Here are a couple reasons for why you might want to build your own:

1. Personalization and expression

2. Enahnced Contact info

3. Personal branding:

4. Artistic creativity 

What would a Twitter resource guide be without some useful Twitter apps? Not only do many of these tools provide pre-designed backgrounds, but many can also automatically update your background, provide detailed information and FAQs, and even fully-functional image editors. Here are a few of the best:

1. MyTweetSpace: MyTweetSpace is one of the simplest ways to create a Twitter background with minimal effort. It allows users to create badges, add graphics, play with text, and more to create elegant backgrounds and left-hand text columns. You can even log in with Twitter and MyTweetSpace will automatically update your background.

2. TwitterBacks: This website provides a set of templates perfect for creating your ideal Twitter background. The templates come in PSD (Photoshop) form. In fact, my Twitter account utilizes a TwitterBack template as the basis for my design. Can you guess which one?

3. TweetStyle: TweetStyle offers free background templates, custom Twitter backgrounds, and a few useful blog posts on the subject of the backdrop.

4. Free Twitter Designer: This handy little app provides an easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme.

5. TwitBacksTwitbacks: This is another tool for creating backgrounds. This one specializes in left-hand column-based backgrounds.

6. TwitterGallery: TwitterGallery is a directory of themes based on color and category. You can even click the “install” button under any theme, log into Twitter, and poof!…your background is ready.

7. Peekr: If you stumble across a great Twitter background and want to take a quick look at it in its pure form, the Peekr bookmarklet is the way to go. Click on the bookmarklet once to show only the background, and press it again to bring everything back to normal.

 

You can drive more traffic to your WordPress blog by using these two features.  By keeping them in a highly visible area of your site, your encouraging your readers to use these tools to follow you. 

Feedburner.com is a great tool to manage and track your RSS feed. Feedburner also lets you create link to allow users to subscribe to your feed by email. Providing both these links gives choices to your readers. Google’s Feedburner help will walk you through setting up Feedburner.  Feedburner will provide you with code you can use on your wordpress.com blog.  Using the wordpress.com “text” widget, you can embed the feedburner code. Google also describes how to use the “subscribe by email” feature.

Feedburner provides you with the opportunity to embed Adsense ads within your RSS feed. Now, wordpress.com users can take advantage of making money with your blogs.

Subscribe to my blog

Here’s what you need to do: 

1. Go to Twitter and login. If you don’t have an account click here.
2. Click the ”Settings” link at the top of the page.
3. Go to the “Account” tab and fill in your info.
4. About the middle of the page, you’ll see a link for “You can also add Twitter to your site here”. Click this link.
5. Click on Facebook and follow the instructions. 

- Steve Hart

Key Tweet Later Features – for  Free 

• Schedule tweets — Plan, set & forget! 
• Send welcome DMs to new followers — Automate! Follow those who follow you — Automate!
• Unfollow those who unfollow you — Automate!
• Vet new followers — Semi-automation!

Private Welcome Direct Message To An Individual Follower
With this option TweetLater sends a private welcome message (you supply the text), to a new follower.

What Should You And Should You Not Say In Your Welcome Message? 
Write a very simple welcome message. If you really want folks to unfollow you, then try and sell them something with this first welcome message. Very few people like that. 

 The purpose of this message is to say hello and welcome. Most people take a dim view of you when you do any kind of self-promotion with this message. If your message smells remotely like, “Hi, thanks for the follow, now buy my stuff or do something that will benefit me or check out how cool I am,” then you really are misusing this welcome message. Don’t send what you wouldn’t like to receive from others.

- Steve Hart