The downside to Twitter is the amount of people who sign up and make a post, but then never return. Currently these abandoned accounts are never deleted, so it's up to you to update your follower and following lists keeping them clear of these abandoned accounts.

Finding Followers:

Besides being able to add your friends and email contacts to Twitter, they also provide a handy search box to help you find people to follow.

One of the best ways to get followers is to follow others first,. There is one check you must do before adding someone to your list, the most recent post date. Just adding thousands of people to your twitter list will not bring you followers. Twitter received a lot of buzz and attracted a lot of tire kickers, but if you aren't paying attention then you could easily end up with the majority of your list being people who haven't logged on to Twitter for a months, and they won't be coming back to check out your profile anytime soon.

So step one to a clutter-free Twitter is to follow the right people. I will search for a particular term, and flip through the list, signing up to follow only people who have posted in the last 7 days. Also I will not follow anyone on their first post, I want to make sure they will be coming back on a regular basis.

Culling The List:

As your lists grow, you will want to check your following list and un-check those who have not posted for a while. I like to use a 30 day rule. Every time I log on to Twitter, I check 5 to 10 people in my list, and stop following the ones who have not made a post in the last 30 days. Many people don't post every day, or even every week, but chances are if they have not posted in the last month, they probably won't be posting again.

Following Followers:

Step 3 is returning the favor. Whenever you log in, check your follower list to make sure you are returning the favor to everyone that is following you. Unless they are just spamming the Twitter system with affiliate links posted every couple of minutes, there is no reason not to give back.

Posting With Links:

When writing a post with a link, whether to your site, an affiliate link, or just something cool you found, there is no need to place a full URL. Just using the www.sitename.com format will automatically make a clickable link.

While affiliate links are okay, try to post valuable content as well. Just putting up a bunch of obvious affiliate links will lose your following.