How I (Almost) Doubled My Twitter Followers and Earned Money at the Same Time

When I first laid eyes on AC's Twitter Challenge, I considered for a moment how this could be beneficial for Associated Content contributors. I hesitated a bit, my mouse hovering above the "Claim" button in indecisive limbo before committing to two weeks of Twitter promoting, retweeting, and follower gathering. I was already in possession of a Twitter account, so the monotony of creating yet another username, password, and profile was out of the way. And considering the fantastic prizes that awaited five or six privileged winners, I took the plunge and accepted the Twitter Challenge.

At first I didn't know where to begin. So I started by messaging some of my fondest followers and favorites on Associated Content. The ones who had accounts signed on as a follower right away, so it was only fair that I reciprocate the favor and follow them. I then branched out beyond my comfort zone and posted a humble request for followers on the AC Forum.

This was perhaps the most fruitful of my labors. I posed a simple deal for any AC contributor to take advantage of: I would follow anyone from AC who in return would follow me. In the end, I not only received several AC followers, but some of their Twitter followers as well, so the root system of original followers blossomed into a nice little tree of related followers by the time all was said and done.

So what did the numbers look like when I finished? Well, when I began the Twitter challenge, my follower list was oscillating between 55 and 60 followers. My goal was to reach 100 Twitterers; my all time high was 108 followers, and at the time of this writing, I have officially leveled off at 103 followers, somewhat surpassing my goal.

Some Cool Followers

Some of my best AC friends are also my favorite Twitter followers. Peeps like Donald Pennington and Patricia Sheasley, BloggerPoet79 and LdyJarhead all have some of the best articles and/or tweets.

Not Just a Blather Platform

Part of my hesitation for the Twitter Challenge was due in part to the idea that Twitter is simply a platform for broadcasting everything and nothing about your life all at the same time all over the internet.

While this is what many employees do and get fired for, Twitter can be well utilized to distribute and retweet your own AC articles for your friends and followers to read and retweet for you. This not only serves your friends with quality, interesting content to read, you get unlimited opportunity to earn more money in bonus payments, which makes tweeting rather worth your while.

So all in all, as a result of my efforts in tweeting and befriending followers, I have been earning more money in performance payments, have had many of my articles retweeted and broadcast for others to read, and have earned more fans while doing so. It was quite a win-win situation for everyone involved, and was a project I had a lot of fun fulfilling.

If you'd like to follow me, my Twitter profile can be found at http://twitter.com/Trikki. I do my best to keep track of AC followers and reciprocate the gesture.