Yes, that’s right… 60 followers. Not 600. Not 6,179 while I vacationed on the beaches of Cabo San Lucas. Just 60. Seems like such a laughably pitiful number, doesn’t it?

Okay, well, it ain’t much. Fact is, I’m a newbie to Twitter AND I’m a newbie to the passive income game. So I’m not expecting the world to fall down at my feet and sing my praises… though a verse every now and then would be nice.

The point is, my pockets aren’t empty from the experience. I managed to take the kiddo out to dinner with the proceeds, where I commenced to friendly-flirt with a really cute (much younger) waiter. I’d call that an all around awesome residual experience, wouldn’t you?

So you’re probably wondering, how did those $50 fungolas cross my path?

Person A followed me.

I followed Person A.

Person A had a look-see at my website, liked one of my articles and tweeted about it.

END RESULT = 4 sales!

But that’s not the end of the story

Then… I followed Person B.

Person B did not follow me.

I responded to something Person B said.

Person B and I did a quickie Twitter chat.

4 New followers joined Team Valentine.

END RESULT = 2 more sales!

Okay so 6 sales of The BIG LIST of Amazon Products isn’t earth shattering. But it does prove that there’s gold in those tweets. And that brings me to the real topic of this article…

What are the takeaway points here?

1) Being a follower isn’t such a bootylicious thing.

From what I’ve read, it’s better to have more followers than people you’re following… or at the very least have a somewhat equal balance. Since I started tweeting I’m following double (or more by the time you read this article) the number of people who are following me. Not surprisingly, I don’t give a hoot-suite (a little Twitter humor there)!

Numbers are a crappy metric for determining profitability in the Twitter game. I’ve scanned the forums. I’ve seen people with 30K followers who couldn’t get 20 clicks if someone were holding Hattori Hanzo sword over their left pinky. Twitter definitely isn’t a numbers game. It’s a clicks, kudos and cash game.

The key is to strike chords with the people in your clique, even if you’re only starting off with 10. How do you do that?

2) It’s more than what you tweet, it’s who you tweet with.

Twitter looks like a soapbox and without a doubt many marketers treat it like one. But therein lies the secret to success for newbie’s like me. In reality, Twitter is much more than a soapbox.

140 measly little characters can connect you with people who have the potential to send you clicks, kudos and cash. The secret to making it happen is to get off your soapbox and just talk to people.

Regardless of the superhero/rockstar/ninja status you’ve attached to your favorite A-list blogger, author or industry guru, the bottom line is that they’re just regular people at the end of the day. They tweet about random, ordinary stuff. They have questions. They have requests. Oh, and they need favors too.

You’ll notice these regular, everyday humanoid qualities seeping out as you read through their tweets.

And when they have a random, ordinary question… or a request… or a favor — respond to them. Not 14 hours after the designated tweet. The interaction has to happen immediately. Be witty, be conversational, just give them your best 140 character spiel.

Every time I’ve chimed in to a fellow Tweeter’s self talk, I’ve immediately gotten a few followers. The obvious truth is that if they’re following someone who I admire, and they’re paying close attention to that persons tweets, then I probably want them following me too.

3) Make a full frontal connection.

I’m following quite a few people on Twitter whose blogs and websites I’ve never seen prior to crossing paths through tweets. These are people I’d love to have as serious social networking buddies sometime in the future. But I realize in order to have this happen the connection must evolve beyond a Twitter retweet.

To really catch the eye of a potential social networking buddy, you should also: be a subscriber to their list… comment on their blog… submit guest posts to their blog (if they accept them)… ‘like’ them on Facebook… buy their stuff… offer testimonials on their products… send them personal notes of thanks or suggestions… attend their webinars.

In short, be an active participant – but not stalkerish. I mean you don’t have to do all of these things within the next 12 hours. Just start floating in their air space, and at the very least subscribe to their list and comment on their blog.

Sitting back and hoping someone notices you is a silly way to do business. As the old saying goes, “a closed mouth doesn’t get fed.”