How I learned about the Monetary Potential of Facebook Pages
Three years back I heard from a friend that his other friend is making almost $3000 monthly off his Facebook page about funny pictures. At that time my blog was hardly earning me 20 cents a day despite being constantly trying to lure in some good traffic. So, I was obviously intrigued by the fact that people are making some serious money on Facebook using their facebook pages. I went on to check out the page of that guy and it had more than 400,000 likes. 3 years back it was indeed a big deal to have a page that big. Before I go on about how he was making money, let's discuss facebook pages a bit.
The Facebook Page 'Reach' Algorithm
A few years back, the Facebook fan pages were a big source for some heavy traffic. They still are but very few such pages are now left who can actually send in a lot of traffic. I'm talking about genuine Facebook pages here not the fake ones who have nothing but spammed likes and following. Facebook uses "Reach" algorithm to determine which page gets to be the most successful one. Facebook pages are governed by the reach they have not the number of likes when it comes to delivering traffic and performance. You'll come across thousands of pages who have more than 100,000 likes but these pages are hardly reaching even 0.2% of their traffic. There are so many factors determining the reach of the page but my observation tells me that those pages that have been there for 2 or 3 years and have been consistently active, tend to perform the best.
You might think that most of these pages get those huge number of likes by Facebook advertisement. Well, that might be the case for huge agency facebook pages but for majority of them, it's a total different story. I'll give you example of my own Facebook page that I started back in 2012 after getting inspired from that $3000 a month guy. My page was about art & photography as I do both. For almost a whole year I kept my page active with some real good content. Get many artists to like the page and after sheer amount of hardwork and also after some $100 investment in Facebook advertisement, I was able to gather 20,000 likes on my Facebook page. Not much but it was indeed a happy moment even to reach that many people.
How I got 100,000 Likes in 20 days on my Facebook Page
I wasn't able to give much time to the page afterwards cause it was frustrating and I never really felt of asking other facebook page owners for share exchange and all those methods for increasing like as those would never have gotten me the audience who would be genuinely interested in art & photography. A few months later I restarted posting on the page the similar content. This time things were different. I was actually getting a lot more reach now which at times felt weird. It encouraged me to increase my tempo. I utilized Buffer app for automatic posting and posted different eye catching photos almost 10-15 times a day. Things got drastically fast.
Within 10 days my page reach started touching millions. My Facebook page likes increased from 20,000 to 120,000 within 20 days. I quickly established a small blog in order to utilize this change and started getting some seriously heavy traffic on to my pics blog which made me $400 from adsense within those 20 days. At a certain day my Adsense account was actually hitting $50 per day which was very satisfying especially when you get to make on only 20 cents a day off it. Things were going great. My revenue was increasing exponentially but then after exact 30 days, the drop started. My page's reach started going down as it went up. The blog traffic was equally effected. It was time to turn things off.
Nevertheless, that experience actually taught me the most important thing going on Facebook. Pages who have already crossed the million mark have a huge earning potential. Secondly, Facebook algorithm works in a total random manner. You never know when could your page be up and running. Let me assure you again that I posted the same content as I did before so nothing got viral. It was simply a play on Facebook's part that allowed my page to reach to its full potential.
Now enough with the story line. On to main part as to how I actually earned those $400 in 20 days with my Facebook page?
When it comes to earning from Facebook and looking at today's stats, you need a seriously active page that is reaching more than 300,000 to 400,000 people. This means your page has to have likes upto the million mark just to be on safe side. How to get there? Here are few tips:
15 Tips for Making it Big with Facebook Pages
- Post in content that works.
- Don't post in any links or text posts. They actually decrease the overall reach of the page.
- Pictures are always the best thing to get page started. They work a lot better than other type of posts.
- If you can create comics or create unique funny videos that you have made yourself, you can harness the ultimate potential of Facebook.
- Page like Humans of New York are based on such unique work. These page didn't get viral overnight. Their owners worked tirelessly to make things happen. So, never underestimate the importance of content and hardwork.
- Page like Earth Porn, Word Porn seems to be run by some group of friends. These pages are at the pinnacle of successful Facebook page that are making thousands of dollars.
- Finally, pages like 9Gag and Damnlol were the pioneers of funny pictures based websites and Facebook pages. They are now probably making more than millions so don't even think about competing with them. Yes, I did try to clone these and I failed badly so trust me at this ;)
- Share your content with your friends. Sharing is the key to getting more reach. Likes also do matter but shares are the best way to reach the market exponentially.
- If your content is worthy enough, it will automatically get shared.
- Remember, you won't get to a million mark in days unless you're spending thousands on Facebook advertisement. It might take years before you can actually hit the million mark owing to the competition on Facebook now.
- Keep posting at least 10-15 pictures a day. Use tools like Facebook schedule or Buffer app for this purpose.
- If you're really desperate for audience, start asking for link exchanges from pages that belong to your niche. (They never reply)
- You have to engage the audience somehow through your content.
- There is no shortcut.
- Finally if you have reached a spot where your reach is doing great and you're getting upto 1000 likes on one picture than you are ready to monetize your page.
Using Adsense to Earn from Facebook Page
I would recommend starting a wordpress blog to get things started. Buy a custom domain and a small hosting account. The total expenditure for all of this could be up to 40-50$. Once done sign up on adsense through that domain after a week or so. Adsense accepts clients who manage their own domain on their own hosting account so even if you're in an Asian country, you'll be able to sign up for Adsense easily.
I would recommend putting your adsense code above and below your post and use the large square ad blocks. That do the best for me. Once you are satisfied with the design and have almost 10-15 small picture posts or any useful content ready, you can post a link at your page. If the content is worthy enough, you'll start seeing instant hits on your blog and if you're getting around traffic 2000-3000 people on your blog, you'll start seeing results instantly.
There are a lot More Ways to Earn from Facebook and Facebook Pages
So guys these are just a few tips regarding facebook pages just to get things started for you. I'll be posting a lot more articles on how to make money with facebook page on this blog cause there's a lot more to discuss even yet. I will write more about the type of content facebook users prefer and more on how to get more likes on facebook page in the coming articles. So, stay tune.
