50 Cent & Snoop Dogg earn up to $50K a month on Twitter

Source: Heraldsun
CELEBRITIES are earning up to $50,000 a month promoting products ranging from cars to clothes on microblogging service Twitter, according to a British entrepreneur.

Arnie Gullov-Singh's comments came as the carmaker Range Rover prepared to announce today that it recruited 40 people - including British model Daisy Lowe - to drive one of the company's new cars and recount their experiences on Twitter.

Among those recruited by Gullov-Singh to promote products on Twitter are rappers 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg as well as Kirstie Alley from the US sitcom Cheers.

The practise raised concerns that fans who follow the stars on Twitter might not be aware that the promotional tweets were paid for.

Gullov-Singh, 38, has created a vast industry of corporately branded tweets in the past year.

As chief executive of Ad.Ly, he signed up 5,000 celebrities to praise companies including Coca-Cola and Microsoft, with the stars earning up to $50,000 a month.

"A year ago, celebrities were wary about their reputation, about selling out, but when they saw how easy it was to earn up to $5,000 a tweet, they flocked on board," he said. "We match up the celebrity and the suitable product, write the tweet, send it to the celebrity and they have 24 hours to turn it down or put it up on their Twitter stream."