I was thinking this morning about John Chows post about people not being able to monetize Facebook applications effectively. It seems as if the developers are great at making these things, but so far suck at turning the know how into dollars… until now that is.
Here is my fantastic idea of how you, or anyone else you know that can develop a Facebook app. Or, if you are a company, I would be going out right now and hiring two gun Facebook application developers to start work TODAY. Facebook developers do charge a bit for spec work (the best way for them currently to monetise their skills), but if I was a company, a large corporation like Coke, or Nike etc I would be paying a team of developers to build the next killer Facebook app.
It would have to be something amazing, that users just could not do without. A revolution.
Facebook is fairly new territory, so I am sure that there is at least one fantastic idea that no one has thought about. What i would then do is embed my branding in the app every way that I could. Not enough to distract people from using it, but enough so that there would be no mistake who made it. If people familiarise themselves with your brand via repeated viewing, AND also associate it with the great time that they are having on Facebook then it is exposure that is worth major money. People are addicted to Facebook, the use it to plan their lives, keep in touch with friends and have fun. A captive audience if I ever saw one.
The beauty of the idea is that you don’t have to be a big player to get this reach and exposure. A small business, or even SEO consultant or pro blogger could gain a huge volume of traffic to their site and and the way that it could build your profile would be phenomenal. Why not team up with someone that has come up with a fantastic Facebook app, get joint naming or branding on it and then promote it as hard as you can online
If you already have a great Facebook app, go out and try to directly sell advertising for it to a major corporation. Show them the reach figures that your application gets. How many pages it is installed on, how many views those pages get per month. I am sure that they will be staggered at the numbers and pay you something. An up front fee, a licensing fee per month. It has to be better then earning the pocket change that Facebook developers are getting at the moment.
I think I have given away enough money making advice for today, just remember me when you are driving that Porche.
OK Steve great advice on Facebook monetisation but I guess the trick of getting the killer app is the $10M question. I absolutely agree that FB is a great new way of getting the word out and that people are addicted to it. The joint branding idea is maybe even the crux of your argument and joint ventures avoid all sorts of risks in making a bad decision. Selling an app to big companies is also not a bad way forward and is down to classical selling skills. Are you going to take your own advice and do it?
You make insightful points. I concur with John Sadler. Will you take your own advice? if not, why not?
Also, Facebook developers actually forged quite a partnership with Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2007/05/24/microsoft-facebook-partnership.aspx
This reveals they actually make far more than pocket change.
I never really liked the whole idea of these Facebook applications, it kind of clutters the whole thing up. I have enjoyed using the facebook app that lets me show my RSS on my page as a way to get some of my friends to visit my site. As in making these for a profit, it seems the best potential is with marketing products or having some way to link back to an ad that makes money. I don’t see how any developer is going to cash in on drawing programs and other random facebook aps
I think I will definitely take my own advice, already in discussions with a few experienced facebook developers here in Australia, and studying the API at the moment to see what makes the whole thing tick.
There is vast potential in these social networks. There is a news article today that Microsoft has recently valued facebook at US $15Billion when they bought a 1.6% share of it recently.
Behold the power of the network.
Hey Steve sorry for off topic reply but
re your comment on my blog a while back “Are you going to be learning to tell other people “futuresâ€, or more for the self development angle?â€
Definitely the latter, but a bit of magic is ok too
Porsche…
, I Hope so Steve..
Steven, Can you tell me what’s Facebook ?.. bytheway, do you have a book which 50 e-bussiness as Title….?..and Yaro had been reviewed before..I can’t find in here ( Indonesia )
Might U send for me please..
I created my own app called, hang with Chingy, help the kids. everyone who signs up for the contest helps because i donate 25 cents to the foundation, but when they signup i get 1.15, so i make lots of money and donate a little. we both win