Lurn has profited with Twitter because of these simple practices … and you can too!

Here are the best practices for building out a long-term, high-payout Twitter account.

Our in-house Twitter expert, David, spills the beans about the most important tactics for affiliate marketers. We sat down yesterday, and I made him tell me right then and there what the keys to our Twitter success are.

Check them out below:

1. How many tweets? The biggest question we hear is "how many times should I tweet each day?" Here’s the answer: post two tweets a day.

2. Mix it up. One of those two tweets should be a helpful link for your particular audience, as opposed to a sales link. You want to provide real value to your followers, not just ads.

3. Space it out. Have a few hours between your tweet posts. Do one in the morning and one at night. If you have trouble setting aside time twice a day, try using a tool such as SocialOomph (you will have to register for a free account) to schedule your tweets and have them sent when you’re asleep or doing something else.

4. Make it pretty. Use a link-shortening tool to help hide the fact that it’s an affiliate link. In Affiliate Classroom, we provide a tool that not only shortens your links, but also tracks the clicks to your links.

5. Link to your own blog. Have some of your helpful links point to your blog posts. Post blog entries that are helpful to people or give them value in other ways. Getting your Twitter followers onto your site deepens the relationship you have with them and builds your readership.

6. Be fun. Link to funny stuff in some of your tweets. People love a laugh, and you want your readers to consider you a real person, not an information machine. You may want to stick to your niche (if you have built a niche following) so that you can have “inside” jokes that are more likely to get laughs from your readers.

7. Be a hot source of ideas. Take note of interesting sites you come across. In a typical day, you probably find many more compelling or helpful sites and tools than you expect, and if you have a targeted following, you can help them out by sharing.

8. Research it. To find valuable links, simply research topics that are of interest to you or your followers.

9. Be a “watcher” and re-tweet (RT). Follow the best Twitter accounts in your niche. How to get started: There are sites that provide a list of popular people who you should follow. You can also use Twitter Search to find the most frequent and popular tweeters on your niche. When they tweet something interesting, re-tweet it to share it with your followers.

10. Stir it up. Ask open-ended questions to draw out responses from your followers. This will result in other users replying to you, and in doing so, they are using your Twitter ID in their responses. That means that your ID appears on their feed, and all of their followers can click to learn about you and begin following you. This approach is key to "snowball" growth of your followers.

11. And shake it up. Ask controversial questions in your tweets. Ask people to give their opinion on an issue. In this way, you are interacting with others. Your followers will like to see that you are not just putting on a sales front but are engaging and there to help. They’ll also be more likely to recommend you to their followers — again, growing your base of followers.

Time to Get Started!

If you haven’t already, sign up for a free Twitter account at: http://www.Twitter.com.

Once you’re set up, start tweeting! Use the 11 tips above to make the most of your account!

Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lurn_inc & http://twitter.com/affclassroom.