Making Money Off Facebook

[natekapi]

Unless you're old or have been living under a rock you should know that Facebook is the shit right now. Everyone's talking about it and everyone's starting to use it now. Ever since they launched their applications API I've been really interested into how people are going to monetize Facebook.

I just saw this on TechCrunch yesterday too.

How Much Is A Facebook User Worth? At Least $0.30

The way people are monetizing Facebook apps is really interesting. fbExchange claims they've brought in over $200k in revenue after just two weeks!

So is anyone doing stuff with Facebook yet thats been worthwhile?

 

[zayd]

Something seems pretty off with this. The legitimate advertising on facebook is struggling while these apps are pulling in $200k just 2 weeks after launch? Maybe I'm thinking too much, but some of the people advertising through these APIs must be losing a lot of money.

 

[natekapi]

I was sorta thinking the same too. Because there has been a bunch of talk lately about how Facebooks CTR is sooo friggin low. I've always thought that these applications could be super profitable though.

 

[FreeKill]

I haven't looked at the API much, but I would imagine if you could come up with the right concept, it could be much more profitable than facebook ads themselves.

Facebook basically shows a single ad on the right hand side under the menu, and that's it for their ad placements. It's not surprising their CTR is very low.

On the other hand, these apps are embedded in peoples profiles in key locations and also are very viral in nature. Many of the apps automatically dig into your friends list and offer to email all your friends about the app you just installed. You actually have to say no to not have that happen...

If you could make a Facebook app that was interesting enough for people to want to install, but built in the ability to add in links of some kind or even image ads, I bet you'd make a killing...

I have read though that less than 1% of applications on Facebook achieve more than a few thousand profiles install base...