25 Ways to Make Money on Facebook … without Selling Your Soul

Could you turn your Facebook habit into cash?

The average Facebook user spends more than half an hour a day on the site, and the company is certainly making money off you!

($117 billion in revenue in 2021!)

With more than 2.8 billion members, a robust advertising platform, and a popular peer-to-peer marketplace, there are tons of ways to make money on Facebook.

In this post, I’ll explore some tried-and-true methods to turn the social network from time suck to money machine.

1. Become the Go-To Expert in a Group

One of my favorite ways to make money on Facebook is to simply be helpful.

In the FinCon community, Steve Stewart is a master at this. Whenever there’s a question about podcasting or podcast editing (his area of expertise), he chimes in with helpful advice. Other members of the group have noted Steve’s reputation and rush to tag him in related threads.

Over time, he’s become the go-to expert.

So where does the money come in?

After years of producing his own podcast, another host asked for help with theirs. Steve said yes, and from there, his podcast editing business grew like wildfire. Within 6 months he had enough work — and income — to quit his job!

2. Promote Your Services in Local Groups

When Erica Krupin was starting her pet waste removal business, she posted in dozens of local buy/sell/trade groups that she was already a member of, advertising her service and giving a rough idea of pricing.

Thinking she would get maybe one or two hits, she headed off to a conference for the weekend.

“All of a sudden my purse just started vibrating like crazy,” Erica told me. She was getting hundreds of messages from people in the groups she posted her ad in asking about her service.

“I probably made $5,000-$6,000 off that post,” Erica said.

3. Use a Facebook Group as the Top of Your Sales Funnel

It took me a while to realize this, but there’s a prominent search bar inside Facebook:

In fact, it’s the very first thing at the top of the page! And a lot of people use the site as a search engine.

So the question to ask is … when they search, are they going to find you?

One creative way to use Facebook search to your advantage is to create a group about your topic. (As I’ve done with Side Hustle Nation.)

Recently, I started using the GroupLeads Chrome extension to collect emails when new members request to join.

Still, I think Abbey Ashley’s Virtual Assistant Savvies group is a better example because she uses the group as a “top of the funnel” marketing channel for her core business:

People search “virtual assistant” or similar keywords, and come across her group.

The bulk of her revenue comes from selling a course on how to become a virtual assistant, but nobody who’s brand new to her is ready to buy that high-ticket offer. So instead she warms them up through the group, through free trainings, and through email.

4. Crowdsource Content for Your Blog

One way I use Facebook to make money is to help crowdsource content for my blog. It can be helpful to get a variety of ideas for your posts, and Facebook is great for that.

For example, I was researching the best business ideas for kids and asked for suggestions in some of my Facebook communities. I got some really creative examples and the resulting blog post now ranks well in Google and drives email sign-ups and affiliate commissions.

Don’t have a blog of your own yet? My free video series will help get you started.

5. Create and Monetize a Local Facebook Group

Melissa Fassel Dunn created a local Facebook group for Milton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. She was looking for a place to exchange information and recommendations with fellow parents, but the group actually kicked off a profitable business.

Today, Melissa sells local directory listings on her website, featured stories, and advertising in her daily newsletter — all targeting neighbors in small town.

Over time, her side hustle has turned into an “almost 6-figure” operation.

6. Sell Stuff on Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is a great place to sell items around your house, or even build a business around. As opposed to eBay, one advantage here is buyers are local so you don’t have to worry about shipping.

Check out this episode on thrifting for profit for some ideas on what might sell and where you could source inventory.

Refinishing and flipping furniture is popular right now!

7. Buy Stuff on Facebook Marketplace to Re-Sell Elsewhere

Aside from being a great sales outlet, you might find Facebook Marketplace to be a great spot to source deals.

Could you turn around and sell those products to a broader audience on eBay or other sites? One podcast guest described sourcing textbooks on Marketplace to flip on Amazon.

Another has mastered freight shipping and can now list larger, heavier items for sale and profitably sell them across the country. Check out my chat with Rob “the Flea Market Flipper” to learn more.

In my chat with Jeff Duhon, he described sourcing phones to flip on Marketplace, and even running Facebook ads to reach more sellers.

8. Sell Mattress Returns

When you partner with Sharetown, a leading “reverse logistics” provider, you’ll get matched up with local furniture buyers who don’t like their items. (Think direct-to-consumer mattresses, couches, and other items.)

Sharetown dispatches you to pick up the item from the customer, you clean and sanitize it, and then list it for resale.

The cool part? You don’t have to pay for the inventory until it sells. It’s a good way to make money if you have a truck or larger SUV and have a place to store bulky items.

9. Build Facebook Messenger Chatbots

While the rules and regulations surrounding Facebook Messenger as a marketing channel are constantly evolving, the demand for chatbots continues to rise.

Consider this an alternative to your email list, and if you can master the art of building these through services like ManyChat or Chatfuel, you could offer this as a service to other businesses.

These often deliver a series of lessons, or use AI or customer inputs to spit out a result or recommendation. For example, I hired a freelancer to build out a survey bot that would give recommendations based on how customers answered a few questions.

Now those people are on my Messenger list, where I could theoretically (I haven’t yet) send them broadcast messages and enjoy significantly higher open rates than on a traditional email newsletter.

10. Reselling Land

OK, so this one is a little more complicated. One popular side hustle involves buying raw land at a discount, and then reselling it on a payment plan.

On the podcast, Roberto Chavez explained that local Facebook groups are a good place to find buyers. Once he’s acquired a parcel, he’ll join groups for nearby towns and post his piece of land for sale.

Most of the time it’s priced for a low down payment and then $99-199 per month for a few years. As the seller, he’s making passive income every month and the buyer gets to own a piece of property for a really low monthly cost.

11. Make Money on Facebook Hosting Events

Could you make money on Facebook by hosting an event?

It could be an in-person event like a small workshop or meetup, or it could be a valuable online training delivered via Facebook live.

In either case, you could market the event through Facebook’s Events toolkit. They’ll even allow you to collect payments, show RSVPs (if you choose), and invite your connections.

12. Create a Limited-Time Challenge

Kelly Snyder helps women create a wardrobe they love. When we spoke, she was running free, limited-time, Facebook challenge groups as a way to get customers excited and lead people into her paid products.

She called these “closet challenges” an essential part of her customer success journey. During the challenge period, she’d provide some quick wins, offer encouragement, and ultimately sell her main course.

Each time she ran the challenge, it added $100k in revenue to her business!

13. Become a Social Media Manager

Social media isn’t going anywhere, and if you’re already hooked on it, companies might hire you for your expertise.

According to Sendible, the average social media manager salary is $45,000 per year. Still, many companies don’t need or want a full-time hire.

Could you offer your services on a freelance basis?

To start, take a look at some of the companies you’re already a customer of. What’s their Facebook presence like? How would you improve it?

Record a screenshare video with a tool like Loom or whip up some fresh social graphics in Canva and see if you can find a decision maker. (Hint: Look for people in the marketing department for the company on LinkedIn.)

14. Facebook Jobs

Yes, you can use Facebook to find a new job.

If you hit the Jobs link in the left sidebar, you’ll find a list of nearby jobs you may qualify for. You can filter by distance, job type (part-time, full-time, contract, etc.), and category.

15. Facebook Careers

If you really can’t get enough of Facebook, you might consider just having them pay you directly as an employee!

Facebook hires workers from all around the world. Check the careers page to learn more.

16. Make Money with Facebook’s “Bug Bounty”

“Move fast and break things,” the unofficial Facebook internal motto, occasionally … well, breaks things.

For that, they actually crowdsource some quality assurance and security testing to users. If you’ve got an eye for spotting bugs in the Facebook app or website, you could actually make money from their “Bug Bounty” program.

How much can you make?

According to the fine print, Facebook determines bounty amounts “based on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to) impact, ease of exploitation, and quality of the report.”

The minimum bounty is $500, but the next line cautions that “extremely low-risk issues may not qualify for a bounty at all.”

17. Promote Your Product or Service

If you’ve got something you’re proud of, plug it on your personal profile!

Your Facebook friends and connections are all people who at least moderately care what you’re up to, so you might as well let them know.

In my case, I often use this strategy when promoting a new book of mine. For example, here’s a post I made for my Progress Journal:

A couple tips that seem to help in making this kind of sales pitch on Facebook:

1. Make your post “public”. You can do this in the post privacy settings, and it’ll allow people to share it with their audiences.
2. Don’t post a link. Instead, put your link in the first comment. This seems to improve the exposure of your post.

You can also use this strategy to sell a service of yours. The most valuable trick here is to be super specific about who you serve, so your network can refer you to other potential clients who might be a fit.

18. Promote Other Company’s Products or Services (as an Affiliate)

If you don’t have your own product or service to sell, you can still make money on Facebook with your personal profile as an affiliate.

Think about how this works in “real life” — you find a product you love and you want to shout it from the rooftops!

Why am I just now learning about this? Have you seen this? It will change your life!

Many companies have affiliate or referral programs that incentivize you to share these types of experience on social media. For example, my new cell phone service provider, Mint Mobile, gives me $25-110 for every friend I refer.

Plus, my referrals get a special discount as well, so it’s a win-win.

Take a look at the companies you do business with and see if they have a similar referral program. These are common with startups, direct-to-consumer brands, credit cards, and more.

19. Share RebateKey on Facebook

Here’s a quick way to make $20 on Facebook.

RebateKey is a cool platform where you can get deeply discounted — or even free — products. Amazon sellers use the platform to try and boost their sales performance and reviews, so they’ll reimburse you for the purchase price, up to 100%.

I know, I thought it smelled like a scam too, but I’ve been paid back every time.

And to help spread the word, RebateKey offers users (at least at press time) a $20 reward when you share a picture of your rebate check on Facebook:

I try and make RebateKey a first stop when I’m looking for new products. Definitely a cool way to save some money.

20. Turn Memes into Merch

Facebook is a great place to uncover the latest memes. But instead of just laughing at them and moving on with your day, you may actually be able to make money from them.

Thanks to platforms like Merch by Amazon, you can upload designs or sayings to a growing number of physical products (like t-shirts).

And you don’t need to be the world’s best graphic designer — some of the bestselling products are simply text.

After you upload your design and create your product description, Amazon handles the rest. They’ll list you item for sale, print the product when someone orders, and ship it to the customer. You earn a royalty based on the price you set above the printing cost.

For example, my wife and I started on Merch right around the 2017 presidential inauguration. Around that time, the meme of the day was “alternative facts.” So we created a few alternative facts t-shirt designs and made some money.

This is a great option if you’re already plugged into popular culture or current events and can act quickly.

Aside from Amazon, you can now do similar drop shipping of physical products on Etsy as well.

21. Manage Facebook Ads

Since selling ads is the primary way Facebook itself makes money, it might not surprise you that there’s an entire industry built around managing and optimizing those ads for other companies.

Robert Gale wrote in to share his Facebook ads management side hustle was bringing in about $2,500 per month — on the side from his day job. That’s coming from 2 regular clients on monthly retainers and some consulting work.

“I typically charge $1,000/mo minimum for each client and spend a good majority of my time focusing on client acquisition,” Robert explained. “Overall, I spend about 10-15 hours per week on this side hustle.”

As far as marketing his service, Robert said he mainly used Upwork, LinkedIn, and actively participating in Facebook groups to find clients. (See Method #1 in this post!)

Robert mentioned he took a course to learn the fundamentals of Facebook ads and how to market this service, and it sounds like it’s an investment that’s paying off.

Plus, if you can design the ads yourself, it’s another way to make money from your Canva skills.

22. Earn Money from Your Content

Content creators can make money on Facebook in 3 distinct ways:

1. In-stream video ads
2. Brand partnerships
3. Fan subscriptions

In-Stream Ads

If you’re producing video content for Facebook, you can monetize with these automatically inserted ads. (Similar to YouTube, but usually inserted into the middle of the video — not just the beginning.)

These requirements are of course subject to change, but the current eligibility requirements are:

• A fan/business page with at least 1000 fans.
• You need 30,000 1-minute views on videos that are at least 3 minutes long in the last 60 days.
• You must meet their policy guidelines.

Brand Collaborations

To be eligible for Facebook’s official brand partnership program, you need to have at least:

• 1000 fans on your page
• 15,000 post engagements OR 180,000 minutes of total watch time across all your videos in the last 60 days

Of course, if you don’t meet those criteria, you’re still free to strike up sponsored content deals of your own.

Fan Subscriptions

Fan subscriptions are something content creators have been doing for years (often with the help of platforms like Patreon), but are new to Facebook.

So new, in fact, that the program is currently by invitation only. Here’s how Facebook describes it, though:

Create a subscription for your Page and earn a monthly income. Choose a monthly price, offer exclusive benefits and grow the community of people who subscribe to support you.

Related: Small Blog, Big Income: Recurring Revenue from a Low-Traffic Site, with Carol Tice

23. Drive Traffic To Your Website

Another way I make money on Facebook is using my business and personal pages to drive traffic to my blog.

(In my case, the site is monetized primarily through affiliate marketing.)

I should probably post more often, but here’s an example:

I created a free course on credit card rewards (monetized with affiliate links), and promoted it on Facebook from the Side Hustle Nation Facebook page — and later, my personal account.

Don’t have a blog of your own yet? My free video series will help get you started.

24. Buy Facebook Stock?

I was kind of surprised to see this on some other lists of ways to make money on Facebook, but I guess it makes sense.

If you’re bullish on the future of Facebook, you can pick up some shares — or even just a fraction of a share — with a brokerage like Robinhood or M1 Finance.

(Robinhood will even give you a free stock when you sign up … but probably not Facebook!)

Unfortunately, at press time Facebook isn’t paying a dividend, so you’d be investing strictly for share price appreciation.

25. Get Off Facebook and Go Do Something Productive!

Finally, perhaps the most important way to make money on Facebook is to … not.

Facebook can be an invaluable tool to build communities and connections, but I’d venture to guess that for most people, it’s just an app to mindlessly kill some time.

Be honest with yourself. Are you using Facebook … or is Facebook using you?

I’ll hand it to them — they built an incredibly addictive app and website. And yes, there are tons of ways to make money on it. But for many of us, it’s just a habit that isn’t serving our goals.

Here are 3 tactics to try:

1. Install the News Feed Eradicator plugin for Chrome. This app will hide your news feed on the desktop version of Facebook. I was hesitant to do this too, but I’ve had it for years now and I can’t imagine going back. What this allows me to do is check in on my notifications and groups without getting sucked into the endless scroll. Trust me, it’s a huge time saver.
2. Cross off your most important priority first. Before rewarding yourself with a Facebook check-in, make sure you’re making progress on your most important work.
3. Go cold turkey. Try a week without Facebook and see how much you miss it. If you don’t rely on the platform to connect with clients or customers, it might not be a huge sacrifice.

Make Money on Facebook: Your Turn

This post explored some of the best ways my friends, podcast guests, and I make money on Facebook.

Which strategies are the best fit for you will of course depend on your business and your personality, but I’m confident something on this list will hit home.

Your homework now is to take action. Cheers!

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make money on Facebook?

Yes, there are several ways to make the social network work for you. Options include selling on Facebook Marketplace, providing Facebook-related services to other businesses, monetizing your own content, or promoting your own products or services. Check the full list on Side Hustle Nation for more.

Does Facebook pay you for views?

Yes, but you have to have a pretty well-established following. To be eligible for “In-Stream” video ads, your fan/business page needs at least 1000 fans, and you need 30,000 1-minute views on videos that are at least 3 minutes long in the last 60 days.

How do Facebook groups make money?

Facebook group owners make money in several ways, including selling their own products or services, promoting other people’s products or services as an affiliate, or even driving group members back to a website or email list that’s monetized with advertising. A popular group is also a sellable asset. For more ways to make money on Facebook, be sure to check out the full list on Side Hustle Nation.