Can you make money with Twitter or other social networking sites?

When it comes to using online services to make yourself a little cash there are always a few tried and true methods. Can you use Twitter to make money? You can use any social networking site in order to turn a tidy profit if you have the know-how and you are willing to work for it. 

There are a number of different ways that you can use Twitter to earn a living, but none of them are going to be that easy. There is going to be a different amount of income coming from each kind of use as well. You probably won’t be able to retire off of the profits you make from Twitter, but you can lean on the site as a place to to get a little extra cash from time to time.

The first, and easiest way in which to earn money from any social networking site is to be paid for your posts or tweets. I say this is the easiest because it comes with the least amount of effort once you have gotten yourself to a point where someone actually wants to pay you for your services. Of course, to get to a place where you are actually getting paid for posts or tweets you are going to have to have a pretty good following.  

Advertisers might be willing to pay you for your posts, but they are also going to need to know that they will see some sort of return on their investment. Sponsored tweets are gaining popularity in some corners but there also some repercussions that have popped up, not the least of which is if you start issuing tweets in favor of one product or company or another your followers should know that you are getting paid to do so. Once you start telling people that you are only singing the praises of a product because you are being paid to do so, they will be less likely to listen to what it is you have to say.

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Not everyone is going to have the followers or the connections needed in order to get sponsored tweets. That doesn’t mean that you cannot still make a pretty penny off of Twitter or any other social networking site. 

There have been sites in which you could buy and sell products and services almost since the Internet existed. Craigslist is one such site that has grown to prominence as sort of an online marketplace and job search. 

That doesn’t mean that you can only use Craigslist in order to sell your stuff. You can use Twitter much the same way you use Craigslist, only you can actually have more control over the way you advertise yourself or your products.  

Craigslist has several barriers put in place in order to keep you from spamming people with services that you don’t actually provide or products you don’t actually have. Twitter is different because this is your account, you are attesting that what you sell is real and of good quality. The added bonus is that anyone who is seeing your advertisements are people who know or trust you, so they know what they are getting if they decide to buy something from you.

Say you are a handyman or freelance writer or any other kind of professional looking for work. You can also advertise that you are available to a very select set of clientele (mainly those who are following you or that you follow). You can advertise your services in 140 character bursts and you can advertise your site in the same way. Either point them to your website or a way to contact you, but Twitter users will be able to see that you have put yourself out there. 

There can even be a bonus in that Twitter does not get used for that kind of services all that often. 

It seems likely that more people will be using that particular approach more often in the near future.