Reasons that make you network on Facebook may vary. Some people are there to promote their businesses. Others – to become popular and get known…

But most people are there to meet with friends, have fun with common games and share photos and news. In a word, Facebook is an advanced time-waster that people sometimes prefer to real-life meetings with “offline” friends.

But what if someone told you that you could make money from that time-waster? What would be your reaction? Mine is complex.

Making money from your friends feels somewhat wrong. We keep hearing those sentences like “Learn to sell yourself effectively” and “Buy from / Sell to people you trust” – and both of them sound awful! My personal rule is to keep friends away from my money issues. I would never want to make them buy anything by fooling them into believing I recommend that.

On the other hand, online friendship is a bit different. More often than not, those people I meet on Facebook or Twitter are rather “partners” than “friends”. I am not ready to discuss personal matters with them but I often do trust them more than impersonal banner ads I keep seeing now and then.

That said, your monetizing strategy should depend on how you perceive your online networking. If you are there for “real friendship” or just extend your offline communication, this tips are probably not for you. If you are more about “business” networking, keep reading!

Sell Your Own Stuff to Your Friends

1. Marketplace (powered by Oodle.com) is the a highly popular and widely used Facebook application that lets you sell almost anything on Facebook. Facebookers use the app to buy, sell, give things away or support the cause.

The service sorts the sales in the following four categories:

Items for Sale

Housing

Vehicles

Jobs

You can also filter the list to see what your friends are selling or to only browse the products which are being sold nearby.



2. Free Auction is a similar application (by e3buy) that works via PayPal and allows you to sell anything through your Facebook account.

3. eBay Auctions: well, as you might have guessed, this app connects your eBay account with your Facebook account. You can sell your items, display your shopping lists and exchange lists with your friends.

4. Garage Sale is an application that allows you to post personal items for sale directly on your profile page as well as buy items from friends. The service takes care of all billing:

Garage Sale bills the buyer’s credit card and notifies you when billing is complete to ship goods. Sales funds are deposited into your PayPal account, or you can request payment by check.

5. FlameTunes is an for the artists who want to distribute their music to Facebook friends.

Sell Your (Consulting) Service to Your Friends

6. Ether is a Facebook app that lets you sell your professional consulting service to your friends. It provides you with your own special phone number and click-to-call button that you route to your real phone number, but people can only call it if they first pay you the price you set.

Earn Commissions by Selling Others’ Stuff

7. My Merch Store (by Zazzle) lets “you create and post products for sale to your profile, share products that you like, discover great artists and buy truly unique products”. This works in three easy steps:

Create your products on Zazzle.com Enter your Zazzle username on the “settings” page within the application on Facebook. See your products automatically displayed on your profile.

What’s more, you can earn commissions if any products created by others are sold via your Facebook store.

8. Cafepress works similar to the above one: it both allow you to sell your own items or earn commissions by selling others’ stuff.

9. Facebook Lemonade Stand is an application allowing you to earn money by referring your friends to Lemonade partners:

Register at Lemonade;

Login to the application;

Add any products to your “Stand” to display them on your profile.

10. MusicBlaster is the most entertaining app of all. It allows users to put a simple little music store of their favorite BlastMyMusic.com artists on their profile. Fans can earn 5% for each song they sale and at the same time help gain further exposure for their favorite bands.