About Our Service

Twit Pro Quo is a new and exciting way to expand your reach on Twitter. Our goal is to help the entire Twitter community build a diverse and well rounded group of followers, thereby enhancing Twitter's already amazing feat of encouraging global connectivity.

We developed this service based on the latin phrase "quid pro quo", which in simplest terms, means "something for something". As such, it is based on giving and receiving.

Define: Follosify ... [fol-lo-si-fy] -verb
1. A whimsical term derived from the combined principles of Follow and Diversify
2. To make a Twitter profile rich and diverse in its following courtesy of Twit Pro Quo.

  Inside this Document:

    1. Browser Requirements
    2. How and Why it Works
    3. Possible Notifications
    4. Revision History
    5. Create a Custom Referral Link
    6. Tips & Other Recommended Services

Browser Requirements

This site has been designed to work with all of the relatively modern browsers. We have tested it in Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13, Firefox 3.0.1, Opera 9.64, Google Chrome 1.0.154.53, and Safari 3.1.2 (525.21).

Your browser needs to support:

- AJAX + JavaScript
- Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
- Cookies (for referral info only, nothing to do with Twitter credentials)

Mobile Version: While we do not currently have a mobile version of this available, we may consider developing it if the demand is great enough. Feel free to contact us if this is something which you would be interested in. Be sure to mention your mobile platform.

Feature Requests or Bug Reports: If you find that something doesn't seem to be working correctly or have thoughts to share, please contact us via the Feedback page.

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How and Why it Works

We've spent many late nights at the drawing board trying to devise a service which would effectively provide more to our users than what they are asked to give in return.

In the case of this service, what our users "give" is not something tangible; They simply follow 10 new people on Twitter whom they may not have found otherwise. More often than not, what they receive in return for using our service is to gain more than 10 new followers.

We know, this probably does not sound mathematically plausible. We'd like to think, however, that our pizza-eating, caffeine-drinking, eccentric-midnight-code-writing efforts will be able to pay off for everyone. Please allow us to explain:

THE QUESTION THAT STARTED IT ALL:

"How can someone Expand Their Reach on Twitter WITHOUT Burning Countless Hours or Breaking their Bank Account ??"

INTRODUCING TWIT PRO QUO:

Twit Pro Quo combines the following principles to facilitate our intention:

1. Mutuality

Once you have followed 10 people from our site's queue, chances are that at least a couple of them will follow you back. While we do not control this aspect of things, it can generally be assumed that whoever uses our service is aware of the etiquette involved in mutual following.

2. Our Service: Queue

We have designed our app such that you will receive no less than 10 new followers each time you use it. When you use our service, you are added to the site's queue. This is basically the line of people who used our service before you got here. Each person who uses our site stays in the queue until they have gained 10 new followers from us, and then they are removed. In fact, upon arriving here and using our service, chances are that at least 5 of the new people which you followed were from our queue (the rest would have been based on those who referred you here - more details to follow).

There is no limit to how many times you can use our service, however, you cannot use it if you are currently in the queue (you'll need to wait). On that note, we provide you with the option of entering your email address so that we can alert you once you've gained 10 new followers from the queue (and can then use our service again).

3. Our Service: Referrals

This is where the main power of our site lies. The potential for dramatically expanding your reach through this is enormous. You will be taking full advantage of this as long as you leave the option "Don't post a message on my Twitter page" UNCHECKED. Here's why: Upon using our service (unless you have specifically opted not to do this), we will post a message to your Twitter updates which contains a tracking link for others to use this service. As you may have already guessed, when others are referred by you to use our service, you get credit. This enables the people which they refer here to follow you, and then the people they refer to follow you, etc ... all the way up to 5 degrees of separation from your account. That's a lot of people!

Another benefit is that you can receive referral credit (and new followers accordingly) even AFTER you are out of the site's queue. So... if somebody reads one of your Twitter updates and visits our site (but decides not to use it at that exact moment), they have 30 days to return to the site and use it in order for you to receive credit. Additionally, those who use our site multiple times are still providing credit to the same referrers. That means if you refer someone to this service, and they use it more than once, the link contained inside their Twitter updates will provide you with credit from the original time which you referred them here. The only exceptions to this are if 30 days of no activity pass, a user deletes their browser cookies, or they are referred here by somebody else in the future. The idea is that you should consider using our service on a regular basis.

Note: Tracking links created by our system are structured such as: http://tpq.me/ab1de
(where ab1de is a random 5 digit alpha-numeric string). Such links are valid for 60 days after they have been created, which should be more than enough time considering that they are posted to Twitter updates (which tend to lose visibility after a much shorter period).

If you need a tracking link which lasts for more than 60 days, please see:
Create a Custom Referral Link

We will now provide an example to more fully illustrate what we mean:

# New People Followed: 0
# New People Following You: 0

Part 1: You visit our site and decide to use our service for the first time. You opt to post a message to your Twitter updates so as to maximize your potential reach.

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 0

After using our service, 2 of the 10 people which you followed decide to follow you back.

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 2

Part 2: Being added to the site's queue, you automatically receive 10 new followers.

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 12

Part 3: A message appears on your Twitter updates. 2 of your existing followers are enticed to use our service. Messages are then posted to their Twitter updates. You get ReTweet credit for those messages and gain 1 new follower just for your name appearing in the "RT" (the person followed you without actually accessing the referral link to our site).

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 13

For each of your followers who posted a message, 2 of their followers decide to use our service. That equals 4 new followers for you at 1 degree of separation from your account.

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 17

Remaining consistent with the above example, let's apply the same principle all the way down to 5 degrees of separation from your account:

1 degree = 2 messages x 2 followers = 4 followers gained (already included in total = 17)
2 degress = 4 messages x 2 followers = 8 new followers gained (+ 8 = 25)
3 degress = 8 messages x 2 followers = 16 new followers gained (+ 16 = 41)
4 degrees = 16 messages x 2 followers = 32 new followers gained (+ 32 = 73)
5 degrees = 32 messages x 2 followers = 64 new followers gained (+ 64 = 137)

# New People Followed: 10
# New People Following You: 137

Of course, the above example is meant to be a conservative estimate only. It does not include potential repeat visitors which you refer here. You may find that you receive more or less followers when you use our service. The good news is that you can do this as many times as you would like (as long as you've waited to receive the minimum of 10 new followers from our queue each time you use the site). Also note that the above results will not take place instantly. Please allow sufficient time for people to follow you back, read the messages, get processed through our queue, etc. Additionally, the fact that our service is free is a major benefit, and should maximize the number of people willing to participate.

USER STATISTICS

Everyone who uses our service is provided with statistics free of charge.
To view them simply visit:

http://twitproquo.com/stats/[your Twitter username]

Statistics currently include:

- Who has followed you through our service
- Who you have followed through our service

You might also be interested in our subtle Recent Usage Statistics page.

You may be wondering - What's in it for us ?

Well, at this point we are not offering any sort of premium "paid" services. We may or may not in the future, depending on the demand for more advanced features. Also, we may or may not instate ads on the site periodically to help cover our operating costs.

Any ideas along these lines? Let us know.

One benefit which we do receive as a part of this service is the fact that our users automatically follow us as part of the process (we follow them back, as well). The benefit will be mutual in the end because we will be able to notify interested parties of new and exciting features or changes via our Twitter updates. This is far less obtrusive than emails, and should result in a win-win scenario for everyone (oh, how we love those!).

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Possible Notifications

While using our service, there are a number of notifications which you may receive based on a variety of conditions. Below is an explanation of such messages:

1. Authentication Error

" Could not verify a valid submission. "
This means that your browser failed our standard security check. You might have just left our site sitting idly for too long. Try again. Please ensure that your browser is able to accept cookies from our site, otherwise you will always receive this message.

2. Missing Credentials

" Please enter your Twitter username and password. "
Either your Twitter Username or Password was missing when you tried to use our service.

3. Authentication Failed

" Twitter username / password combination was not accepted. "
For whatever reason, your Twitter credentials were not accepted. Several possibilities include a wrong username or password, a suspended account, exceeding Twitter's rate limit, etc. It's out of our hands, please try again.

4. Follosification Error

" TWPQ service failed at Step [X]. "
Something went wrong during the Follosification process. The error is logged and we have to determine whether it was our fault or yours. You can use our service again after about two minutes. Once again, please ensure that your browser supports JavaScript and cookies.

5. Already in Queue

" You are already in the site's queue. "
This indicates that you used our service recently, and as such, have not yet gained the minimum number of 10 new followers from our site (remember - this does not include the new followers which you receive from direct referrals). Simply wait a short while and try using our site again. If you provied us with your email address the last time you used our service, then we'll send you an email once you can add yourself back into the queue.

6. Account Temporarily Blocked

" We have detected one or more errors when processing you in our site's queue. "
We detected possible issues relating to how your username was trying to access our site. Wait about two minutes, and then try again. This measure is in place for YOUR protection.

7. Process Completed Successfully

This is our favorite message!
It indicates that everything ran smoothly and that you've been able to fully utilize our service. We recommend that you provide your email address so that we can notify you once you're out of the site's queue - that way you can come back and re-add yourself, thereby gaining even more new followers. We do not use your email address for any other purpose.

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Revision History

May 18th, 2009
- Added Chitika premium ads on certain pages to help recoup operating costs

May 15th, 2009
- Added a promotional line to the email notifications http://tpq.me/special

May 7th, 2009
- Incorporated logic to handle downtime due to Twitter maintenance.

May 6th, 2009
- Added Revision History section to the About page
- Correction to the follosification process to prevent automatic device updates
- Fixed an occassional bug preventing users from receiving an email notification
- Prevent a user who has reached their follow limit from acquiring an unfair # of followers
- Allow someone with RT credit to be followed if the user is currently not following them

May 5th, 2009
- Correction to remove suspended accounts from the queue
- Minor adjustment to handle a user reaching their follow limit with Twitter

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Create a Custom Referral Link

You may choose to create a custom referral link if you have multiple twitter accounts to promote, or would like to link to this service from outside your Twitter profile. Simply follow the steps below and we will create a URL for you to use. By using this feature it is assumed that you have enough of a working knowledge to set up and use your link properly.

1. Would you like referred visitors to RT a specific Twitter account in their message ?
This option applies if you are posting the link INSIDE one or more of your Twitter updates. That's because those who will see the message are already following you.

For example, if your primary Twitter account is Bob and you will be posting this link for the followers of Bob to see on Twitter, then enter Bob below.

RT @

2. Enter up to 5 Twitter accounts which you'd like to receive credit for the referral:
If you entered a Twitter Username for RT above, DO NOT include it below.

Option A: If you will be posting this link inside a Twitter message, include any of your OTHER Twitter accounts, or several friends, if you wish. The account which you are Tweeting from should go in RT above.

Option B: If you are NOT posting this link inside a Twitter message, be sure to leave the above RT field blank, and include your main Twitter account in slot # 1 below.

1. @
2. @
3. @
4. @
5. @

3. Here is your custom URL. You may copy and save it for future use:

We recommend that you use a URL shrinking service such as TinyURL to reduce it. Because this is an advanced feature, we cannot offer any technical support with it. It is our hope that we've explained things in a straightforward manner, and that the above function makes sense.

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Tips & Other Recommended Services

Below are some recommendations for using our service most effectively:

1. Use our service regularly, but don't be a spammer
We recommend that you use our service at least once per day, depending on how quickly you are expended from the queue. The key to this, however, is to ensure that you are posting enough content to your Twitter updates so that our messages aren't the most frequently appearing ones! Remember, nothing replaces the need for you to engage your Twitter following with your own content. A sure way to get unfollowed is to spam your profile.

2. Change the wording of your messages
Post unique and enticing messages about our service to your Twitter updates instead of repeating the same message over and over again. We offer several different pre-written messages for you to use, but don't forget to add your own flare to them. If people see that you are posting the same message repeatedly, then you might be labeled as a spammer and lose followers. This goes back to the concept of keeping your followers engaged.

3. Experiment with the time of day
It has been reported that your messages have the greatest chance of being viewed during Twitter's peak usage times. Typically during business hours on week days. But we recommend that you space out your messages so that the widest variety of people will receive them. Remember, some use their computer primarily during the business day, while others go online in the evenings and weekends. Switching up the time of day increases your chances of having more people read your messages.

We like these tools for managing our followers and for Twitter automation:

1. HootSuite is a sleek web-based tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts, scheduling tweets, viewing click-through statistics, etc. Also includes a URL shortening service.

2. Tweepler A handy way to process your new Twitter followers. It includes features to follow or ignore individuals, thereby reducing clutter and helping you to stay organized.

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Feel free to contact us via the Feedback page if you have any other questions or remarks.
We hope that you find our service to be useful!

Remember, a Tweet or Follow is just as good as a donation... @twpq

TwitProQuo.com ~ 3835R E Thousand Oaks Blvd # 175 ~ Westlake Village, CA 91362 ~ USA
Please note that we are not affiliated with Twitter. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc.