Speculation is once again running rampant as to how Twitter will make money. Earlier this week, the company threw its support behind ExecTweets, a mashup of sorts that aggregates Tweets from top executives that is sponsored by Microsoft and the brainchild of ad network Federated Media.

Meanwhile, today Twitter once again indicated that paid accounts are in the works, telling The Wall Street Journal that they are “watching the outside initiatives closely as it prepares to launch its own fee-based services this year.”

Those outside initiatives include the likes of Glam Media's integration of "filtered Tweets," and our very own Twitter Brand Sponsors at Mashable. Adding to the mix, developers of applications for Twitter are beginning to experiment with their own business models too.







TwitterCounter charges users looking for more followers for front page placement, while stock market analysis community StockTwits today announced its own intentions for eventually launching premium services, a smart move considering the already large market for investment research.

So how do Twitter’s money-making ambitions fit into this mix? I think “watching outside initiatives” is exactly what Twitter should be doing, considering they have plenty of cash in the bank.

As for what users will be willing to pay for, early signs point to activities that will get their brand a larger following on Twitter, which can correlate directly to more traffic and business. A combination of analytics and pure-play sponsorship and advertising seems likely, very similar to the way Facebook allows brands to setup Pages for free, then buy ads to promote them to a very specific subset of users while tracking performance with the Facebook Insights platform.

The beauty of Twitter is that it’s opt-in, so while such a program might sound like “selling out” on the surface, you can ignore ads and brand accounts to your heart’s content, if that’s the direction Twitter goes in. In any event, the transition will be fascinating to watch.

More Twitter Resources from Mashable: