I’ve heard a lot of people over the last several months (maybe even the last 2 years) talking about how much of a waste of time Twitter is and how there is nothing productive that can be gained from it.  I’m here to tell you that Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool if you know how to use it, and you use it well.

Let’s just talk about that fact that last night from one “tweet” I received over 600 clicks to a test offer.  All in about 5 minutes. Granted, I’ll give you that the conversion rate was low (around 1%), but I haven’t put a lot of work into this promotion and really just wanted to see what kind of response I could get.

For the time put into it, all of about 60 seconds, I’d consider this a pretty good example of what Twitter can do for you.

Then I stumble across Sponsored Tweets and see how they’re giving everybody a chance to make some money with their Twitter accounts, and another company called Ad.ly that is doing basically the same thing.

Here’s how it works, you sign up with either (or both) of the companies mentioned above.  You set your price for your tweets and then advertisers find you and pay you to tweet about their product and/or service.

Of course, the first major concern that you’re obviously going to have is tweet spam.  If you join these companies, are you going to look like just another goofwad that had joined Twitter to spam a bunch of links and annoy people.  I can tell you this, if that’s how you’re going to choose to use these services, then you will look like a spammer.  And you’ll also get your accounts with them banned pretty quickly.

Both companies require you to be very open and honest about the fact that what you’re tweeting is an ad.  Choose not to do that, and you won’t be making money for very long.

Choose the right path, create and engage in conversations and provide value to the people following you, and you’ll start to see some results.

Now, let’s just be frank and honest about how much money you’re likely to make using either of these services.  For the vast majority of us, it’s probably not going to be enough to pay your mortgage. And if you go into it thinking that it will, you’re just fooling yourself.  Just like another service I’ve been recommending lately that lets you share videos and get paid for it (check out VideoForward to find out more), Sponsored Tweets and Ad.ly are really just going to provide you with some supplemental income at best.

That is, unless you become a power Twitter user overnight and get about a million people to follow you. I’m not trying to convince you to go out and rake in a bunch of new followers or use some spammy software that “guarantees thousands of new followers every day.” What I am encouraging you to do is to take advantage of something that you are already doing and make a little money on the side from it.

Try out both of these services, it can’t hurt.  Then let me know what you think.

How long have you been on Twitter?  A month?  Six months?  A year?  Two Years?  Have you really figured out how to use it yet?  I mean, really figured out how to use it?

I know you probably know how to log in to Twitter, follow some people, put up a few little “tweets” and then walk away for the day.  But have you really figured out how to use Twitter to your benefit?

There’s a lot of you out there that think you have.  I know, I see you on Twitter everyday.  I get a number of DMs from you that are all pretty much the same cookie-cutter message, just coming from a different person.

They all generally say pretty much the same thing:

“Want to know how I got x amount of followers in x amount of days?  Follow my NEW system for exploding your Twitter followers and raking in the dough at imreallyjusttryingtogetsomeofyourmoney.com!”

Have you seen those tweets before?

Have you been one of the people sending them?

Don’t feel bad, I’m just as guilty as the next person.  I’ve sent some very similar tweets myself.  And I feel like crap about it.  I really do.  But, I plead ignorance.

See, I just didn’t know any better.  I didn’t know that just sending out a bunch of links to my followers would do me more harm than good.  I didn’t know that I needed to provide a lot more content, really good high-quality content, to my followers if I really wanted to get anything out of my Twitter relationships.

Because, after all, that’s what Twitter is all about.  Building relationships, not just collecting up a bunch of people that you can send self-serving little messages and links to.

Not that you can’t send those self-serving links, but they can’t be your focus.  Your focus has to be something else.

Your focus has to be on providing value.  Being a character.  Being a friend.  Being a trusted, knowledgeable, and devoted friend that people can reach out to and feel comfortable with just saying, “Hey!”

See, there’s a right way and a wrong way to monetize your efforts on Twitter.  And for those of you that are reading this that believe that you shouldn’t try to make money with Twitter or any other social network, I understand your side of the story.  I’m not trying to convince you to my way of thinking.  Please, stick to your guns and don’t let anybody tell you how to run your social networking.

But please don’t hold it against me if I believe you can use Twitter to make a boatload of cash.

But there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it.  Most of us have been stumbling around in the dark for the last several months doing our darndest to figure it out and really doing more harm than good.

Thank God, we’ve finally got some help.

Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss are hosting this little “social media party” this Wednesday night.  I’m gonna be there.  We’d love if you’d come and join us.

We’re gonna pack this virtual house with 5,000 people.  Yep, 5,000 people.  And if you’re ready to learn how to actually start making some money with Twitter and other social networks, please come be a part.

Oh, yeah, don’t worry about having to pay to get in to the party.  I’ve got that taken care of for you. I’ve got people.

You just register right here for the webinar this Wednesday night, July 22nd, 9 PM Eastern time.  (That’s 6 PM for you folks in dreamy California and 10:30 PM for the fine, friendly folks up in Newfoundland.  Those of you that may be located on the other side of the world, you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves.)

Bring a pad, a pencil, and most importantly, and open mind.  Perry and Ryan are going to change the game this Wednesday night.

I’ll be there watching.  Won’t you?

Here’s the link one more time in case you missed it:

FREE Social Media Webinar with Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss – Wednesday, July 22nd, 9PM Eastern time.

Hope to see you there.