Will people work harder to earn the chance at $100, or will they take a sure bet and sign up for a smaller amount?  Can Twitter work as a supercharged network for affiliates, or does Web 1.0 marketing still work best?  It's an interesting set of questions, and one that convinced me to try a Twitter experiment.

I just set up an affiliate account using ShareASale.com for my recruiter DVD store.  If you're on ShareASale, simply search for social media and you can add yourself as an affiliate, with links and banners and more. 

If you don't want to be an affiliate, but you want the chance to earn $100, simply write a tweet and use this link to reference the store:  http://cli.gs/ayNyuv

After publishing your Tweet, send me a note, reply, or DM (my twitter name is smheadhunter) and I'll add your name to a list for the contest.

That link contains the affiliate code, so whenever someone purchases from the store after using the link, the account I created is credited.  Once the affiliate account reaches $100, I'll put the names of everyone who tweeted the account in a basket and draw a name live on video (so you can see that I'm being fair).  Then I send the winner a check.  Assuming this doesn't take years to get to $100, I'll repeat over and over.

Update:  Super Grand Fun Prize.  Should this contest rollover 10 times in 2009, I'll add an extra prize of $1000, drawn from the ranks of those who won $100.  Contestants can win the regular prize only once, but if we have 10 winners, one of those people will get a $1000 check.

Possible Outcomes:

The most probable ending is few people Tweet and the account puts only small amounts of money in.  There is the possibility, that the nature of Twitter leads to a large jump in the number of Tweets and ReTweets, leading to a number of winners and of course, more sales.  Should it take off like that, blogposts and other forms of social media would lead to a large footprint all based on that affiliate code (http://cli.gs/ayNyuv).  People not directly involved in the contest could be helping those in the contest, simply by posting that link.  And those in the contest could increase the chances for everyone, without improving their own chances.  Should that happen, I think there'll be a case study in there.  In the end, we'll all win.  My customers will get a great product. I'll sell the product.  Several people will get $100 checks, and one may well win $1000.  All for the price of a tweet or retweet.

Rules and Clarifications:
This contest is only open to users of Twitter.  If the code is used elsewhere, while I appreciate it and so would all of the contest entrants, only the Twitter users will be eligible.  Only one entry per person, regardless of the number of times you Tweet. To win, you must be an active user of Twitter, a resident or US or Canada, and not a spammer.  I know how to identify spammers and those with lots of following and no followers.  I reserve the right to kick someone off the list if they're a spammer, but will tell you if I do and pick a new name.