ThingLink's Twitter integration is good news for affiliates

It’s often been debated whether affiliates can make money from Twitter. I’ve seen case studies where large brands have tweeted out offers and failed to make any commission at all.

However, I think affiliates can make money from Twitter and previously the key has been to find the right sort of tweet-deal combos. In particular, I found “no brainer” and low cost Groupon et al deals make for fantastic tweets from region/local specific accounts.

Yesterday, ThingLink announced Twitter card support which means ThingLink enhanced graphics can now appear as rich media in Twitter.

Apologies for the lack of artistic talent but I whisked up a quick example.


In summary, it means Twitter affiliates can move away from the headline/deal style tweets that seem most successful at earning commission and start to dabble in the realms of creativity again.

ThingLink allows affiliates to combine attention grabbing, retweet worthy, visuals with useful and in-context links. You could, for example, tweet great album art and ThingLink, via affiliate tracking, to the individual tracks on iTunes or add in a calendar graphic and affiliate link to ticket sellers.

You could tweet images of tech and toys, ThingLinking via affiliate tracking, to reviews or sales pages for the items you were showcasing. This works very nicely for the sort of tech that product pages early but exact specs a little later on such as mobile phones.

Of course, ThingLink is both an enabler and a challenge. The service is free up to the first 100 pictures and then asks for money. £20 a month allows for unlimited uploads and “weekend affiliates” (like myself) may struggle to earn that money back. It’s also the case that these tweets must point to your ThingLink page rather than ThingLink enabled images on your own site and that lack of control may worry some folks too.

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