How to Make Money on Twitter .

Amanda Palmer:
By now you have probably already heard of Amanda Palmer. She is the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist of the duo The Dresden Dolls. With over 457,000 Twitter followers, Amanda has become somewhat of a social media celebrity. Her usage of Twitter is impressive and can teach you a few lessons about how real-time social networking can lead to real profits.
Even prior to Twitter, Amanda was actively conversing with her fan base online and inviting them to gigs. “I certainly had the capacity to do this through my blog and my mailing list,” she said in an interview with David Meerman Scott. Yet Twitter, Amanda noted, has a very different feel from other communication channels. “It is almost like you are standing in the room with them,” she said referring to her fans. As a social media platform, it is more immediate, intimate and simple.

But before you start using Twitter as a promotional tool, Amanda noted, take a step back and examine your product carefully. Make sure it provides the promised value because no amount of social networking can compensate for that. Once you are confident about the quality of your product, set the right expectations in regards to promotion. As Amanda advised, “Tweak your expectations from the get-go” and don‟t expect miracles from social media. 
The way Amanda was able to make money on Twitter was a result of a very spontaneous idea. She was at home one Friday night, multitasking between checking her email and doing dishes, when she tweeted, “i hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER.” Before she knew it,
thousands of people joined the community of Friday Night Losers, using the hashtag #LOFNOTC for their discussion. “we collectively came up with a list of things that the government should do for us (free government-issued sweatpants, pizza and ponies, no tax on coffee), AND created a t-shirt,” Amanda later explained in her blog.
As the idea for the T-Shirt came up, Amanda embraced it and did the design herself. Her “web guy” Sean put together a quick site to sell the T-Shirts for $25 each. By the end of the night, they sold 200 shirts. On the next day, when Amanda wrote a blog post about the whole story, she made some more sales. In total, they made +$11,000.
Amanda‟s second win on Twitter was also born spontaneously. One night, she and her assistant launched a webcast auction, accepting bids for selected items from  Amanda‟s apartment. The webcast gave Amanda the right platform to share stories about the items and demonstrate their real value. In three hours, she made +$6000.

Marketing takeaway:
Amanda Palmer doesn‟t use just the physical space to perform—she successfully uses Twitter as her stage by expressing her identity dynamically and allowing fans to be part of a series of fun collective experiences. She hosts spontaneous virtual events for people who want to feel part of a special music-loving community. The takeaway for marketers is that your company should create similar spaces and invite people, making them feel comfortable, welcome and unique.