The ad spending pie for social networks is continuing to grow as agencies and businesses are targeting them to the tune of almost $1 billion dollars this year.
MySpace (NWS-A) will get over half of that with about $525 million being set aside for them alone. Other social networking competitor sites like Facebook and Bebo will be competing for another $200 million.
Online portals have about $100 million set aside for marketing on them. And vertical (niche) networks are projected to have about $45 million ready to be 
invested in them by marketers.
These are probably being way understated as so many existing social networks also use Adsense and other programs as means of monetizing their sites, among other ways.
We should see these marketing dollars increase as companies and agencies track and measure results that give them even more information on how their dollars are performing. Something I think is holding them back a little now. This will just take time.
In the social networking arena, I think that vertical networks will be the ones that really start to attract dollars in the future as they grow in size and influence, while serving a very targeted audience.
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