On the contrary, monetization via niche networks like Classmates.com may have to compete with general social networks like Facebook.  And trading off less traffic from users to paid traffic of users is not an all-or-none proposition. 

The launch of Buzz also has given speculation as to how to monetize social conversations via Adsense or other options.

And Activision reportedly says social gaming monetization is speculative, and focuses on content (with reporting all-time highs in digital revenues, including downloads & subscription-based revenue).

In the not-so-great news for people favoring the content subscription model, Newsday reports 35 subscribers after launching a paywall-based website.  As someone who grew up reading Newsday every day, it seems they will have to tweak their formula a bit in the complicated online & mobile monetization ecosystem.

And OneRiot is making trending ads visible to all.

Facebook continues to grow and many offer ways that they can be a money-making machine.  Among those include social gaming, such as via the relatively new Facebook payments.  Online social gaming remains a viable money engine (the link includes a video of an interview with Gurbaksh Chahal of gWallet).