monetizing an app on facebook

[laurieed2002]

I read on the site that a gentleman made money from having users install a toolbar and he also stated that he would send part of the proceeds to charity; here is the excerpt so you can more clearly see what I am referring to:
"So what is the best way of monetizing an app?
So what's the killer idea? It involves using a little ingenuity and here's an example of an implementation; an example of a company that made a million a week with a really simple strategy.
Impossible? Not at all.
The idea is best demonstrated by the first three minutes of this youtube video [[Link now dead - Clinton]] Watch it. Seriously, watch it! (The speaker has [[link now dead]] to say about it on his own site)
Here's a summary for those who can't access that video. Note: Spoiler ahead - look away now if you don't want to know what's in the video.
The video explains how a facebook app associated itself with a popular charity and offered to pay the charity $150 for every 1,000 Facebook users who signed up. Sounds very altruistic till you realize there's a toolbar involved and a CPA - cost per action - program, and the company makes $0.80 -$1.00 per download. 1.5 million people downloaded that toolbar in a week. In a week. That's what? $1000-$150 or $850 per thousand users and 1.275 million dollars in a week. "
Can anyone give me details about this? I cannot load the video and there isn't enough info in this excerpt to tell me how I can do this. Did this person create a facebook page and then urge people to download a toolbar because the proceeds would be going to charity? I think this is a great idea because I know of a charity that I would love to use this with but I need more details. Thanks in advance for anyones input on this!

[mpcovcd]

Uhh Clinton where did you say you were advertising again? Hopefully it wasn't DP...haha

[Clinton]

mpcovcd, there are some great posters in DP. The trouble is that they get lost in all the noise. If there's some way to reach just those quality posters - especially the ones who have interest or experience in website buying/selling - I'd love to know. I certainly wouldn't want this to become another DP (and probably couldn't - I don't have Shaun's talents). I'd measure the success of this forum by the quality of the posts and the knowledge and sharing the members bring to it rather than how many posts there are.

laurieed2002, I removed the links in your post. Not because there's anything wrong with them per se but it looks like they lead to dead ends. The original video seems to have been removed and that youtube account seems to have "moved on". You post refers to and quotes from an article I posted on the experienced-people site some years ago about opportunities with Facebook. Could anyone shed any light on that as a way of making money?

Also, has anyone here every made any money from a Facebook app? Or built/bought an app?

[laurieed2002]

Sorry, I suppose I should pay more attention to when the article was posted. In the internet world, if something sits unused, i.e. user accounts, videos, photos, etc they eventually find themselves swept in to an internet rubbish bin somewhere and the space they were using is relegated to more useful and up to the minute information. I guess because the interent is growing at such a fast pace, some trends, info, etc gets left behind for someone who is trawling the web for information (like myself) to stumble upon in their quest for knowledge. I still, if anyone has some good leads, would like to know about monetizing apps or toolbars via facebook, or any of the other large social networking sites. Once again, thanks in advance for any info in that arena!

[Clinton]

they eventually find themselves swept in to an internet rubbish bin somewhere

The biggest problem on the net is that the sheer volume of stuff that should be swept into this bin!

There's $500 million to be made this year in Facebook apps. CPM ads are the easier, but pay the least. Engagement is the key. Engage with your users in sufficiently imaginative ways and you can earn a lot of money from them - from getting paid very well for things like toolbar downloads to selling them virtual goods to getting them to complete surveys to charging a usage free (more). Not all the monetizing links on this page are worth visiting but some make for interesting reading.