Taken from the Facebook Application page, Mafia Wars, for example, has 25,411,927 monthly active users. I don't think I need to explain any further how tapping into that userbase would be very lucrative and line your pockets quite substantially.
So in what ways can we tap into this, quite simply, insane amount of potential traffic?
Well there are a few ways I currently know of. Below I will show you these methods.
1. The Cheats/Hints Method
Note: For this method I'm going to use Mafia Wars as the example, however it is transferrable to Farmville etc.
1.1 - The Set-Up:
The Cheats/Hints method requires you to build a website. It doesn't have to be very fancy, just use a Blogger account; this is the easiest to set up and it's free. While getting a domain name is useful for SEO the normal blog URL will suffice as most of the traffic will be coming from Facebook anyway.
Ok, create a new blog. Name the blog something along the lines of "Free Mafia Wars Hints and Cheats" and set the URL to something equally appropriate.
Now create a new CPALead widget and place it in your page layout. Once you have entered the code just view your website to see if it works.
I recommend that you use a tease time of around 5-10 seconds. This allows the user to see that your content is worth filling out a survey for.
The next step is to fill your blog with some rich content to do with Mafia Wars Cheats or Hints. Just search google for some, it won't take you long to find. For example there is a script to automatically play the game.
Make a few posts with differant hints and cheats. The more posts the better as your site will look genuine and the user will have seen that your site has a large amount of content during the tease time.
Note: While you don't strictly have to give genuine hints and cheats I would recommend that you do. On one hand it is a violation of the CPALead TOS to scam people into thinking you have something that you don't and on the other you will gain a reputation for providing rich and reliable content. If a user likes what you provide he or she may pass it on to a friend.
1.2 - Facebook Groups and Fan Pages
Now that we have our blog all up and running we obviously need to get some traffic!
The best way to do this is to go post advertisements for your blog on Group Walls or Discussions. Obviously post your advert on a group concerning Mafia Wars, or whatever your game is.
You will want to put some sort of description about your website before the link. Try to be as descriptive as possible. The more descriptive you are the more people will be interested by your website.
While you could say:
"Look guys I found a cheats and hints website for Mafia Wars"
It would be better, to provide some sort of sneak peak about the content. Entice them with some of the hints and cheats you are going to offer them. Just give a list of what cheats you have. It'll look much more interesting than saying you have the cheats. Remember your target audience does not know you therefore they don't trust you. Your main objective is to get them to trust you and a good description of your website will do this.
1.3 - Summary
So in this method we have created a blog and then posted advertisements on group walls and discussions. This will get a reasonable amount of traffic to your blog and a percentage of them will complete the surveys to gain access to your content.
Obviously the more traffic you have the more conversions you will get. However it is not a good idea to spam as it looks unprofessional so people won't trust you and it might just get you banned from Facebook.
In reality this method should technically be hit or miss, however from past experiance this has always worked. If you think about it we are advertising to an almost unlimited source of traffic, so you just know someone is going to bite and fill in the survey; statistically they have to.
2. The Friends Method
To tell you the truth this is more of an extension to the first method as you will need a website to promote. While it could be anything to do with Farmville/Mafia Wars etc the Hints and Cheats will probably get the most people interested. I put it as a seperate method as it can be applied to most Facebook advertising techniques.
2.1 - The Set-Up:
In this method we will be trying to gain as many friends as possible. Now don't just add anyone. If your niche is Mafia Wars, go to the Mafia Wars group and add people there. This way you know they will be interested when you message them about what you offer.
The best way to get friends quickly is either to use an external program to add friends or to go to a group and post on the wall "Add me, I need Mafia Wars friends" etc. You will be surprised how many people will add you. Your facebook account will look much more genuine*(see Further Reading) if people are adding you also.
As is explained in the further reading, be careful not to get banned. Be smart and don't spam friend invites.
Try to amass a friend list of around 100+... 1000+ is much better though.
2.1 - Wall Posts and Status Updates:
Now that you have a considerable amount of friends, all you need to do is either send messages to their wall talking about your website which you think they would be interested in. Or, post status updates with basically the same thing. Status updates will show on everyones feed, so this is much MUCH quicker.
Hopefully your 'friends' will click the link if they are interested. Remember to make the description interesting.
Further Reading (Helpful General Tips):
Any methods involving Facebook are generally going to be abit Black Hat.
If I were you I wouldn't use any method to do with Facebook on your own personal facebook account as you never know you might end up getting your account banned. While it's well known knowledge, make sure you use a fake facebook account.
Just make up a name, preferably Female with a nice picture. Don't use a really beautiful picture because no one is going to believe the account is real. But anyway, female accounts are definately the way forward, as lets face it a guy is going to add the account as a friend if she is anywhere close to being hot.
So anyway use a fake facebook account, heck use two or three, and add as many friends as you can. You can use tools like Facebook Friend Blaster, however just make sure you only add no more than 50-100 a day because they will quickly ban your account. As mentioned in the methods, add other people that are interested in your niche, whether it be Farmville or Mafia Wars or whatever. I guy that plays Mafia Wars isn't going to fill in a Survey to get something to with Farmville now are they?
Just be sensible in what you do. It's not hard if you think straight and stick to your niche.
--- Free CPA Lead Methods ---
