Get paid to tweet

If you’ve mastered Twitter, how can you make money from it?

There’s no one answer. Some journalists have cashed in indirectly by using Twitter to find sources for stories, or to find and follow publications or editors who they’ve subsequently pitched story ideas.

There are more direct ways to make money from Twitter too, including getting paid to live tweeting news events, meetings, conferences and other happenings.

I recently got my first assignment to live tweet a meeting, and shared my experience with April Choi, a freelancer for Ebyline, and a fellow Portland, Oregon, writer. In a Q&A that was originally posted earlier this week, Choi and I talk about how it went and how freelancers can get similar gigs. We also discussed Twitter chats and other ways writers can make money from social media.

Here’s the beginning of the Q&A:

You recently got paid to live tweet AARP’s annual conference for SecondAct. How did you get the gig? And how did it go?

I’ve been a regular contributor at SecondAct, Entrepreneur Media’s website for people over 40, since April 2010. I blog twice a week and write features and slideshows. I originally pitched attending the AARP convention, called Life@50+, for material for future blog posts, and my editor liked the idea. A few days before the conference, she offered to pay me to live tweet the conference. The original plan was to write a dozen or so tweets a day. I ended up doing a lot more – and she increased the compensation.

Do you have any advice for other freelancers who are looking to get similar gigs?

Know your way around Twitter. Live tweeting is reporting in real time, you have to have the mechanics of hashtags, RTs, etc., down cold because you’ll be working fast. If you’re tweeting news, follow generally accepted journalism practices. Approach publications you already work with first because they’ll be more familiar with what you’re capable of doing than someone who doesn’t know your work.

Read the entire post here: Freelance journalist Michelle Rafter on Finding “Tweet” Success