You may be getting a lot less social soon if the economy keeps de-bubbling.

LiveJournal, home of diaries, dreams, daily ruminations, and eye-watering slash fan-fiction for a decade, just laid off a buncha people (early reports said 20, LJ says "about a dozen").

LJ was one of the first sites to include social networking as a major component of their operating system and for many, many people it's still the place to go if you want to keep up with your friends' lives without being blasted with blinking neon ads for the latest Hollywood pablum or having to decide how to respond to a virtual vampire attack from the guy you barely know from Human Resources. But it's looking like their tiered payment-and-ad-supported system isn't making the beans it should. How will the economy affect other social networks?

Facebook (which just announced this morning that they hit the 150 million user mark) is ad-supported, with reasonably unobtrusive ads popping up on the side. MySpace went the hyperactive-used-car-lot route and plastered ads on every available surface of your profile. They and other community sites will probably weather the storm; adversity draws people together, and they'll need somewhere to share their pain (Mood: Homeless).

But what about Twitter? A micro-blogging-and-SMS service with no ads, no membership, no fees? I don't know what's keeping it going now, much less how it will survive when grocery stores begin holding customer gladiator fights for the last pound of ground chuck. Twitter lives on nothing but starlight and moonbeams, and about a zillion tweets about Obama. How will it survive?

I need Twitter. I keep track of my friends and their daily trials and tribulations, sure, but I also monitor the doings of actors like Wil Wheaton, Greg Grundberg and Felicia Day. I keep up on several news organizations, favorite authors, politicians, No. 10 Downing Street, which media people are being laid off, and what time Penn Jillette is going on stage in Vegas. Diablo Cody plans to live-tweet during the premiere of her new show "The United States of Tara" and I'll be there, even though that friendly stunt didn't keep "Drive" from being cancelled last year. Fictional characters live on Twitter in tiny little ongoing fan fictions; I was just followed by the characters from "Pushing Daisies," which isn't as strange as it sounds. When breaking news happens, people are already talking about it on Twitter. (Also lying about it, but the point is that it happens immediately)

Twitter can't coast on venture capital forever. (Can it? Is that the strategy?) Here, forthwith, are my suggestions for:

MONETIZING TWITTER

1. Ads on the site. Simplest, most obvious, and there's a lot of real estate there that goes unused anyway. Do we really need to see your background repeating that many times? Slap a Geico ad up there. Or try embedding ads, which is a little trickier to do since we only have 140 characters anyway. But hey, if it's that or nothing… Just add a filter that seeks out generic terms and replaces them with paid brand names.

"hummusgrl: Argh! Just dropped my QUAKER LOWER SUGAR INSTANT OATMEAL (APPLES & CINNAMON) and the dog got it. Rats!"

2. Occasional ads. Every 5th tweet or so, whip in an ad. Due to the episodic zen-ness of Twitter, it could even provide a nice random bit of weirdness:

"emoemoemo: It's all too much, it's just too much. I can't go on like this."
"captnwhack: Dude, don't talk like that. You're smart, you're funny, it'll turn around for you."
"emoemoemo: Yeah, right. Who's got it worse than me?"
"TwitterAd: Suffering from erectile dysfunction, like millions of other pathetic men? Try Viacuridium, quickly, before someone sees you!"
"emoemoemo: Wow. I feel better now! I think I'll go take a walk in the sunshine."

3. Fees. Anyone using a LOLCat reference shall be docked $1. Twitter'll be in the black in four months.

4. User services. Twitter is free and should be, but perhaps paid members could get a bit more. Colored text. Sticky posts. The ability to tweet right over someone else. 145 characters. The sky's the limit!

5. Merchandising. I'm honestly surprised this isn't out already. Where are the Twitter T-shirts? Hats? Cellphone cases? Tiny little notebooks for IRL tweeting? There are people making their own, of course, but shouldn't Twitter be pumping these out? I want a stuffed fail whale for my very own…

6. Video tweets. Let paid members upload video snippets of no more than 6 seconds long. They're vweets! Who knows what anyone sane would ever use them for, but that was the same question people had about Twitter in the first place. Go for it!

7. Integration with other media. Partner up with TV networks and movie theaters to run a dedicated Twitter stream on the screen, on TVs or in theaters, and let the Twitter community provide free running commentary for the amusement/horror of other consumers, a user-generated combination of Pop-Up Video and MST3K. Heck, I would pay to be able to tweet next to "Bolt" during the children's matinee.

8. Sponsorships. It works for athletic events and arenas, after all.

"Twitter: Welcome to new AXE Body Spray Twitter! Please note that 'tweets'" are now called 'spritzes'…"

9. Subscriptions. Sure, we can get casual updates from celebrities like Stephen Fry, Britney Spears, Shaq or James Gunn, but they're still guarded and "safe" (well, except for Gunn's). Let us pay extra to hear what celebrities are really thinking or doing right now.

"jessicastarlet: UR not a druggie if U leave some coke on the table, right right?"
"IStarredinRent3: Way easier to get screen time when the stars keep "tripping" out of camera. Whoops! Ha! Just hamstrung Meryl Streep!"
"richardthefamousdirector: OMG, how many dead hookers do I have to deal with this year? Best place to dump bodies in LA, anyone?"

10. Sell out big time. But not to Facebook, they won't pay enough to make it worthwhile ("Take some more stock options! They're super-absorbent!"). Instead, sell to a company that is a) based on the delivery of short, pithy communications, and b) desperately needs to get with the times and might pay big money to stay relevant: Western Union.

With just a few minor tweaks Twitter could become a money-making powerhouse, easily dominating the social networking, um, network. Revenue galore! Profit-sharing! Twitter corporate jets!

Until someone new comes along that's even cooler, without all that annoying advertising on it. I mean, geez.