Monetization of a social network

thanks all. great suggestions. i guess the next step is finding a reliable company that can deliver and are used to monetizing a social network, any ideas? i know there is Citizen Agency. I wonder if a few online ad agencies are going into this new hot space that requires internationalization.

just a couple of ideas...not 100% sure how community would respond:

1. Corporate lounges/groups - Companies can set-up their own group and for a "fee" they additionally get:
                promo highlight "group of the month" in groups main area
                additional functionality (i.e calendar of events) - might need some additional IT dev.
                tie in with other promo opps

2. Sponsored Alerts
                provide promo spot in alerts / feeds (wondering when Facebook will leverage their email alerts with promo spots)..

my 2 cents...

yeah - i like the way TechCrunch does their sponsorship here.
6 boxes, quarterly contracts minimum (i believe)

Couple things come to mind, though I don't know if the system makes these feasible:
1) Adsense or a similar program, with the option for members to pay for an ad-free experience.

2) Premium content area.

3) Pay for direct access to experts for Q&A/chat purposes.

The premium content option is what SEOmoz did. They now have more than 1200 premium members paying $50 a month! And they just raised $1.25M - seems like a good plan.

Interesting. So that I am clear... they provide free content (that anyone can see), and then they provide premium content (that only paying subscribers can see)?

This sounds a little like what WebMasterWorld does?

Here is a copy and past from SEOmoz's website...

Become an SEOmoz Premium Member

Looking for the best tools and techniques to improve your rankings? Join hundreds of other Search Professionals who know that SEOmoz Premium Membership provides exclusive access to SEO Tools, Tips and Premium Instructional Guides that are invaluable to anyone trying to learn the secrets of achieving top rankings.

“... having access to SEOmoz Premium Tools and Articles is giving me an edge in understanding and applying SEO techniques. Learning from Rand and his team has been the most fulfilling experience for me. It's like having a private course in SEO.”

-Dan Miron, Search Marketing Professional Learn More About Premium Membership

I am not sure this is entirely correct.
I get the feeling that SEOmoz is an SEO firm.
For the $50/mth I think they provide SEO services on the client's websites?

SEOmoz provide premium content in the form of special reports, and have members Q&A and special tools just for members.

They also provide SEO services of various types for a number of clients, not all of them are revealed publicly.

Do we know those are 1200 active subscribers? There has to be a good percentage of people who signed up for 1-2 months and are no longer paying, right?