Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Whether you own a full-fledged business or just have one item to sell, anyone can make money with Facebook.
If you only use Facebook to message your friends and take quizzes, consider some of these suggestions for increasing your income or starting a side business.
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Who can make money with Facebook?
Anyone can make money with Facebook! Like everything in life, you have to be persistent and not give up if your campaign doesn’t work the first time.
For most of these suggestions, the quality of your Facebook profile will be your best way to make a first impression. There are many spammers on Facebook who promise the world and never follow through. You don’t want to be one of these people because your chances of making money will be slim.
Make sure your Facebook profile gives the impression that you are a real person. Put a picture of yourself or your company emblem in your profile picture or cover photo section.
Also, be sure to list the correct city you live in so people don’t think you’re accidentally posting in the wrong group. Finally, include contact information and a link to the website if you own a local or online business.
Depending on how you plan to make money with Facebook, you should also consider creating a separate account. This way, you can keep your personal and business activities separate.
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What can you sell on Facebook?
Almost anything can be sold on Facebook. Most people use Facebook to sell their used cars, used items, handmade items, and e-books and to advertise their weekend garage sales.
Some things you can’t sell on Facebook:
- Alcohol
- Illegal drugs
- Tobacco
- Firearms
- Animals
- Real money gambling products
- Certain health products
In general, you can sell anything on Facebook that you can buy in a local store without showing a photo ID or a doctor’s prescription.
Read also: 5 techniques to get qualified followers on Facebook
The 13 ways to make money with Facebook
Once your profile is ready, you are now ready to start making money. In many cases, you will be selling items or services that you already have. But we will also include a few other suggestions.
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1. Write a post on Facebook
If you just want to sell to your current Facebook friends, you can write a post. In the “What do you think?” field, start typing what you want to sell.
You can also include a photo of the item. Posts are only shared with your friends, but they can be seen by others you don’t know if your friend shares the post.
Perhaps you’ve seen your own circles of friends sell cars, real estate, and other goods instead of going through the hassle of selling to a stranger.
If you’ve never sold anything on Facebook, you can use their posts as an example to model your post.
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Follow up on Facebook Messenger
Once a friend or group member has expressed interest, continue the conversation on Facebook Messenger.
This instant messaging service allows you to stay in touch with previous customers and potential customers who didn’t make a sale the first time.
If you’re constantly returning used items, you can keep these people in mind and send them a message when you finally find an item they originally wanted.
Read also: how to quickly increase your visibility on Facebook
2. Join local buying and selling groups
If you’re trying to sell locally, chances are you’re probably not selling to a friend. That’s why you should also join your local buying and selling groups.
Facebook makes it easy to sell because you can usually create a post in a group and you have the option to choose other groups.
For example, let’s say you want to sell your car. Your city probably has at least two different buying and selling groups that accept used car listings.
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Even if you only make one post, it appears in multiple groups and you can reach more Facebook members.
Some of the most popular groups are garage sales and cars. To quickly find groups in your area, click on “Buy and Sell Groups” in the Explore menu. You can also search for group names to filter through the different options as well.
Each group has different sales policies, so be sure to read the group’s guidelines before posting. Otherwise, the group’s moderators may delete your post or remove you from the group.
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Create your own group
If there is no local group for the items you want to sell, you may want to consider creating your own group.
3. Sell on Facebook Marketplace
Also, don’t forget to sell on Facebook Marketplace. The marketplace is a free feature for everyone where you can buy, sell or trade almost anything in your area.
While it’s not as specialized as local buy and sells groups, everyone has access to Facebook Marketplace so they can easily share your post with their friends and maybe even find that special something they’ve been looking for.
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4. Earn referral bonuses
Do you use an online service that you love and want to share with others? Word-of-mouth referrals are one of the most effective forms of advertising.
Companies know this and that’s why they offer a referral bonus when your friends join social networks.
Rakuten is a company that offers referral bonuses on social networks. Maybe you already use them to earn money yourself on almost every online purchase!
You can send email invitations or click on the social network sharing buttons on your account to share your referral link. If your friend signs up via your referral link, you can earn a cash bonus!
More companies that you use regularly offer referral bonuses than you think. Take a minute or two and see if you can earn extra cash by sharing your favorite apps and websites on social media.
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5. Participate in Contests
Some companies and blogs run contests and you can win entries by sharing your link on Facebook or following their Facebook page. You can also join contests and giveaway groups to find the latest opportunities.
Many of these contests are free, so the only requirement for entry is your time. Each giveaway is different, but you could be lucky enough to win Amazon gift cards, kitchen gadgets, or a new grill set.
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6. Create Facebook Ads
For this suggestion, you’ll first need to create a Facebook page for your business or website. In fact, consider pages like “Facebook for Business.” Creating a page is free and only takes a few minutes and any business or website is eligible. If you need a visual example, visit the Well Kept Portfolio Facebook page to get an idea of what your page will look like.
Once your page is created, you can share articles with your page subscribers, just as you can write articles on your personal timeline. Facebook pages are the social media equivalent of having a mailing list; you can send regular messages to your most loyal followers. For example, ice cream shops could publish a weekly post mentioning the flavor of the week.
However, keep in mind that you can make money by posting ads on Facebook to reach people who don’t currently follow your page.
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Tips for creating Facebook ads
While Page posts can help you earn money, you should also use paid Facebook ads to reach a new audience. You can create your own ads or use a service like Flourish With Facebook Ads to create professional ads that can attract more clicks the first time.
When you create posts on your page, you will have the option to click the blue “Boost Post” button. After clicking the button, you will be redirected to the ad creation tool. While there are more features than what is mentioned below, there are three tools that you should pay close attention to:
- Purpose (Do you want to interact with your audience or make sales?)
- Audience (Are you targeting a specific audience or not?)
- Budget (How much are you willing to spend and how many days do you want the campaign to last?)
A huge advantage of Facebook ads is that you can target a specific audience based on their location, age, gender, and interests. Or, you can also advertise to your followers and their friends if you want to. You can also monitor the people reached and the number of engagements. Once the campaign is over, you can compare the number of engagements to the total cost of the campaign to calculate your cost per click (CPC).
Read also: How to choose between Facebook page and Facebook group
If you’ve ever advertised elsewhere for business, you know that advertising can be expensive in a hurry. Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive for paid ads because you can choose your target audience for just a few dollars versus hundreds or thousands of dollars per campaign.
Running Facebook ads is a learning process based on trial and error. Because of the low-cost requirements, feel free to try several small campaigns that only cost $10 to $15 each with different target audiences to find what works best for you.
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7. Invest in Facebook
This is another suggestion that anyone can use to make money with Facebook. And you don’t even need to create a Facebook account! While you may find this ironic, Facebook is a publicly-traded company on the Nasdaq Index.
Facebook’s stock symbol is FB and it can be purchased with any brokerage in your IRA or taxable brokerage account. You may want to consider buying Facebook stock with Stockpile for these three reasons:
- Each trade costs only 99 cents versus the industry average of $4.95
- You can buy partial shares of any individual stock or ETF
- New accounts receive a $5 gift of any stock
Since a single share of Facebook stock trades for about $187 (at the time of this writing), you won’t be able to buy a single share via a traditional brokerage like Vanguard or Fidelity if you can only invest $100 today.
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With Stockpile, you can buy fractional (partial) shares so that you can buy at least part of a stock. In this example, a $100 investment will give you 53% of a stock. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere!
As with any stock market investment, Facebook is guaranteed to make you money. Its stock price can fluctuate daily, so you have to invest and plan to hold for the long term to make a profit.
If you prefer a less volatile way to invest in Facebook, you might consider buying an index fund that currently holds Facebook in its portfolio. If you are interested in buying Facebook shares, read this article by Investopedia: A Beginner’s Guide to Buying Facebook (Meta) Stock
8. Hold a fundraiser
While you may not personally benefit from this suggestion, you can still help raise money for a personal or non-profit cause. Participatory funding has become a popular way to help others with financial needs who are paying their bills without outside help. A very good example of fundraising pages are Fundraiser and Donation Page and Gofundme Fundraisers
You can create a fundraising page for any of the causes below:
- Personal Emergency
- Crisis Relief
- Health and Medical
- Education
- International
- Faith
- Sports
There are many worthy causes that members of the Facebook community are willing to support. The only problem is that they don’t know where to look. Fortunately, this feature solves that problem.
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9. Host a fundraiser
Facebook also has its own job board to help you find a new job. Local businesses will post job openings in the “Jobs” tab. You’ll find full-time and part-time positions for many industries on this page, so scroll down and check out all the opportunities.
In addition to the Facebook Jobs button, many groups also list job leads online. You can join different groups to find job leads and also get information about the application process and work experience from other group members.
10. Become a Social Media Manager
If you are social media savvy, you can also get paid to manage the company’s social media accounts. As a virtual social media assistant, your responsibilities could include:
- Scheduling social media posts
- Responding to comments and interacting with followers
- Creating social media graphics
- Tracking campaign statistics
- Building audience size
Chances are, you’ll need to manage a social media account on other platforms in addition to Facebook. Thus, it may be a good idea to at least familiarize yourself with the big platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Read here: How to carry out content marketing on Instagram
If you are a Facebook connoisseur, this can be a great opportunity to work from home and earn a part-time income with flexible hours.
11. Join Facebook groups and help others
Another way to make money with Facebook is to join groups and help answer people’s questions. This will be a viable option for bloggers and business owners.
All you need to do is find groups that match your area of expertise. In a way, you can say that these groups have replaced the role of online forums that were popular in the pre-Facebook era.
If you are a smart investor, you can join several investment groups and help people answer their various investment questions.
This is how to know the right time to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin
Even if investing isn’t your specialty, you can find a group that is right for you. By helping people, you can build a reputation and even include links to your website to help the reader. Each page visit means more website traffic which can potentially increase your search engine rankings and maybe even earn an affiliate commission.
Just like Facebook Buy and Sell groups, you need to pay attention to the group’s posting guidelines. Unless you are a moderator, you may not be able to post affiliate links or self-promotional articles. Many groups have these policies to minimize spam so that the reader receives sound, unbiased advice.
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12. Create live videos on Facebook
If you’re not camera-shy, Facebook Live can be another fun way to create a personal brand. Maybe you create videos that show how you work from home or use a product in real-time. Or, you can host a live Q&A session where live viewers send in their questions and you answer them live.
As Internet bandwidth speeds increase, live streams are becoming more common and YouTube is not the only video platform in the world.
Read also: 5billionsales: Get paid to surf the internet
13. Look for security holes
Facebook and other major websites are always looking for security holes. If you like testing websites, the Facebook Bug Bounty program allows you to report coding flaws that need to be fixed. You can get paid for your diligence if the flaw has not yet been reported to Facebook.
Even if you find a reported bug, please report it anyway. This will improve the user experience for the rest of us!
Conclusion on 13 ways to make money with Facebook
Anyone can make money with Facebook. It doesn’t matter if you want to sell or if you want to promote a website online. By joining groups, interacting with other Facebook members, and maybe even running a paid ad or two, you can generate income on Facebook if you want to.
Read also: How to make $1000 a year with your blog
Even if you only want to list a garage sale or sell your old car and make money once, Facebook is a free and effective way to tell others what you have to sell.
Have you ever made money with Facebook before? If so, please share your story below.