How to earn money on Facebook ?

 

 

If you know some things about software developing, you can create applications for Facebook. Indeed, this social network opened its service to outside developers, inviting them to create tools and to try to profit from them.

Many people, attracted by the possibility to get rich, have tried to create applications. It can be practical tools like the application which allows users to display on their profile images of their favourite musics, movies and books. But it can also be games or widgets (for example the one that let you turn your friends into virtual zombies).

Some developers claim that they earn thousands of dollars in advertising with the applications they created. It’s for example the case of Lance Tokuda, a californian chief executive, who created the « Super Wall », an application which allows the members to leave messages, photos or videos on other profiles. This application was successful, it has been added by most of the users ! This is an article from a website dedicated to Internet and new technologies, about the success of this application. 

The Super Wall application

Moreover, Facebook itself encourages developers to create applications. The company’s founder created an investment fund called « the FB fund », that gives grants to developers creating new tools. This is an article from ZDNet that talk about the creation of this FB Fund. And to encourage investments, he says that for little amounts of money in a short period of time, your application can expand very quickly. Indeed, the members are informed about the applications adopted by their friends, who can invite them to add the application.

I’ll give one example that illustrates this point. ILike was an Internet music company which created an application, the iLike tool, that has become very successful. It permits members to post their favourite songs’ clips, to buy tickets for a concert, and to see if their friends planned to attend it too. With this tool, ILike got much more traffic than with its own website. In this article from TechCrunch, the author says that it’s by far the most popular application on Facebook !

The iLike application

 

But be careful. Even if developing applications on Facebook can be a real opportunity to make money, the majority of the tools created disappear after a few weeks. Even if some intelligent geeks manage to earn much money with it, it’s rare to build a profitable business with sustainable revenues.

This is a website gathering the best Facebook applications. You can vote for your favourite tools, and see what the most popular applications are. 

And if you want to join the Facebook’s developers’ community, this is the page where you should go before building your application.