I used to think a lot about monetization, then I ran the numbers. For the simplest service I could monetize (image hosting), I could make about $80/mo. There are a few other things I could turn on, but it would probably not get me past $500/mo, and would introduce lots of headache. Better to build now, monetize later when we have the scale for it to matter.

Plus, I fully expect to monetize something other than my current project. Making a living off a twitter clone seems dubious, but there are many good businesses to be built on nostr.