A couple weeks ago I wrote about the fact that Twitter is now the 2nd biggest source of traffic to my blog behind Google.
Since that post, I have received a lot of questions from people asking me how I market myself or the blog on Twitter. The answer is, “I don’t.” What I do, however, is make it easy for people to “retweet” my posts.
So how do I make it easier for people to retweet my posts? The first HUGE thing I did was implement TwitThis into my blog. I forget how I originally heard about it, but I’m pretty sure it was from seeing other big blogs (like TechCrunch, Seth Godin, Mashable) and high profile sites (like MSN Video) use it. The list goes on forever.
After doing some research on TwitThis, I’ve realized it’s probably the biggest, baddest Twitter service that most people have never heard of… or at least don’t realize they have heard of it. Yahoo shows that it has over 6 MILLION backlinks and its root domain is a PR8.
I also noticed that on Google, it’s the first site after Twitter to rank for “Twitter”.
I was really intrigued by the fact that some people looking for a service just like TwitThis had never heard of it. So I tracked down the company’s founders to pick their brain. It turns out they are super humble guys (totally opposite of me) and played down just how much it is used. A quick search on Twitter shows that it’s used many times every minute.
So what is TwitThis? It’s basically a REALLY easy way for your users to retweet your blog posts.
Implementing TwitThis into your blog is so simple. They’ve got great plugins for WordPress and Blogger blogs, and I really like the Firefox bookmarker that let’s me just click and tweet the page I’m visiting.
This morning I just saw that TwitThis has launched a suggested users engine. Basically, the more you use the service – the more times you are suggested as a user other people should follow.
Sounds pretty hot! Being the site is used hundreds of thousands of times a day, it looks like a great way to connect with people. How do I know?
Well, I actually talked the people at TwitThis into letting me be a suggested user a couple weeks ago. Sure enough – I picked up about 5k followers in a couple days during my Twitter contest. This is going to be pretty hot…
Here is the page on their site of how the suggested user system works:
Want To Be A TwitThis Suggested User?
Start Earning TwitPoints Today!I want to be a suggested user. How do I earn TwitPoints?
* Submit a URL to TwitThis and earn 5 TwitPoints.
* Follow a suggested user and earn 10 TwitPoints.How are my TwitPoints used?
* Each time someone follows you, it costs you 1 TwitPoint.
* Every 1000 times you are the suggested user, it costs you 1 TwitPoint.
* To keep the ecosystem fresh, users are taxed 10% of their TwitPoints daily.How many TwitPoints do I need to be a suggested user?
* The more TwitPoints you have, the more times you will be a suggested user. For example, if you have 10% of the TwitThis economy’s credit system, then you’re the suggested follower 10% of the time.
Wow! So all you have to do is use the service. The more you use it, the more exposure your profile will get and the more followers you’ll start having. Sounds crazy easy.
Here is what the “Suggested User” looks like when you are about to submit a URL to TwitThis:
I gotta give it up the guys who made TwitThis.com – one of the very first Twitter services. They have been at it since March of 2007 and have made steady improvements over the years.
What is the easiest way for you to use TwitThis and get more Twitter exposure? Click the TwitThis button in any of my posts like hundreds of other people do every day. 
Awesome work guys.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ll give them a try, thanks for the tip.
OMG… I really need to give it a try, thanks for the information….
Is this pretty much the same as TweetMeMe. I installed the TweetMeMe plugin this week and it appears to do the same thing.
I use tweetmeme also but its 2 totally different things. They do compliment eachother well.
hhhhmmmm, and some folks are saying that Twitter is a fad that won’t last?
Seems to be building to a bigger and better service all the time!
This looks pretty much ingenious…it looks like its going to generate an incredible amount of twitterspam…but that won’t really hurt the twitthis guys…
Where do you see the Suggested Users?
I came up on the twitthis plugin a while back while doing research for MR v2.0 and was shocked that I had not heard of it yet.
I have no doubt that once implemented Twitter will go from my #7 traffic source to easily in teh top 5. Maybe even top 3.
–Chubbs
Which one works better, your “retweet” widget, or the TwitThis widget at the bottom of your blog posts?
just looking at stats the tweetthis is used about 10x more
I recently updated my blog with the Twitthis feature, and I have to say, I really like it.
I especially like how fair the point system is kept to everyone has a chance at being a suggested user rather than some big names dominating it like everything else.
Works well on my blogger blog
Just installed it on my WordPress blog… easy as cake and works nicely. I’m digging theTwitter!
Thanks Shoe.
Jeremy,
What’s up with Twitter doing Maintenance at 3PM ET on a Wednesday, hump day. Are they crazy or really smart, this hour of maintenance could have been done at 3AM… My Guess is just a marketing plan, what do you think?
TIA,
DG
Do what ever work!
Very simple yet again very useful idea. I implemented it to my blog and waiting for the retweets
Instead of hearing about how you get traffic to shoemoney.com, let’s hear how you do it for the other ones Shoemeister…
I actually haven’t heard of this until now. It sounds great, checking it out asap. Thanks.
I’m looking forward to implementing this on my blogs and will be looking forward to the results in anticipation. I’m still not too convinced about Twitter and its benefits though…
Looks like a great way to just inflate your twitter numbers while making your list of followers compared to that of myspace friends… Big numbers mean nothing unless the people are actually interested in what your saying
How’s this for a big number?
A bajillion!
I just assumed Dave made this.
I was waiting for the right moment to see if I could get him to give me the code to put it on my site!
Thanks for pointing this out, I will put it in my almost done theme rebuild.
By the way, all the social stuff on you blog is just getting cleaner and cleaner and better and better.
How’s this for a big number?
A bajillion!
Hows that for a dumb ass who comments on their own comment accidentally!
Hmm, this is interesting.
I’ve just got into twitter, and I’m starting to realise the power.
Just about to start a blog on my site too, seems like a sign I should use this plugin to me.
Not sure how effective the new followers will be though – smacks a little of the whole myspace friendtrains…
Still, can’t hurt to try.
David Raybould
Sweet. Installed.
Thank you very much for sharing this. You are not selfish at all. I am going to install that right now and I’ll see.
Let us all know how well it goes!
This is really awesome to implement in your blog. Thanks for sharing this service with us. I’m going over there now.
Interesting, As big as twitter is, and as fast as it’s growing, as site like this is only going to get bigger and better. A service like this is very necessary for not only blogger, but also for news media. Imagine how much easier their news would travel through stuff like that and through Twitter to quite a few other users. The whole “retweet” thing is also growing, i see it on more and more blog every single day, and those who don’t have it yet are working on implementing it.
That’s why you are there and we’re all reading your post! Thanks for throwing a bone to us noobs every now-n-then.
you seriously are a noob because your spamming every blog other there michael your not even contributing to the post now are you?
I’ve also heard Twitter’s real-time search. I’m tracking…
Thanks for share.
I know, it’s totally silly and shallow, but that’s precisely why Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app.
Twitter is an awesome social media network; ideal for bloggers, no doubt but other domains are also using it to their advantage too. In todays fast-paced society where you can find out anything 24/7 you almost have to be on top of it and Twitter is awesome at providing this — maybe because it has so many users.
Not only is the ‘tweet this’ a great tool, so is the ‘retweet’! I think we can expect to see more great things and ingenuity from them.
Thanks for such a great input Shoe, Now i am going update by blog with this widget in couple of hours from now.
I think ShareThis has TwitThis in it. But a good idea to have it separately.
Nice one hey, I get a lot of visitors from Twitter as well, but i need to work on making it easier for visitors to do this as well..
I use TweetMeMe plugin at one of my blogs, will see how these two will work together
This is the same for me. That is why I still use Twitter. The traffic I get from it and Twitter-related urls is awesome.
I’ll have to add this to my blog
. thanks for the tip Shoe.
Twitter is an amazing sources of traffic. There is no question about it. But the fact that a tool that is used to tweet your posts can be a source of traffic comes as a surprise to me.I have never used Twitthis, but I think I will want to use it now. There are quite a few other useful twitter tools like Tweetdeck, Tweetmeme, twitterfeed etc for people who would be interested in using twitter.
Twitter is doing amazing works in terms of traffic over few months now and i am really enjoying it very much
Holy Cow! 6 Million backlinks, I would be happy with 1,000 backlinks but 6 million… one word…WOW!
This is awesome, I just ‘Twit This’
Jeremy … I must say that you have the capability to bring the news even from hell.
You can reach at the base of every news.
As usual you know how to give us the real advice to improve our visibility on the web.
Thanks for always sharing the good tips
Since I discovered Twit This I have lots more posters to my free ad board.It is a great tool to get great Free exposure where you need it.Feel free to post away and have your ads seen on this ad board for 10 days straight.
I hop it works better than twitters suggest a friend feature…that one it total crap!
Awesome! Was looking for the wordpress plugin for a couple days now with no luck… glad I found it here (or at least the link to it). Just installed it and so far so good… thanks!!