People say Twitter is a time waster. I think it depends on how you use it. One awesome opportunity to turn this "time waster" into something really useful is to learn to save money using this platform.

3 Ways to Find the Most Tweeted Deals

The following services work the way we are used to by now: the fresher the deal is and the more votes it gets, the more popular it becomes. Most popular deals end up hitting the front page – that’s the way Digg and Reddit as well as smaller social voting sites work, and this is a great way to save money.

CheapTweet, CouponTweet and TweetMeSavings work this way. People submit and up-vote the deals by Tweeting them. Deals are grouped by category and seller name. You can tweet any of them right from the service page.

2 Ways to Take Advantage of Bots that Tweet to Save Money

There are two Tweeting bots I am aware of that allow to search and compare prices without even leaving Twitter. TinyMassive works like this: you tweet your product name and include @TinyMassive into the message. In a few seconds you get a public reply containing:

1. Your @Twitter-username;
2. The requested product name;
3. The minimum price found;
4. The link to product search results for more options.

Retrevoq is another similar twitter bot to consider.

3 Accounts You Should Follow to Save Money

Many of coupon code directories and aggregators are on Twitter already, so keeping track of deals and coupons may be done directly from there. I for one do it the following way:

1. I use Seesmic desktop app that allows to add and aggregate several Twitter accounts;
2. I create a separate account to follow all my money-saving accounts, and whenever there’s an update, I get a pop-up update: never miss a deal!

Here are a couple of recommended Twitter accounts that daily tweet coupons and deals and helps you save money:

• @CheapStingy (by CheapStingyBargains)
• @WiseBread (by WiseBread.com)
• @BabyCheapskate (by BabyCheapSkate.com)

5 Twitter Hashtags Your Should Track to Save Money

A hashtag is the way to organize Tweets by topic. To monitor a hashtag, you can either use a desktop app (like Tweetdeck or Seesmic) or use web-based tools like "What the Hashtag?". The best money-saving hashtags to keep track of are:

• #bargains;
• #coupon;
• #coupons;
• #freebie;
• #freebie

What other interesting ways do you save money using Twitter?  Tell us in the comments!

Tired of boring daily work? Why not try some other (fun) ways to earn a little bit of money? You won’t need any special skills or resources: just a bit of free time to earn some cash daily. 

1. How to Earn Money from Your Pictures

ShareAPic pays you cash if you are good at sharing your pics uploaded to the service; the details:

• Get paid $0.22 per 1000 pic views;
• Pay out within 30 days
• Payments via PayPal
• Alternative prizes: gift certificates from Amazon and eLuxury

2. How to Earn Money With Your Knowledge

JustAnswer pays its experts for answers the provide to the random user.

• Earn 50% (25% if you are new) of what a customer is offering for an answer;
• Payout threshold: $20
• Payments via PayPal

3. How to Earn Money with Online Coupons

Buxr offers you the way to earn money by sharing online coupons and deals. If you found a great deal, share it on Buxr, create compelling title and description and hope the community will find it useful.

• Daily prizes: $10 and monthly prizes: over $100
• Alternative prizes: mugs.

4. How to Earn Money by Participating in Social Networks

MyLot is a social media community that pays its members for being active: participating in discussions, sharing photos, refer friends, etc.

• Payment threshold $10
• Payments via PayPal

5. How to Earn Money by Completing Simple Tasks

Amazon Mechanical Turk pays you money for completing "HITs" – Human Intelligence Tasks – simple tasks which are either impossible to do for a machine or work as a machine enhancer (a good example of such a task is Google image labeler which helps to improve Google image search).

Sample HITs: answer the question "Are these two products the same?" or complete the easy task: "Find the item number for the product in this image."

• Rates depend on hits;
• Payments via Amazon Payments account

This is a guest post by Ann Smarty, who does SEO and Internet Marketing when she’s not writing for blogs-named-after-food.  Want to write for Friedbeef’s Tech and share your tips with thousands of people?  Drop me a line.  We’re looking for paid regulars, as well as guest appearances.