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How to Get Targeted Traffic from Twitter with an Ethical Bribe

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how to get traffic from twitter imageCan you really get targeted traffic from Twitter with a bribe? And can a bribe ever be ethical?

You bet and you bet.

I get this question a lot:

“I want to use Twitter to promote my business site/blog.

I do engage with my followers and people I follow, ask questions, respond to their tweets - do everything I should be doing on Twitter, it seems. Yet, my traffic from Twitter is almost nowhere to be found.

What am I doing wrong?”

My first response is always: are you TARGETING your Twitter audience appropriately?

Are you following/followed by people who can be potentially interested in what you have to offer or are you after quantity alone?

I assume your answer to my question is “of course, I am!”; otherwise, you need to go back to the drawing board and make sure you follow the type of Twitter users who are your direct potential targeted traffic/customers.

For those of you, who are doing everything above and still aren’t getting good results, let me tell you what I mean by ethical Twitter bribe.

What Is an Ethical Twitter Bribe?

First of all, let’s talk about the bribe itself.

This step doesn’t have to be complicated at all - just needs to be something your target market might like.

“10 Ways to Cook a Perfect Steak”

“How to Get Your Baby to Sleep through the Night”

“How to Reduce Your Bounce Rate”

It can be a blog post, a YouTube video, an mp3 - anything at all that might be perceived as valuable by your readers and Twitter followers.

How to Get Traffic From Twitter with It

This part is simple as well.

You use a free service that allows your visitors to pay for your bribe with a Tweet or a Facebook share - their choice.

I know of two such services (thanks to Heather Stephens of CleverMarketer.com for mentioning both in her blog post):

The major difference is the CloudFlood.com will let you post your bribe as a URL, for instance, a blog post, while the former service won’t.

Here’s a brief video on how Pay With a Tweet service works:

As you can see, it’s pretty simple - yes, I know I already said that:

  1. Create the bribe or use an existing product you don’t mind giving away for a tweet.
  2. Create the button you will add to your site via one of the websites above, linking it to your giveaway page or your product file page.
  3. Add the button to your site, explaining what the visitors will get for a tweet.
  4. Once they do share your freebie via a tweet or a Facebook share, they’ll be automatically directed to your freebie page.

Yes, pretty simple, huh?

Traffic from Twitter Marketing Takeaway

With the right freebie and a few people catching on and starting to spread the word for you, your product can start overtaking the followers of your followers’ followers.

Get the point?

Now get to work and start bringing some targeted Twitter traffic back to your site!

 

 

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Comments

  1. Amazing Ana!

    I have never heard of PayWithaTweet or CloudFlood before, and i must admit getting any traffic what-so-ever from Twitter i find next to impossible naturally. (unless its from followers which i don’t have many of on Twitter). So i will be using your work and also sharing with my friends!

    Stay blessed - Mat

    • I think getting traffic from Twitter is largely about personally connecting with the right people, Mat.

      Not too hard, but it does take a lot of time.

  2. I am familiar with Paywithatweet, but am little bit hesitating to use it because, it wants me to tweet about a product, or a person or a blog, even before I see that ebook or a free report for real. I will be more than happy to tweet about it after I read it but not before. What if the report I download is really crap but I already have tweeted to my followers that it is great?

  3. This is all great advice, thank you… But I also just HAD to comment because I love that picture!! I used to watch Judge Judy every day when I got home from school - she’s the best. 🙂

    Laurie

  4. Hey Ana,
    Great idea!!!! Thank you for the awesome nugget

    I certainly will be passing this onto my followers

    You’re the best

    Blessings,
    Jeff Faldalen

  5. Hey Ana,

    Great Twitter marketing strategy this is. I have recently used PayWithaTweet with success. My readers were happy to spread the word even before accessing my offer 🙂

    Coincidentally, I have a similar post in draft!

    Best,
    Mavis

    • That’s great, Mavis! It is because your readers KNOW you and know they will get quality content from you. 🙂

  6. These are fantastically useful products and I’m going to start trying this straight away. I’ve spent a lot of time building my twitter following, a lot of the time it seems to be useless, then it surprises me. Hopefully using this technique my followers will get more useful content and I’ll get more interaction.

  7. Wow that’s actually a great idea. I saw this system used around but I never thought there was a central web tool to achieve that. It’s not a shady behavior either because anyway you are giving something whose “price” people can agree or not agree to. Nobody’s forced to do anything, so if they do accept the offer, it’s a win-win situation.

    PS for Ana: since you asked about my DoFollow vs NoFollow solution/experiment in my last comment here, I linked it on CommentLuv. Hope you’ll approve 🙂

  8. Hey Ana,

    I also read about this on Heather’s site and have actually participated in this on another site. The site was using PayWithaTweet and I actually never recieved my “bribe,” so I wouldn’t recommend using that.

    CloudFlood, I have not tried, but if you and Heather like it. Then I guess I will have to try it.

    Thanks for sharing Ana and have a great day!

    • Of course, you know by now that I had a 404 mishap on my bribe, but give it another shot, Ian.

      I think it’s worth your time - Pay with a tweet, I mean; although, my guide is pretty darn good as well. 🙂

  9. I don’t know about every topic but I swear people at twitter will click on anything. The more descriptive you make it the more likely they will visit. That doesn’t mean it will convert into anything, but twitter is fairly easy to get visitors.

    • I have to agree, Ray. I get the bulk of my traffic from there, and it is mostly quality traffic.

  11. Ana, I tend to agree with you on this one. It’s a tool, just like any tool, it’s positive or negative effects lie in the hands of the person using it. For a trusted resource like yourself? No problem. For some others, not so much. But at the end of the day, it’s a matter of personal choice.

    I am going to have to start looking at more of the Twitter info you have on your blog, it’s one of my most underutilized resources.

    Jamie

    • Jamie, Twitter is one of my best traffic tools and the plugins. Do have a look around as I have mentioned ways in which I use it in several posts. Search for “Twitter” above and all the posts will be listed.

  12. Interesting. I agree with Melanie about trust being needed *before* you share something.

    I implemented CloudFlood once. It got a reasonable uptake, but folk were skeptical about sharing something before they’d read it.

    (One way one person found around it was to change the wording of the tweet to “Don’t know what this will be like, but I’m about to look at it.”)

  13. Hi Ana,

    I read a post by Kristi Hines last week about how she is not a fan of Tweet2Download which I believe would be similar to PayWithATweet. This is also mentioned by Jane in her comments.

    I saw it in action a few weeks back and thought it was a good idea. However, Kristi brought up good points. I left a comment for her saying that if I know the blogger offers good content, I have no hesitation to PayWithATweet. If I don’t know the blogger, I will also be hesitant to pay with a tweet. So having great content and credibility it what it comes down too for this to also work - like everything else with blogging 🙂

    • Diana, I totally understand Jane’s reservations and agree with other readers’ comments about PayWithATweeting the content of trusted sources. See Matthew’s comment and my response.

  14. Great idea, Ana. Your blog is a great resource - I signed up and downloaded the SEO tips, but somehow never got added to your email list - please feel free to add me:).

  15. Looking forward to your post tomorrow, Ana — anxious to see how you’re going to put Cloud Flood into action!

    Wish I had something pithy to add, however …

    I’m going to back up the remarks from some of your commenters like Alex Whalley. Your “reputation” and track history of providing value to your fans, friends, and followers online is definitely going to be a big factor here. I don’t know about you … but I’m darned picky about what I’ll Tweet out (or not). So I think using either of these two services is an awesome idea IF people already know, like, and TRUST you. 🙂

    Thanks, Ana!
    Melanie

  16. Hi Ana-

    I originally heard about this from Heather. I was a bit skeptical, but b/c she’s a trusted social media source, I became interested. And then, not surprisingly, I promptly forgot about this service till I showed up today…;).

    I would hope that people who are familiar with my site would pay w a tweet, but then again, that’s one less person who signs up for your email list…so, hmmm. I would love to hear your opinion on this dilemma. Maybe I need to create another free product??

    I look forward to coming back tomorrow for the CloudFlood.com post…TY for this useful info and Pay With A Tweet video.

    P.S. Everytime I hit ‘publish’ and that pop-up asking if you’re sure you want to publish comes up, I think of you:):).

    • Nice to be thought of, Linda. 🙂

      You are right - I would create an entirely different “product” just to give away with a tweet. You’ll see tomorrow what I did and see how not complicated it is.

      Building your list is far more important than some social interaction and possible traffic you can get, so I would never give away your main freebie on this one.

      Dilemma solved? 🙂

  17. Huh. I don’t even have a Twitter account yet (just cannot be bothered yet, and am a little bit overwhelmed still), but am thinking this might be a great way to launch my account? I could create a new freebie and therefore entice my current readers to spread the word. They already like me, so it might be a good way to kick it off…

    Thanks for another great tip!
    Hugs,
    Melody

    • That’s actually a great idea, Melody - and you might picked up some followers while at it.

      You really do need to start Twitter though; it’s a great traffic generation mechanism.

      Ana

  18. Not a bad idea actually. i was thinking of developing a click bank product but I can make a smaller version to bribe people to tweet about the full version.

    good little tip here, plus the people that get the mini-version of my product may have a wet appetite for the fully featured version LOL two birds with one stone this just gets better and better

    • I do love your idea, Jeff - it’s even better than simply creating a product specifically for this reason. Just make sure you still provide value in your mini version - goes without saying.

      Ana

  19. Hi Ana, it’s a cute gimmick but I don’t think it’s necessary. For example, I tweeted this post before I read it just based on the title and knowing who you are. Most people that know you and trust you don’t need to be bribed - especially for a Tweet.
    I guess it might be worth a try, but only as a one time thing - not part of an overall marketing strategy.
    I haven’t read Kristi’s post on the topic, simply because I never planned to use Tweet2Download anyway. 🙂

    • I think the point here is to bring in traffic from Twitter that doesn’t know you yet - create a viral effect of sorts.

      Yes, it all starts with your readers who know you and know you produce good content. So why wouldn’t they share it with their followers? They are simply sharing a good quality tweet with their followers.

      However, what I get is their followers seeing my links and coming to my blog for the first time.

      Anyway, I thought it was as interesting tactic and I am certainly willing to give it a shot - as you can see.

      I think I might publish my findings later to show if this was a worthy endeavor or a flop.

      Thanks for coming by, Ileane!

  20. That’s okay, Ken. This is one of those cases where it’s either for you, or NOT - no hard feelings :-).

  21. As always Ana, you are bringing the value. The pay with a tweet resource is great. I do understand Jane’s comment above, but I also do agree that as long as your providing value and people are familiar with your content and who you are, most will probably not have any problem with giving a tweet for some cool givaway. Great resources though. Thanks for sharing.

    Mark Harbert

  22. I love this idea! As far as asking people to tweet a recommendation for something they haven’t seen yet, I don’t see that as an issue. I usually check around the rest of the site to get a feel for the content so I can recommend based on the overall content I HAVE read. Now I’m going to think about what I can use as my giveaway for this 🙂
    Thanks Ana!

    • That’s a great way to look at it Katie. Hopefully your answer will give some other people insight into dealing with the system. I actually think that’s how it was intended to be used.

  23. Hey Ana,

    I am familiar with Paywithatweet, but am little bit hesitating to use it because, it wants me to tweet about a product, or a person or a blog, even before I see that ebook or a free report for real. I will be more than happy to tweet about it after I read it but not before. What if the report I download is really crap but I already have tweeted to my followers that it is great?

    Kristi from Kikolani also has a similar opinion. What do you think?

    Jane.

    • Have a look at Katie and Alex’s comments. I agree that you should tweet about the products/services of those people you trust. As Alex says, if you have earned trust as a reputable source, you can use it to promote your services/products.

  24. Very similar to tweet to download plugin which I installed and utilised recently.
    Actually, on that note - Kristi had something to say on the matter of demanding people tweet something before getting access to it.

    I personally think that if you have put yourself in a position where you have earned the trust that your content is good then you can definitely add something like this to your arsenal.
    Like anything new in social media - it all comes down to how you use it.

    So yeah, I personally think this whole concept is a great one. Many however it seems, disagree 🙂

    Thanks for sharing Ana.

    • Thanks for your opinion and comment, Alex. This is where a good name comes in really handy! 🙂