While Facebook is a great social media site for keeping up with family and friends, you can also make money while on it too as billions of people are already on it, giving you access to a large audience right from the start. Affiliate marketing is one option that will generate some cash from your Facebook page, as is building a page and then selling it for a profit. Either way, your bank account grows all by using this site which you’re probably already more than familiar with and use each and every day.

How to Do It

Here is how to set up your Facebook page so that you can earn money while checking up on your family and friends:

• Step #1: Create your page. You want your Facebook page to look appealing, so choose a profile picture and cover photo that are consistent with your brand and connect with your followers. If you’re good with photography or Photoshop, you may choose to create your own graphics. If not, you may want to hire someone to do it for you as your first impression can impact whether or not someone follows you.

Be sure to complete all of the “About” information so that someone can find you more easily through your page type and keywords. Include your website URL, YouTube channel link, and any other account you have on it so they can easily find you through other mediums, connecting different affiliate marketing channels with each other, increasing your income at the same time.

• Step #2: Post great content. Now that you have your Facebook page set up, it is time to post on it. Think of content or photos that your followers would be more inclined to Like or Share. Again, if you’re a creative type, you can come up with the posts on your own. If not, you may want to hire this out.

If it is photos with quotes that you want to post, you may be able to get them for as little as $1 each, you just have to shop around. You can even do an advanced search on Google and find images that are free to use commercially, making them perfect for keeping your costs down but your follower interest up.

When you post links to your affiliates, tell your followers what you’d like them to do with them in a way that gets them excited about doing it. For example, you could share how a friend of yours lost 50 pounds using a supplement sold by your affiliate and then provide a link to it so they can click on it if they want the same results.

And post often. Put yourself in your followers News Feed on a regular basis so that they get more comfortable with you. Become someone they are familiar with so they are more willing to take your advice, thereby increasing your sales. This is also extremely important as Facebook will remove you from their feed if they don’t regularly correspond with you or comment on your posts.

• Step #3: Build your followers. Along with posting great content, you also want to encourage others to follow your page. Invite your Facebook friends to be a part of it when you set it up and ask them to invite their friends. Promote your Facebook page on other forms of social media, on your website, in your blogs, and anywhere else you have a presence to draw attention to the fact that it exists.

You can also run an ad campaign on Facebook to get more likes or drive people straight to your website if you’re willing to spend a little cash to possibly make even more. Just create the ad by indicating who your target market is (such as geographical location, age, sex, interests, ect.), set a money limit, and watch your followers grow.

Another way to increase your list of followers is to join Facebook groups and like pages where you’re likely to find your target market. If there isn’t a group already established, create one. The more you get your name out there, the more access you’ll have to the people that would be most interested in your affiliate’s products, earning you more income along the way.

• Step #4: Create additional Facebook pages. Once your main Facebook page is strong and followed by a lot of people, you can even create additional pages that you can resell for a profit or keep them and use them for more affiliate marketing purposes. The more exposure you have, the greater your chance of making money using this option.

• Step #5: Promote your affiliate products. With your list of followers growing, now is a great time to start promoting your affiliate products. You just need to make sure the products are relevant for the page you have created.

For example, if you have a page in the health and fitness niche, then you can easily promote fitness programs or nutrition-based products. You can also post links to your web page, where they can have convenient access to all of your affiliate products in one location. Be creative and get them excited about your affiliates, making it easy for them to click on the link and buy whatever it is they are selling.

• Step #6: Sign up for Google AdSense. Just as Google AdSense can earn you income on your website or YouTube page, it can do the same for you on Facebook. You can use this in addition to affiliate marketing if you want two revenue streams on your page, making you more money at a faster rate.

• Step #7: Post messages for other people’s online marketing campaign. Another money-making option for your Facebook page is to post status updates on behalf of other individuals or businesses. Fiverr is a good place to start as you can easily earn $5 per update, and even more if they want an image or video added to it.

You can also contact local businesses and advertise for them on your Facebook page. This is a great way to bring in a nice income every month while supporting the people in your community!

• Step #8: Sell your own products. In addition to selling other people’s products and services for your profit, you can always create and sell your own. One way to do this is by writing your own e-book. Or, if you have an idea for a product and just aren’t sure how to manufacture it, Quirky can help you take your invention and bring it to life.

Pros

A big plus of making money on Facebook is that you probably already spend a decent amount of time there, so you’re familiar with how it works. Additionally, you don’t need to make any up-front money investment with this online option unless you choose to use a Facebook ad campaign, so it is a no to low-cost way to earn some extra cash.

Cons

One of the biggest cons is that this alternative isn’t fast as it does take some time to grow your Facebook followers unless you can create some viral content that makes people sign up to follow your page immediately. Plus, with Facebook changing their algorithms all of the time, you can’t count on your posts showing up in your follower’s News Feeds.

Therefore, you have to find a way to keep them engaged so that you don’t disappear from their life completely. Once you do, your revenue opportunity decreases dramatically.

Earning Potential

I have a friend that sells Facebook pages with 30-50 thousand likes for around $2,000 each, which is some good money. And growing them is pretty easy when you have a strong main page with over one-hundred thousand followers, so you can split off pages all of the time, earning your income mainly from your “home” Facebook page.

If you’re more focused on ads and affiliate marketing, one poster in the Warrior Forum stated that his Facebook page brought him over $58,000 from Google AdSense alone and another $25-30,000 in affiliate marketing. However, others seem to struggle to make anything at all.

Overall, your level of income is greatly affected by your ability to reach your target market in a way that they understand and that entices them to take action. Figure out how to do that and you can make a good annual salary from it.