Making Money from Social Networks?

In her post On the Monetization of Social Networks, Gladys Priso writes:

"An article on the economics of social networks published by the Economist Online, concludes that “social networking may end up being everywhere, and yet nowhere,” because it is not clear how companies will be able to monetize that pattern of behavior."

Experience suggests that migrating a free-service to a paid service rarely pays off. The content would need to be unique in terms of either content, accessibility or connectivity to like-minded people. LinkedIn appears to provide services that allow payers to see everything about every LinkedIn member. I happen to know many people who find that service of great value.

So perhaps the users continue to get access to social networks for free, but the advertisers, marketers and recruitment consultants provide the revenue stream for the site owners. However I do feel that with good brand management the social networking sites can cultivate the exclusivity effect needed to attract impressionable cash-rich surfers.