Toyota customers can tweet for cash

It's not just celebrities who can make cash tweeting about products--Toyota is offering its customers $500 gift cards to tweet about their new cars.

Toyota has launched its second annual Shareathon program that lets customers earn a little extra cash for tweeting about their plans to buy a new car. To participate, shoppers need to register on Toyota's Shareathon Web site by December 21 and tweet a scripted message to their followers. If they buy or lease a new Toyota vehicle by January 3, 2012, they'll receive a coupon code redeemable for a $500 prepaid debit card that they need to redeem by January 31, 2012.

Sound too good to be true? Well, for a lot of people it will be. Starting at 11 a.m. ET each day of the Shareathon event, only the first 140 Shareathon registrants will be eligible for the $500 gift card. But if you manage to score one of those spots, you can earn even more money by getting your followers to retweet your message. Each retweet will increase the debit card value by $50 a plug, up to $500 for a maximum $1,000 debit card.

Today, a search for #Shareathon on Twitter turned up several tweets from savvy shoppers bragging about their future $1,000 debit cards, while a couple were begging for retweets to help them reach their payday. Of course, they still have to follow through and buy the vehicle to get the card.