• Los Angeles Times, Thursday, April 15, 2010 2:52 PM

Even without Twitter's grand monetization model, the platform is lining the pockets of popular Tweeters. Indie rock band Hypnogaja, for instance, just parlayed its 1.2 million Twitter followers into $3,500 by plugging two aspiring musical acts, Daughtry and Boys Like Girls.

Hypnogaja's keyboardist Mark Nubar Donikian "is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs cashing in on their Twitter popularity." But they're not doing it entirely on their own. Rather, "they got the cash from Beverly Hills Ad.ly, a business that solicits Twitter promotions." Ad.ly is part of a new breed of "brokerage firms" that have emerged to match advertisers with Twitter users. Others include Sponsored Tweets, and MyLikes.

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