This week's article about Twitter's business model comes to us courtesy of none other than Harvard Business, which, possibly because it's Harvard, takes the unusual tack of supposing that not only does Twitter have one, but that in "just a few short months" it will be "the most sophisticated around."

At the very least, give them credit for refusing to fall back on the oft- (and over-) repeated line about how for such a popular company, Twitter sure isn't doing much earning.

Harvard's take: Dependence upon advertising is fraught with danger; with Twitter's recent deals to provide search results for tweets, the San Francisco-based company is set to make money by driving traffic to other sites. (Until now, the article points out, Google has been the only company to do this in a wildly successful way.)

There's also money to be made via direct sales (Harvard uses the example of Dell using its Twitter account to unload excess inventory, of which Twitter could conceivably take a small cut); business accounts to help companies reach their customers; and verified accounts (to ensure the veracity of whatever business one is transacting with), among other possibilities listed in the story.

In fact, says writer David L. Smith, "most publishers have one or two ways to monetize their efforts. I have outlined at least eight which Twitter will probably use, and there certainly will be many more."