Facebook Login Information for Everyone - Apphire.com

We previously looked at Facebook advertising and will now continue the discussion with a real world example.

Let’s take a look at real world examples of this. As a computer user and tinkerer, I am always trying to learn about how to do different things with the internet and technology. If, for instance, I am trying to learn how to build my own webpages and I need to choose between a web host which offers me step-by-step help with setting up my host, figuring out HTML or drag-in-drop programs, assists with me buying a domain name and setting up a DNS or a company which says “We’ll hold your files, but you have to figure out the rest on your own”, who am I most likely to go with? In order for starting application, companies, service providers to begin attracting customers they have to go “above and beyond” the call of duty. Sure, a more experienced computer user might not want to get phone calls from the customer service reps of the company they’re using, because it’s a pain to deal with them and answer 20 questions when the computer user only wants to be left alone to create their masterpiece. However, those types of users are likely not interested in one’s application anyway because they can write their own and fine tune it to their own needs.

In order to advertise for one’s Facebook application, start with a small loyal base and let them do the work for you. Be available for the new comers and old, and remember that the human connection behind the Facebook application is going to get more followers than a killer application itself.

We have decided to try to sell our apps on the Facebook Forums.  We usually sell on Sitepoint, but this time we decided to try this.

Here is the links for the forums.

App For Sale - If I Were A Millionaire!

Ok, so the post have not been coming as much as we would have liked in the last month. There is a reason for this, on top of all of the Facebook app development work we have been doing, I also have a few e-commerce sites that I have and since it is Christmas time, they need a little more nourishing then the other parts of the year. So, you should start seeing some great things from us in the New Year, including the Launch of our Turnkey Apps section, a Facebook App E-Book, Great marketing specials, and some fabulous Facebook App articles.

We have a big year planned and hope you will be part of it. Check back for us to announce all of the great things as we roll them out.

I have started a conversation at the facebook developers forum on the minimum server specs that are needed for a Facebook app.  This is like asking “What food would everyone on earth like to eat?” it is a very vague question with lots of possible variables to affect the answer to the question.

Let me start from the beginning.  In our talks to one of the major advertising companies, their CTO requested that we send over the minimum server specs that would be needed to run a facebook app.  I explained to him that we were currently using the Amazon Web Services EC2 instances, but of course he wanted specific details.  So where do you find this information, when there is not a good answer?  Where do you go for information that is not widely available yet because of the infancy of facebook app development?

I searched through the forums before I posted my question and I didn’t find much out there for minimum specs.  This has mostly to do with the fact that it is such a vague question.  Some of the variables that will come into play in regards to server specs for a facebook app are Daily Users, Pageviews, Database Usage, and bandwidth.  So, I figured I would give a basic scenario of an app to see what we could come up with for the minimum specs.

1000 installs, 10% daily activity (100 User) - this is the minimum users needed for an app to consider it viral.  Anything less then this and the app will most likely not continue to add users and then die.

We will see if people agree on a minimum standard that is needed for a Facebook app.  My initial thought is that people will be able to give the specs that they are currently using and others will be able to give their failure scenarios.  If this is what comes out of the forum then I would be happy, because at least I would have a starting point to give to potential customers who think that their $5/month shared hosting plan will be scalable enough to handle a Facebook app because “I run tons of site off of this provider, I love them”.  This is a current issue and I am sure will continue to be an issue because of the basic misunderstandings of the Facebook environment compared to the normal internet environment.Troy 

So, I have written in other places that I am sometimes lazy.  I don’t like the details portion of things sometimes.  Well apparently so are other people.  Case in point.  I created an app that we were going to sell, it was on the borderline of Sexy/Offensive, but was meant to be just fun.  It originally got turned down because they said we weren’t using the Facebook platform.  All of our apps use the Facebook platform, so I was confused and emailed app support.  They responded back that I needed to resend my request and they would approve it.  This in itself was very confusing and showed some internal issues at Facebook.

 I resent the request and then 2 days later, we were rejected again and this time they claimed that the app was “offensive”.  We didn’t have the urge to fight this as we have too many other projects we are working on, so we just let this one go.  We tried listing the app, but it wasn’t getting any bids so, we eventually just cancelled the auction.  We did have a back up plan though. We started working with a major advertising company and offered them to look at the code and how we are interacting with Facebook.  They don’t have time to mess with the facebook development, but they know they cannot completely ignore Facebook.  During their research they decided to resubmit the app, to test out the submission to the directory process.  Well apparently the Facebook Directory Approval Team is trying to rush things for the holidays, because it was submitted 2 days before Thanksgiving and the day before Thanksgiving it was approved in the directory. I am in complete shock at how we got approved after the 3rd submission.  I guess the old saying is true, “Third time is a charm”.  So, sometimes laziness is good.  Well, at least that’s what I keep telling myself.Troy