First and foremost, there are going to be loads of people/companies trying to sell you all these “must have” programs or software in order to make money with Twitter. Two words: Not Necessary. Twitter is a valuable marketing tool that can be utilized using absolutely free methods.

I wanted to let you know that first, because there are so many people who will try to get money out of you. It is not a matter of “if”, but “when”. Be careful.

Here are free methods that have been tried, tested, and proven to work. The best part…it is absolutely free. Are you ready to learn how to make money on Twitter? Alright, let us get started.

Here are things that you need to do every day:

Find three of your followers and follow five pages of their followers.

You do not want to be overly aggressive on Twitter, or they will delete your account. That would be a horrible pain in the…side, so do not try it. Enough said, moving on…

If you are absolutely brand new, search for people who have similar interests and are in your target audience.

Read their bio.

Do not simply choose three random people. You want people in your target audience. Key words in their bio that I look for are marketing, entrepreneur, online marketer, business owner, etc.. Be selective in this. You want quality people following you. This will increase your percentages on converting followers to leads.

Next, follow people that follow you and un-follow people that do not follow you.

Follow people that are following you first. On your home page, you simply click on your “followers” link. Then anyone who does not have the “following” word with the little green check mark, you need to follow. Simply click on the icon of the person with the “+” sign right next to its head. There you go. You are now following that person.

To un-follow those who are not following you is a little more work, but still pretty easy. Click on your “following” link. The first thing I do (and this is optional) is to put all of the people I am following in list format.

Here is how it works.

When you first enter this page, in the top left hand corner, it will state “You follow # people”. Right below that there are two icons. One is expanded format and the other is list. Click on list. I have found this saves me quite a bit of time. After all time is money, right? Right.

Now, you will notice across from each name there are two icons. One is for lists and the other is a wheel of sorts. Click on the wheel. If you are given the option to direct message that person, they are following you back. However, if you are not given that option, they are not following you back.

Unfollow these people.

Unfortunately, these people are not listed in order, so you will have to go through all the people you follow until you break even on your “followers” and “following”. This is why it is important to follow your followers first. It makes this step a whole lot easier. Awesome! Now that we have done the mechanics, we can start the fun stuff!

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

Alright. I am going to tell you one of the biggest mistakes you can make on Twitter: Do not sell aggressively and do not sell at all in the first couple weeks.

Why not?

You want to build relationships on Twitter. You want people to trust you as an expert in your field and a reliable source of information. If you oversell, you will come off as annoying spam. I delete direct messages from these people all the time. It is highly annoying. Plus, if I am receiving these messages often, you better believe everyone else is too.

Build trust first.

Start by doing three to four tweets a day. Use quotes, jokes, funny videos, etc.. I like to call these “value tweets” because it builds your value to your followers. Tweet something enjoyable, informative, or entertaining. You want people to like you and your tweets. Do this for a couple of weeks and then you can start putting one or two ads in a day and add more “value tweets”. Alright, let us move on.

Respond back to people who re-tweet one of your tweets, @ you, or send something personal in a direct message.

Social networking is all about building relationships. This is where you are going to make money with Twitter. When people receive a response from you it creates a connection. This creates a sense of trust and curiosity. I will give you one very strong piece of advice.

Be professional.

Remember, you are branding yourself as an expert and a reliable source of information. Say one inappropriate joke, remark, tweet, etc. and your image is ruined. All it takes is once, so be careful. It is so much easier to build a relationship than to repair one. Okay, there is one more key point to remember.

Be consistent.

Most advertising that is free takes time. Twitter is no different. You can make money with Twitter, but you have to be patient and consistent. It will take time to build your followers, to build relationships, and to market yourself. Give it time, and you will see results.

I wish you the best of success with your Twitter marketing.