Why Twitter will NOT Help your Blog Revenue
Of late there have been a number of posts from fellow bloggers on a real-time social networking/micro-blogging service called Twitter. I have been twittering (short posts less then 140 characters) on and off for the last 4 months and have about 60 followers at last count. However, I have yet to see any significant referral traffic from Twitter to my blog, unlike that from other network/community sites (PF Buzz or Tip’d). When I write a new post I normally include a link to it on Twitter and do get a few referrals, but hardly any of the referred traffic converts to outbound (revenue generating) clicks or new subscribers. Some may blame this on the fact that I don’t use Twitter correctly (not that hard really), have too few followers or even on my content being not that great (Ouch!).
However, I see it as 2 things. Firstly, the traffic you do get from Twitter is most likely other bloggers and/or online marketers that are highly unlikely to click on any advertisements contained on your blog. As a blogger myself, I know I have almost become immune to ads and unfortunately unless something really strikes me I am not going to click on ads. I also don’t believe in using Adsense or other pay per click ads as a Tip Jar, by falsely clicking ads to help a fellow blogger out. Google and its advertisers have paid for real clicks, and I do not want to risk myself or the blogger’s whose site I am on from getting banned by Google for fake clicks (there are other ways and more legit ways to help fellow bloggers).
The second aspect is traffic. I am sure if I had thousands of followers I would get more traffic to my blog whenever I tweet about a post, but going back to point one, the type of traffic I am going to get is not going to be the revenue generating type. Given I have limited time to blog (I have a day job), I don’t think I can expend the amount of effort needed to massively grow my twittering following base and subsequently twitter-blog traffic. Even I if I did, based on the above argument I don’t think Twitter is ever going to be a great commercial traffic source for me anytime soon and other money bloggers new to Twitter should be mindful of this aspect. Do you agree or disagree with me? Has twitter been a good source of revenue generating traffic for you?
All this being said, once you accept that Twitter is just another social networking site, it can actually be quite fun to see all the live micro-posts that bloggers you read regularly, put on there. You really see a different (less formal) side of them and more often than not I get alerted to an interesting post or news item from Twitter which I normally wouldn’t have noticed. When I first started twittering, I got “follow-crazy” and just followed anyone whose blog I had heard of. You soon realize though that you end up getting hundreds of tweets every hour, most of them trivial and mundane (who cares if someone’s cat didn’t eat that morning!). So my main piece of advice is for those new to Twitter, choose who you want to follow carefully and remember if you post useless tweets, it reflects badly on you and your blog so don’t post a comment or thought that you wouldn’t feel comfortable posting on your blog.
You can follow me on Twitter at : http://twitter.com/Andys2i
Other Twitter-iffic posts from fellow bloggers, which have some great tips on how to use Twitter effectively, and would probably disagree with some of my points above:
- Free From Broke Guide To Twitter
- 125 More People PF Junkies Should Follow on Twitter
- Twitter Ad Revenue Plan Revealed; Not Impressive So Far
I also participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance and Festival of Frugality this week and some great posts to be found there. Kudos to the hosts as well. Also, from the Finance Blog network, the following posts are worth a read; 3 Keys to Creating Passive Income, CitiGroup Says: Gold To Hit $2,000 - Wars To Follow (can't say I agree, but a good viewpoint), The Investor’s Christmas Reading List (So much to read, so little time).
Have a good weekend
Related Posts:
- I Want My Bailout Too and Here's Why
- How Much Money do Bloggers make Blogging?
- Looking Past the Subscriber Count
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December 6, 2008 3:50 PM
Well said. I use it and have fewer followers then you and follower even less.
Maybe I am old or something but I see Twitter more as a almost real-time communiqué then anything else.
At least that is what I am using it for.
December 6, 2008 9:48 PM
I can't say I have seen a jump in revenue directly from Twitter but I have seen traffic. I agree that most who use it are probably web savvy and won't click ads but these same people will see your article and might submit it to social media or use it in a roundup or article. THAT's where you get your revenue increase. More traffic and more links equals more revenue. On top of that Twitter is fun to communicate and keep up with people.
December 6, 2008 10:32 PM
Well I don't think we have ever seen an IM service that was a revenue generator.
Plus if you look around a little, there are ways to directly monetize links in your Twitter stream.
December 7, 2008 2:26 AM
I've got over a thousand followers on twitter, and to some degree I agree that as of yet I haven't seen twitter as a huge direct revenue generator. On the other hand twitter has become one of my top 10 referrers of traffic, and the referrals I get for design work on twitter are easily worth the time i spend on there. Also, the people that DO see my posts from twitter seem to be more likely to submit my posts to other social media - bringing more traffic.
So I AM seeing money as a result of using the service. But I think using the service you need to use it for more than just direct revenue. I think it can also be used for a ton of other things like:
1. research and feedback.
2. networking.
3. enforcing your brand.
4. chatting with other big time bloggers who you might not otherwise be able to chat with.
those are just a few things.. Personally I've found it to be extremely useful. Bringing in tons of revenue? Some, but not tons. But useful, yes.
December 7, 2008 1:07 PM
You may want to check out http://yonkly.com
It's the first niche-microblogging platform with twitter integration.
Best part. They're a bootstrapped, small team! Go underdogs!
December 7, 2008 7:24 PM
I agree, twitter is not the best way to earn ad revenue. But in a supportive roll I think it's great.
December 7, 2008 10:56 PM
@ Bruce, I am using Twitter in a similar manner. Also, I think you would need atleast a thousand followers to noticeable a consistent flow of Twitter traffic.
@ FFB. Thanks for making your first comment on this site. Your points are correct, but even other Social media sites like SU and Digg have the same revenue conversion problem as Twitter (because all used by web savvy folks). I agree all the social media sites can grow your presence. The biggest help would be in your google search rankings, which would have a noticeable impact on revenue. However, I don't think this would stay consistent over the long run. Twitter is fun though.
@ XV, I think IM's are most profitable for their creators and power users. It would be interesting to hear your other twitter monetization methods.
@ Peter, You definetly are a power Twitter user, and I imagine it has aided your blogs growth greatly, but is it sustainable over the longer term (ie Traffic growth)? I do think your list of what Twitter can be used for (per your post) is spot on, and point number 4 is a good one.
@ Scott. Will check it out.
@ BBG. Thanks for the comment.
December 10, 2008 9:50 AM
@Andy
Per your point, is it sustainable over time as a way to increase traffic/subscribers? All I can tell you is my experience, and from what I've seen it gets better every month. Once you hit a certain number of followers it seems like the number of followers you get in an ongoing basis seems to go up as well. I'll get 10-15 new followers some days, without having to do anything just because people have found me on someone else's followed list. And of those new followers, it seems like at least a few will also subscribe to my site RSS.
As mentioned I think Twitter is best used as part of a complete blog promotion strategy, not on its own. But when used right it can be quite powerful.
December 18, 2008 11:29 PM
one thought to add to the discussion:
You correctly say that many users of twitter will have their own blog etc - while they might not click ads I think that this makes twitter users a very powerful community to tap into.
If you write something that someone on Twitter connects with they can spread the word of your post to many people - their followers, readers of their blogs, users of other social media sites.
This is what I've found anyway - while the Twitter users might not click ads - they are valuable at building community on my blog and spreading the word about it.
I guess all I'm saying is don't write them off just because they don't directly make money.