In other words, when I am actively marketing, pitching, and promoting various affiliate products and services, I want to reach out to the most amount of targeted people as I can with the least amount of time invested. That makes sense, right? And as you may suspect, a mailing list is a great tool to use towards achieving that. However, successful affiliate marketers know that there’s more to it than just having a good list. Once again, I am not discounting the value or merit of having a great mailing list, but rather, I am aiming to help you see that having a mailing list isn’t the only option available to you.

With that being said, wouldn’t marketing, pitching, and promoting affiliate products and services in places like FaceBook and Twitter seems effective? If you think about it for a moment, FaceBook at Twitter are both networks that allow you to custom shape and mold the type of people you follow and who follow you. In many cases, and with a little trial and error, users can even figure out ways to automatically add and follow other users within these networks. We can take a closer look at that in the near future.

But even if you don’t go so far as to figure out ways to automatically add friends or invest into software that does it for you, using social networks to shape and mold a digital identity that correlates with the products and services you want to sell is very strong possibility. And to be quite honestly, this is actively being done successfully by hundreds, if not thousands, of affiliate marketers.

The other half to marketing affiliate products within social networks, such as FaceBook and Twitter, is to figure out ways to do it automatically. Once again, and in my opinion, my most challenging aspect of being an affiliate marketer is with managing my time and reaching out to as many targeted people as possible. The other other part to look at is how can you broadcast affiliate products into social networks automatically, or at a minimum with the least amount of time invested? To help you get started, here is a simple way to automatically promote affiliate products on FaceBook and Twitter at the same time.

Create a Free Account With TwitterMail.com

First thing you need to do is create a free account at TwitterMail.com. Once your account is created, use a text editor offline to create a list of Tweets that you’d like to have posted on your Twitter page that promote affiliate products you recommend. For Windows users, I suggest using TextPad and Mac users, I suggest using TextWrangler. The reason I suggest these two programs is because they keep track of your character count. Remember, on Twitter, you can only use 140 characters, or less. Once you have your list of Tweets created then I suggest figuring out the posting interval.

The posting interval, or rather “posting frequency” will vary depending your past posting trends. In other words, if you have been averaging around three Tweets and three FaceBook status updates per day, then it might not be a good idea to start posting ten or more updates automatically. If you want to increase the posting frequency, then do it gradually. Otherwise, people will take notice to this and clearly assume that you’re spamming the network.

Also, when you create your list, it’s very important to load your list with non-marketing or space-filler Tweets. Make things up and be creative. You can say anything you want. It might even be effective to plant some seeds for some of the products and services that you’ll be Tweeting next.

After you have completed your list offline and have figured out the posting frequency, it’s time to start sending email to your special TwitterMail.com address. TwitterMail.com offers a scheduled post feature, and using it is very simple. All you have to do is use the subject line to tell TwitterMail.com when to post your Tweet. If you’re clever with your schedule, you can make your friends and followers believe you are Twittering all day and night.

Send Your Tweets Automatically To FaceBook

The next step is to start using the Twitter on FaceBook application. Doing so will allow you to easily and automatically convert all of your Tweets into status updates on your wall. This now allows you to kill two birds with one stone. Or in other words, automatically post to FaceBook and Twitter at the same time, thus saving you more time.

With less time being used to do manual things, more time is available to do things that are important, such as building your network with more targeted people that will be interested in the affiliate based products and services you’re marketing and promoting.

What are some ideas that you have that can help others with promoting affiliate products and services in FaceBook and Twitter? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The first sponsored tweets test was to Deb’s blog over at ChattyGal.com

For this advertisement I used a title of “Tweet the ChattyGal Blog.” For the description I simply asked them to get as many clicks over as possible to her blog and gave some example tweets they could use. For Example, “Go Check Out The Biggest Chatter Online” with a link to her site. I also allowed the Tweeter to use whatever creative text they wanted instead instead of the example tweet. Most of the Tweeter used my example although I was hoping to see more creative tweets.

I listed a max cost per tweet of $100. The Tweeter also had to have 500 minimum followers, .75 minimum follower ratio, 56 minimum twitter grade, and 4 as a minimum Klout score. I did not use tags. Sponsored tweets came up with over 2500 matches with those settings. I should have used tags to get more relevant results.

Sponsored Tweets Ad 1 Results:

My total average cost-per-click end up at $0.57 which was a little higher than I was hoping. I personally would have been happy with anything less than .35

The largest single tweet buy  ($100+) had the 4th highest CPC which brought the total average quite a bit higher than if I would have not purchased that tweet. It was also my fault because I purchased this tweet more out of curiosity. The tweeter didn’t exactly have tons of followers looking for mommy type blogs. Since then some clicks continue to trickle in from many of the tweets which has brought the total average CPC down a couple cents. All my other buys were just $12.00 per tweet or less. My second largest buy of just $12.00 had a $.92 CPC even after two tweets.

My smallest buys did by far the best in regards to the lowest CPC but it doesn’t take but a few clicks when you are buying a $2 or $3 Tweet!

Overall I think this test did well enough for me to continue testing and using Sponsored Tweets again. But what about conversions into RSS readers? Unfortunately I had no way to track this.

Sponsored Tweets Ad 2 Results:

In this Sponsored Tweets test I was advertising the free download of my beginner’s affiliate marketing eBook, I entered a maximum per tweet cost of $500 even though I wouldn’t spend that much. I used a minimum of 500 followers, a minimum of “1″ follower ratio, 65 minimum Twitter grade, and a 5 minimum Klout score.

This campaign had an average CPC of $0.61 but actually did very well with a couple of exceptions. If you notice, my biggest buy has a CPC of over $2.00 CPC which skewed the average much higher. Since then the CPC has dropped a little because of some retweets and some clicks will continue to trickle in. My best tweet buy cost me just $3 and sent me 37 clicks for an average of just .08 cents a click! They are a number of Tweeters in this campaign that I’ll be ordering more sponsored tweets from in the coming weeks.

Most Tweeter will retweet your ad up to 3 times if the CPC is over $1.50 CPC which is certainly a good thing.

I hesitate to even call this a case study because there are so many variables that could cause the results to be different each time.

1. What time of day was the tweet sent out?

2. Did the tweeter tweet out several more tweets shortly after your ad which caused your ad to get buried? Not a real good idea on their part because it’s just going to hurt there Sponsored Tweet scores. If you are a Tweeter with Sponsored Tweets, don’t screw the advertiser by burying their sponsored tweets right away!

3. What text was used with the tweet?

4. Did the Tweeter use an automated program to gain thousands of followers who are not even interested in their niche? On a side note I’m not against using these programs as long as you use keywords and such to find relevant followers in your niche.

This is just a few questions of many that would could cause your results to be different.

Would I Use Sponsored Tweets As An Advertiser Again?

Yes, but I’d do some things a little differently.

1. I’d recommend to always go look at the Tweeter’s last set of tweets to see how much they are interacting with their Twitter audience or for anything that might raise a red flag.

2. I’d initially start off with buy buying multiple low cost Tweets rather than just one or two high cost tweets. High cost tweets are not bad but do some relevant targeting.

3. I’d Try and Buy Sponsored Tweets That Could Go Viral.

I don’t necessarily mean to get your ad to go viral. That could happen but it’s less likely being that it’s appended with “#ad or sponsored ad” text. Rather I mean to send them to a page with a new tweet that could be sent out for them to win something. The trick (which I haven’t exactly tested yet) is to buy sponsored tweets to things that could go viral such as blog contest or free giveaway. This is how you will get the most bang for you buck.

I’ll be posting more information from future tests including a new test in which I hope goes viral.

I do believe that if done correctly, Sponsored Tweets has really great potential for both Tweeters and Advertisers.

Click Here To Give Sponsored Tweets A Try

or Click Here To Read My Sponsored Tweets Review

Sponsored Tweets

I’ve only met Ted once but I hope to get to know him better during the next IzeaFest or before, especially since we are both based in Orlando, FL. I signed-up as advertiser with Sponsored Tweets a couple weeks ago and wanted to give you a little overview of how Sponsored Tweets works.

Registering With Sponsored Tweets As An Advertiser

There is not a whole lot to explain about the signup process. You can either register with Sponsored Tweets in a matter of seconds using your existing Twitter credentials or if you would like you can create an account using your email and a password.

Creating Your First Sponsored Tweet In Three Simple Steps

Step 1: You create an “Opportunity” title which tweets will see so that they can quickly see if it’s something they might be interested in tweeting out. For example, an Opportunity title could be to “Send As Many People As Possible To My New Affiliate Marketing Blog.”

You then enter further detailed instructions about what website, product or service you want them to promote. You can optionally require the tweeter to only tweet out the ad text you supply in the details field but in most cases you might be better off letting them use their own creativity. You might also have more success with denied tweets simply because your required ad copy is to over-hyped or something.

The last step is to enter the landing page url which will be included in the tweet. This URL is shortened by bit.ly which in most cases is a good thing so you have more room for the message.

Step 2: In the next step you enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay per tweet, the minimum followers they must have, the minimum followers ratio, their minimum Twitter grade, there minimum Klout score and the content rating of your sponsored tweet (safe for everyone or just adults). The parameters are there to help you better refine which advertiser will be a good match for you.

Maximum Per-Tweet Cost:
I suggested entering a higher “maximum tweet cost” than you really want to really spend for a single tweet so that you will have more advertisers results. You might change your mind and be willing to pay a little more once you see the results of who might be willing to tweet out your offer. I usually set my minimum follower amount to 500 but anything over a couple hundred should work. If you set that number to 1,000 or more you might miss out on some good opportunities and you will obviously pay more for those tweets in most cases.

Minimum Follower Ratio:
For the minimum follower ratio I’d recommend nothing less than a “1″ which is saying that you, at minimum, want the tweeter to have as many people following them as they are following.

Minimum Twitter Grade:
The minimum Twitter grade section uses the score from http://twitter.grader.com Twitter grader creates a twitter score using several “Algorithm Factors” such as the tweeter’s Number of Followers, Power of Followers, Number of Updates, follower ratio and more. The higher the number here the better.

Minimum Klout Score:
“The Twitter Klout Score is a numerical representation of the size and strength of a person’s sphere of influence on Twitter. The size of someone’s sphere of influence is calculated by measuring true reach (engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc). The strength of influence is the likelihood that someone will listen or act upon any specific message and is measured by looking at interactions across the social graph. The scores range from 1-100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence.”

I’d suggest entering a minimum Klout score of  5 which I think is pretty much average.

If you check “include premiums” Sponsored Tweets will also show you all the premium tweeter such as celebrities regardless of your other parameters such as minimum tweet price.

Step 3: In the third and final step before confirming your choices you need to add your targeting options based on keywords / tags. For example, in the case of this blog I might put in “affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliate network, social media, make money online etc…” Entering tags is optional but you are going to want to use them in most cases or you will get to many Tweeters unrelated to your niche.

Next you will select in what country or countries the tweeter should be based. You can choose as little or as many as you would like.

The last step is to select the time of the day you want your offer to be tweeting out. The default is between 10am and 2pm which sounds like the best times in my opinion. Or you can just have the advertisement tweeted out as soon as you approve it.

Step 4: So now you have finished creating your first sponsored tweet opportunity. The whole process really only takes a minute or two. Now it’s time to select which tweeters you want to send your sponsored tweet.

You can sort by Price, the Number of Followers they have, their Follower Ratio, their Twitter Grade, Kloud Score, CPMf or their FAR score.

I have not mentioned the FAR score yet but it’s an important one. FAR (short for follower activation rate) is a measure of the Tweeters influence with their followers based on percentage of people who click through. The scale is 0-10, with 5 being the system wide average. The higher the number the better. The FAR score is one of the most important numbers I look at when finding Tweeters for my sponsored tweet.

CPMf is another important number. I look for Tweeters with a high FAR in combination with a low or reasonable CPMf. CPMf is basically your cost per 1000 followers that the ad is tweeted to. If someone has 2000 followers and their Tweet cost is $4.00 then their CPM would be $2.00. If you can’t decide between two Tweeters who both have a FAR of 10 then just go with the one with the lower CPMf. I know, pretty obvious.

Step 5: So now all we have left to do is select which Tweeters you want to send your sponsored offer. You send them the opportunity and then just wait and see if they accept it. Once accepted by the Tweeter you then get to review the Tweet (for example if you let them decide the tweet text to use you are going to want to review it first) and deny or accept the tweet on your end. Once you accept the tweet then the Tweeter will send it out during the tweet time scheduling you setup previously.

Your Sponsored Tweet will include 100% Disclosure so every tweet made through their system requires compliance through their disclosure engine. Each tweet will include disclosure text such as #ad, ad:, sponsored, brought to you by and a couple other choices.

That’s it!

Click Here To Signup and See If Sponsored Tweets Is Right For You.

It’s a great way for a Tweeter to make some quick and easy money (provided you don’t go crazy with it and send out multiple ads a day).

But did Sponsored Tweets work for myself as an advertiser? The short answer is yes. You Can Read My First Sponsored Tweets Case Study here.

You can follow me here.

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