How To Change Twitter Background: Resources, Templates, Info.

UPDATE: Want to know how I’ve made seven-figures marketing online in a unique way and why I’ve decided to pack up and leave the ‘traditional’ internet marketing business?  Go to: http://www.robert-hawthorne.com Note… yes, that is ME… the guy behind WhackedOut Marketing.

Before I dive into everything you need to know when it comes to learning how to change your Twitter background, here’s the inside scoop as to how this Twitter backgrounds post came to be…

The past few days have been an all-out WhackedOut work-a-thon.  In other words, I’ve been crazy busy.  However, yesterday I did take a few mental breaks and decided to see how difficult it was to change my Twitter background.

First and foremost, I must confess that I know that I could easily hire a designer to design a customer Twitter background for me for about $100.  I’m a HUGE fan of outsourcing, especially items which are not within my skill sets, such as technical mumbo-jumbo.

However, since I was taking a mental break and I still wanted to be productive, I wanted to see if I could design my own Twitter background without getting frustrated.  And if any frustration set in, I was armed and ready to PayPal a designer to create a customized Twitter template for me.

Results From My Twitter Background And Template Search

I searched around on Google for: Twitter templates, Twitter background templates, customized Twitter backgrounds, Twitter skins, free Twitter backgrounds, and a few other searches when it comes to figuring out how to change your Twitter background.

For those of you who are much more technically inclined than I am, you may find it amusing for the fact that I had no clue on how to create a custom Twitter background.  For that matter, I don’t own Photoshop or any other image programs.  I had to do the best I could on my Mac.

The best resource I found is on a blog called, The Closet Entrepreneur where Tomas not only shows you how to create a Twitter background using PowerPoint, but he created a Twitter template that you can download for free.

My Self-Made Custom Twitter Background/Skin Journey

Thankfully (and I give thanks every single day) I’m a Mac user and the whole process is quite simple on a Mac.  For you PC users out there, you will have to jump through a few more hoops when creating your custom Twitter background.  (Yet another reason why you should go Mac!)

To find images that I could use for my background, I searched around a few 100% royalty-free image sites and saved several images to a folder.

I then opened PowerPoint, opened the images there, and used the image editor to WhackOut the colors and texture.  I did this with several images and saved them.

Next I opened the PowerPoint Twitter template that I download from Tomas and started to past the images on the page.

One thing that I had to do was make all of the images about 70% transparent so that I could still see the boxes outlined within the template.

Once I had my design the way that I wanted it, I went back through the images in my new WhackedOut Twitter background template and made all of the images 0% transparent.

I first saved the WhackedOut Twitter template as a .PNG not knowing any better and the file was way too big.  I then went back and saved it as a .JPG and that worked out perfectly.

To view my Twitter template design (and to follow me on Twitter of course!) go to: http://www.twitter.com/whackedout.

Below are some websites that I found on my journey trying to figure out how to change my background on Twitter…

Useful Twitter Background Twitter Websites, Skins, Templates, Etc.

1. The Closet Entrepreneur - As I mentioned, this is where I found a great Twitter background template in PowerPoint which I used as an outline to follow for my custom designed Twitter skin.

2. BibleMoneyMatters - Explains the importance of using a custom Twitter background to enforce your brand with your current and potential followers.

3. SuperSatellite - Offers a free Twitter background template.

4. LifeOfJustin - More info about branding and Twitter backgrounds.

5. Mashable - Information about making an extended Twitter profile (background).  Make sure that you also go through the 43+ comments on the post.  You’ll find some useful links and other information about Twitter backgrounds.

6. IdeasAndAngles - Offers a Twitter background skin in Photoshop to download for free.

7. LiveCrunch - Blog post: “Create Twitter background for free with Twitbacks”. (just added!)

Bonus: How To Make Money With Your Twitter Background!

8. ReadWriteWeb - Make money by selling ads on your Twitter background?  Huh?  No kidding.  Some Twitters could be making anywhere from $8,000… to $15,000… even as much as $64,000 per month just by selling advertising space on their Twitter background.

9. Magpie - Service which sends out ads in your tweets.  (More ads. Hmm.)

10. BloggingTips -  Provides more information on how to make money online selling ads on your Twitter background.

11. Twittad - Here’s a place where you can go right now and start making money by placing ads on your Twitter background.

Show Us Your Twitter Background/Skin!

Do you have a great Twitter background or know someone who does?

Reply to this post with your list of the top Twitter backgrounds and/or show us your custom Twitter background that either you created or hired someone to create for you.  Let’s dig around and see if we can find the best Twitter backgrounds on the planet!

Let’s See Some Skin!  (Your Twitter skin that is.)

~Rob