Recently, I came across a post outlining how Twitter could make billions of dollars. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it is a “micro-blogging” site where users can use up to 140 characters to answer “What are you doing?” It seems that this service keeps blowing up, and more and more businesses have been using Twitter to reach their clients in a new, and instant way. (We are one of those companies, and you can follow us @KGBAdvertising)

Some people are thinking of ways for Twitter to turn their service in to a “cash cow”. Two of the ideas presented are rather feasible. Both “In Feed Advertising” and “Subscriptions” are things that tie in nicely and can be done in an unobtrusive matter. However, the second option, “SMS Advertising”, seems to be out-of-touch.

Users would be perfectly fine if every 100-200 or so SMS Tweets they got an advertisement. If/when Twitter turns on SMS advertising they will have the largest independent inventory of SMS advertising in the world. You think Google or a carrier mighty be interested in that

Personally, I only have 500 SMS messages a month to share between myself and my wife. I had to turn off most of the Tweets coming to my phone because we already go through most of our alloted SMS messages without Twitter’s help.

I am sure that the people who have unlimited data and messaging for their mobile phones might not mind an extra SMS tweet every now and then for an advertisement, but the rest of us who are on limited plans are going to get hit in the wallet. Also, if I give my mobile number to a site for specific use, I am not going to want them to be able to turn around and add my number to an advertising database.

On paper, the idea may be solid.. but where are the considerations for the users? When money comes in to the equation, should the concerns of the users be thrown out the window? If you alienate the users, does the monetization even matter?