LinkedIn, Twitter, And The Amazon Referral Model

LinkedIn do’s

By all means – tie your twitter account to your LinkedIn account.

Just don’t sweep everything in. LinkedIn users don’t want to see that you’ve checked in on four-square at the public market.

More followers than subscribers

And I did note that while I started twitter later, the number of followers on twitter grew past the number of subscribers to the site.

Besides the potential for easy twitter following and hesitation to sign up for yet another email, twitter has a large “game the system” contingent. I follow back most twitter accounts that look interesting, and do prune ones that followed me but then unfollowed after I followed back…

And in case you case you haven’t noticed – my twitter ID is @SteveTylock, and if you’d like to receive notice about new articles on the site, visit this page and leave your email address.

Book sales

Yes – I have a book.

The LinkedIn Personal Trainer has been on the market for six years, and I published the Revised edition last fall. It’s a great book to read when you’re just starting to use LinkedIn and are trying to figure things out.

If you prefer the Kindle edition, the formatting of The Revised LinkedIn Personal Trainer is enhanced for the reader, and priced even lower than the pdf. (why – because they require it…)

And if you prefer to hold a paperback on the beach, that’s over at Amazon.

Other people’s tweets…

And this is where it gets a bit more interesting.

As you might imagine – I watch the tweet-verse for mention of LinkedIn, the book, and myself (among other current interests). And I’ve noted a stream of other accounts hawking my book:

This is not my doing – really;-)

If I was doing it, I’d refer people to the Revised or Kindle editions…

But Why?

And here’s today’s business lesson.

If a twitter user clicks on one of the links contained in the tweet and buys the product, the owner of the amazon affiliate account that is connected to that link will earn a commission.

If one can create enough links to amazon products and entice enough people to click on said links, one can earn a monthly income.

And the kicker – the click-ee doesn’t really have to purchase the specific product. By clicking on the link and visiting amazon, the click-ee’s browser will retain a cookie that will credit the affiliate with other amazon sales for a certain period of time as well.

And since tweets are free, the “costs” of this business model are small. Someone with enough smarts could pay people pennies to find “well rated products” on Amazon and systematically create throw-away twitter accounts and use them to hawk products…

Full disclosure

Some readers may have noticed that I used amazon links to point to the paperback and kindle versions above – why yes – I do have an amazon affiliate account;-) And I’ll suggest that if someone is going to earn a commission by referring purchasers to amazon, I’d rather it be me than someone else. (I cannot however guarantee the book when purchased through Amazon – they get the money directly, not me, so I can’t “undo” that transaction like I could with a sale of the pdf on my site)

In any case – the book is optional – I’m happy to have you read the material on this site and refer it to those you know who need some help with LinkedIn.

And of course your support is appreciated;-)

To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock