Twitter was originally not intended for making money, it was meant to be a social networking tool with different techniques but similar concepts as Facebook and MySpace. However, Twitter has become very much about making money, no matter if by tweeting links to products or services, or by selling tweets or even followers.

Although there are still many of you who tweet primarily to socialize, I'm sure some of you have considered monetizing these efforts. You may have though about making some money with all those tweets you send and all those followers you have. After all, it's not hurting anybody. And as long as it's not taking away from the value of your tweets, why not?

Bellow you will find my top 10 picks for monetizing your tweets without "selling out" to absolute commercialism and absolutely ruining what you're trying to communicate to your followers. Especially since some of them may be peers, friends or even family.


1. Twittad

Twittad offers you an opportunity to monetize your Twitter stream in a fully disclosed and ethical manner. As one of the first sponsored Tweet networks, we have tweaked and modified our service over the last 2 years to provide you with the best solution for sponsored tweets.

Twittad


2. adCause 

adCause matches advertisers with publishers (twitter users). Publishers will get paid show ads in their twitter feed. The more influence you have on twitter, the more money you will make. Because you are in complete control of the advertisers that you approve or deny, you don’t ever have to worry about showing an ad you weren’t prepared for. If you run network ads, you can be assured that they will match your subject matter.

adCause


3. TwitPub 

TwitPub is just another fantastic way to monetize Twitter. The best way to be rewarded for generating quality content (or tweets) is to get paid for it. All you need to do is to have a Twitter account and set it to private (or protect your updates so it’s not publicly visible) in your Twitter settings.

TwitPub

4. Ad.ly 

Ad.ly enables you to monetize the valuable content you are producing in streams like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Ad.ly pays you to send an ad to your followers on behalf of brands you love (like an ad unit placed inside your stream). You approve each ad before it’s sent, and every ad is disclosed as an ad to your audience.

Ad.ly


5. PayMeTweets 

To give Twitterers a Twitter-like interface to advertise on or make money from Twitter. Keep it easy. Keep it quick. Keep it Twitter-like.

PayMeTweets


6. RevTwt

Become a Revtwt publisher so you can earn money from your Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates and wall posts! It is free to join. This may not work for everyone. To make money, you will need lots of real human followers who are the intended target audience of the ads. Give it a try for a couple of days. It is free. If it works for you, stick around and make more money. If not, you are free to delete your account at any time.

RevTwt


7. Assetize 

Assetize is a Twitter Monetization Network for publishers and application developers. Assetize was to help large publishers and individual tweeters monetize their content. Since then, we have also been providing monetization opportunities for application developers.

Assetize


8. MyLikes

Become an Influencer on MyLikes and earn money or help your favorite charity by recommending what you like. Create Sponsored Likes for advertisers/sponsors that you Like, post them on Twitter and/or embed it your Blog. You get paid per click and your cost-per-click is set and constantly adjusted based on how influential you are and how relevant your Likes are.

MyLikes

9. BeTweeted

Just sign up, select links that are relevant to your friends and followers, and tweet them. We keep track of every time one of your followers clicks a link that you tweeted (including all your friends’ retweets of that link) and pay you per click up to the advertiser’s maximum budget.

betweeted


10. twtMob

Earn money every single time you tweet some of our cool content to your twitter followers including music videos, movie trailers, comedy scetches and more. Like I said…cool stuff! No infomercials, get rich quick schemes, and other BORING stuff that none of your tweeps care about.

TwtMOB


Although there are more such Twitter money making sites, be careful as to which ones you choose to use. I personally have had bad experiences with some of the most popular of these sites. I would definitely recommend against using Magpie, Sponsored Tweets or LinkBee, considering that the time and effort you need to invest and the reputation you are jeopardizing are not worth the pennies these sites want to pay for your tweets.

You may want to contemplate using one of more URL shortening sites, since you will probably be shortening links anyway; why not make a couple bucks doing it? I suggest trying out either Adjix or TweetBucks or both.

Be advised, if you really want to make REAL money with Twitter you will want to find a product to sell or service to promote. Even the legitimate sites above pay only "chump change" compared to what you can make promoting your own thing.

Or you may want to consider using Twitter for what it was intended; to socialize.

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Sources: Personal experience and the article, "15+ Best Sites To Make Money With Twitter”, by S.Pradeep Kumar, appearing on HellboundBlogger.com.