This week at Web Worker Daily, Aliza Sherman wrote Mine Twitter’s Wealth in 15 Minutes a Day. She offers a 3 step, 15 minute program that will help you keep your Twitter time under control and make the most of it.

According to Aliza, this is the way to compress your Twitter time into 15 minutes a day (with heavy snipping on my part–so read the original):

5 Minutes: Listen, Retweet

Start by “listening” on Twitter to get a sense of what people you’re following are talking about. Scroll down a page or two’s worth of tweets and skim until you see the ones that grab you. Then retweet them by copying their tweet being careful to give them credit.

5 Minutes: Listen, Respond
Next, listen to see who is speaking about something of interest to you or something you can respond to authoritatively. You should also check who has mentioned you or addressed you in their tweets in your client or by searching for @yourtwittername.

5 Minutes: Promote, with Care
Let’s face it — many of us are using Twitter to promote who we are, what we’re doing, and even what we’re selling. There is nothing wrong with promotion on Twitter, but do it with context — think about how the information fits into your Twitter persona.

It's a constant concern of bloggers who get asked to write in places other than their own blogs. Should you always get paid? Should you work free sometimes?

The Times I Wrote for Free by Deborah Ng at Freelance Writing Gigs talks about the decision to take unpaid writing jobs and why she might choose to do it. She mentions reasons like getting referrals, landing other gigs, and filling up a resume with projects that look good. Her conclusion: it can be valuable if you know exactly what's in it for you before you agree to work for free.

Have you noticed those Intuit ads on TV lately promising you a great business website for about 5 bucks a month? Cre8pc's Kim Berg has. She took a look at what you get for your money in Intuit Web Site Setup Service Misleading. Kim takes a satirist's approach to the ads, and thanks Intuit for sending business her way.

I would like to thank Intuit for their hard work in bringing me new clients. It came as quite a surprise that you support my web site usability and SEO services.

Imagine my surprise when I flipped on the boob tube for several minutes while making tea from the comfort of my (very busy!) home office and there you were, all professional sounding like, with your (dare I say it?) sly and devious commercial to small biz web site owner hopefuls.

But, Kim, my nephew will make me a site for free!

Julia from The Digital Guidebook has trouble stying focused while working in the free-styling environment of her own home. She suggests Using a Time to Balance the Work Day at Home.

I am not a natually high-energy Type-A personality, so I need to train myself to stay focused. One way I do this is by using a timer. I set a digital egg timer (I use a timer from Apimac for my Mac, but there are several free timers available for Windows as well) for a period of time that will be easy to concentrate: if it is a particularly tough day, this might be only ten or fifteen minutes. For this time, I work, with no distractions, no matter what. When the timer sounds, I reward myself with a very short break.

I use the timer process over and over, and write on a scratch pad how many times I have done it, so I know how much work I have put in. Then I gradually increase the time on the timer, so that I am working for 50 minutes and relaxing for ten, or working for two hours, relaxing for fifteen.

Julia suggests that the timer method can help people who don't get distracted and never take breaks to improve their work day as well. Take a break, people!

There are many more bloggers talking about technology and social media that you may enjoy. Check BlogHer's Blogging and Social Media topic for more great reading.

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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor|Web Teacher|First 50 Words