen Colbert. And those advertising clients include Sony Pictures and Microsoft.

After I signed up, Ad.ly automatically calculated my listed price per tweet at $15. I’ve got over 5000 Twitter followers, so that’s part of their calculation.

(However, I hear Ad.ly can tell if those are real followers or just bots, and rates you according to that as well. They’re looking for quality _and_ quantity.)

Soon enough, I got an email asking me if I wanted to accept a campaign. I agreed, and Ad.ly automatically sent the sponsor’s tweets to my followers. The volume was very low: only one tweet per day, over the course of three days in a row.

And every tweet includes the disclaimer “Ad by http://Ad.ly,” so your followers know it’s an ad.

And that’s how I made $45 without doing anything.

(People with huge numbers of Twitter followers say they’ve already made thousands of dollars through Ad.ly.)

With Ad.ly, you can set your own per-tweet fee, as well as reject ads you don’t want. You’re in control. You can even donate part of your earnings to charity.

Plus I’ve signed up some of my followers for the Ad.ly referral program. This means I’ll make 12% of what THEY make.

The only downside is if Ad.ly gets bought by some mega corporation that proceeds to mess it all up. Or Ad.ly goes out of business overnight and people lose their unpaid earnings.

Speaking of “overnight”: don’t expect to get rich with Ad.ly. But if you’re interested in making a bit of extra, easy money via Twitter, Ad.ly is one of the best alternatives around.

~ Kathy Shaidle (@kshaidle)

Yep, that is correct.

The worlds #1 “Make money on Twitter” Blog is looking for a full time blogger!

Do you love twitter?

Do you spend countless hours tweeting away lots of cool @replies and semi-pointless daily updates?

Do you like making money on twitter?

Even better, would you like to learn all of our secrets and get to blog about them?

Have you ever heard of SponsoredTweets? Ad.ly? How about Hummingbird or TweetAdder?

Do you want to get paid enough money to fund your Starbucks coffee everyday for a month?  Yes, the Venti!

If you answered YES to any 2 of the following questions, then shoot an email over to chad @ protwit.com with some samples of your blogging…

Cheers.

Chad ~ AKA ~ ProTwit

- Tweet useless daily drivel updates. Unfortunately twitter founders believe that their product should be mainly used for boring update stuff like, “I’m taking my dog for a walk” and “just had a salad”, so be sure to pepper in some of the mindless stuff to your updates.

- Avoid Mass Un-following. It appears that twitter is more concerned about un-following a whole lot a people over following too many.  I guess their reasoning is, why follow all those folks in the first place if you are only looking for them to follow you back?

- Up-load an image. Nothing quite screams spam like a default twitter image.  Don’t be lazy, upload a photo.

- Don’t use Auto DM’s – Everyone hates getting spam in their direct messages, and might block you right away.

- Don’t spam links – This one is the hardest one to follow when you are trying to make money off twitter, so keep your affiliate links to a minimum and mix them into retweeting great articles.

- Use Hummingbird2 - If you want to grow your follower numbers into a massive army, then you need to be famous or using auto-follow twitter software.  Hummingbird 1 will grow your numbers fast as it uses the follow unfollow chrun method, when can get your account suspended.  Hummingbird 2 uses keywords and follows users at a much more natural pace.

Chad ~ AKA ~ ProTwit

http://www.twitter.com/protwit