• by Gavin O'Malley , April 15, 2010

Even without Twitter’s grand monetization model, the platform is lining the pockets of popular Tweeters. Indie rock band Hypnogaja, for instance, just parlayed it 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,� The L.A. Times explains. 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.