Twa-Ching - Twitters Monetization Paths

So a couple days ago I wrote about "exec-tweets" and how stupid I thought the concept was. I also said in the next couple days I would write more about my ideas for Twitter to monetize their platform. So here we go... The "Buy A Friend" Option? A little while ago, Jason Calacanis threw out that he would pay $500k to be listed as a suggested user for 3 years. Twitter turned down his offer. But people are now saying they are entertaining the idea of it. But is it a good value? Sure you will no doubt have millions of followers but will they actually care about what you are doing like natural followers would? I can use myself for an example. Before I started the Twitter contest, I had about 10k followers and got about 500 unique visitors from Twitter each day. The contest virtually doubled my followers to 20k+ and now I am almost at 23k. But the traffic to my site from Twitter is about the same. Hmmm.... To be honest, the "buy a friend option" for Twitter IMO is not good for them. It artificially inflates users "trust" with the community and does not give any value to the person paying. I equate this kind of traffic to pop-up, interstitial, or incentivized traffic. It's just not going to convert very well. So what can Twitter do to make money? Offer Premium Accounts Let me pay a monthly fee for premium features on Twitter. I took a straw poll with my friends and every one of them said they would pay $10 a month for a premium account. Not one of them even asked what the features would be. I can throw out some ideas though: 1) Give me unlimited or more API calls. I use like 6 different computers and have Tweetdeck on each one. I also crank up the updates so its like almost real time. This sucks when I leave them logged on cause I always have zero API calls. 2) Buy something like Twitpic and give me unlimited hosting. 3) Buy something like 12seconds and allow me to add video to my twits. 4) Let me use animated gifs. 5) Put a little thing around my avatar that says I am special (premium user). 6) Let me rotate multiple avatars. 7) Let me use animated avatars. Seriously, I could go on all day for features they could add. In my opinion, this is the best way for Twitter to monetize their service. It keeps the integrity of Twitter and also will make them a ton of cash! Subscriptions 4tw.