How to Monetize 80 Million Farmville Users

How dumb is Farmville? If the concept of building a fake farm, planting seeds every few hours and trying to collect enough tools to build a horse stable sounds like a fun or silly idea, you are not along. Over 80 million users are now playing Farmville on Facebook, and nearly 30 million users are logging in daily. Zynga, the creators of Farmville are cashing in and making millions. While Farmville may seem like a dumb idea, it’s a massive cash cow and it’s no where near slowing down.

As reported by Mashable, “FarmVille’s daily active user count is currently 29.7 million — that’s almost 30 million people using FarmVille every day.” Even more amazing, is that FarmVille’s parent company, Zynga, was valued at 1 billion dollars late last year.

Zynga / Farmville makes their money from users completing offers to receive bonus cash for their in game play. To explain this best, it’s what affiliate marketing is all about. Farmville is simply pushing affiliate offers, and rewarding their users with game currency (no real physical product).

This is great for Zynga, but how can everyone else jump on the bandwagon and make some extra money. With over 80 million users, and growing by an expected 10 million every month, “Farmville” has become a brand you can piggy back off of. Here are just a few ideas on how you can start making money off the Farmville craze.

Farmville Facebook Targetting
It’s no secret that Facebook offers one of the best demographic targetting ad systems around. Targetting towards applications and games is no different. If you can find a products, game or sites that current Farmville users are interested, simply target this demographic and be seen.

Creating an Ebook
Gamers are hardcore about their success, and Farmville is no exception. I’ve seen a lot of “Farmville Advancement” ebooks and guides over the past several months, just like guides for getting gold and leveling on World of WarCraft have been around for years. With 80 million users, there isn’t much of a saturation point. See what’s currently out there, make it better and cheaper and compete.

Web Site with Information
Just like an ebook or guide, you can do the same process for creating a web site. Through a web site you can build up a mailing list, fans, push other Farmville ebook products and more. I have seen a fair amount of Farmville ebooks and sites for sale on Flippa, and have also heard of Zynga sending out C&Ds to sites using the Farmville name in their products and domain names. Be careful if you are choosing this path.

A Completely New Idea
Don’t be discouraged that you may be behind the Farmville trend, it’s still growing strong. Someone is going to come up with the next great Farmville idea and cash in big time. Whether it’s a replica app/game, or ebook/training site… there is plenty of room for competition and earnings.

In the end, there are a lot of different ang;e for you to tap the Farmville market place. Don’t forget, Farmville is the largest game on Facebook, but there are several others with millions of users. Take what’s working with Farmville and target it to a smaller crowed. Remember, you only need a very small percentage of 80 million users to take action or use your product to find success.

Do you Farmville?

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46 Comments

  1. I couldn't agree more. I've done two FarmVille posts on my blog and they're second and third in terms of traffic. They generate a good deal of inbound Google visitors. I've been thinking about the ebook plan, too. I just haven't executed yet.

  4. that's pretty impressive, I never really looked at it that way – once I saw the group "I hope an F5 tornado destroys farmville" on facebook (not a joke, the group is real) I pretty much wrote farmville off but your post makes some really good points

    1. Definitely a lot of anti-farmville groups. Could probably even bank off those to. Targeting through Facebook, then advertise non-farming games to them.

  5. I really hate farmville, townville, mafia wars and all the other inane facebook games, but I suppose 80 million people feel otherwise….what can one say, the stupidest things can be a huge online success, but a business valued at 1 billion, based on this tripe is just ridiculous. There definitely are some money making opportunities lurking here, I must say!

  6. I am amazed at how many of my friends play Farmville that I had to check it out to see what the craze was about. I don't play it like the dedicated 30 million, but I agree with you that there is an opportunity to make money bouncing off Farmville.

  7. 80 Million users for a farm game! Damn, I thought I was a geek for playing Mario Kart Wii! (ha)

    Some great info there Zac, with that amount of users I can believe there is a hungry market.

  8. That is insane! I lasted a day on farmville and got bored! But it seems like there is a heap of potential to profit from it!

  9. I thought I would start playing Farmville to have something in common with my friends. But I could not go through with it. Now I am asking myself a question: what do I say next time I am invited again?

  10. There's more to monetizing games than that =) I make 3 almost 4 figures a day doing some things within facebook targeting games. What 18-30 years will do to beat their friends is amazing.

  12. i only play farmville once a week, but i never imagine ig zynga can get billion from this apllication, what kind of people pay for digital seed ?

    but this is more potential for us to get money from this situation, right ?

    Haahahah :D, now i'll looking more informaion about this game over internet

  14. I'm tempted to purchase some game currency because it motivates you to be top or above from other users or your friends.

    80 million that's amazing one percent of that is still a huge sum! woot!

  15. I think 2010 will be the year of casual, social games.

    The turnover of social gaming in 2010 is already concentrated in the hands of companies like Zynga and Playdom.

    That's the reason why Playfish was acquired from Electronic Arts for $ 400 million.

  16. I never knew Farmville was this HUGE and didn't understand their business model until now.

    And just to answer your question. I don't Farmville. I don't like the game and have enough on my plate

  17. I should've known there was more to Farmville. It's just popped up way too many times on Facebook for it to be a craze generated on it's own and there's money making ways involved behind it. Time to look into this with a different perspective and try to make something of it.

    Till then,

    Jean

  18. I love playing farmville. Its a great game.And if its tips and tricks you are after I could probably write a blog on it!

  19. Farmville is actually very fun to play. It is perfect for the casual gamer who doesn’t have much time in a busy day to do much gaming. Plus, It is very easy to learn.

    1. @:

      I agree it's a fun game to play but the constant notifications and updates from others can get a bit irritating sometimes. 🙂

      Till then,

      Jean

    2. @: Well here’s a perfect example of someone trying to cash in on the farmville craze. Personally if I don’t have much time for gaming I am content with a game or two of freecell instead.

  20. The user is always right !! I too had rejected farmville as a stupid game but everyday 30 million people prove that it is me who is stupid.

    I will try to come up with something really interesting to cash in on the farmville success.

  21. Thanks for this post on monetizing Farmville users. It's definitely something I hadn't considered before, and if you generalize to other games it does really seem like there's a lot of opportunity here. Thinking outside the box, I like it!

  22. Wow I had no idea Farmville was so huge. It sounds like a very smart idea. I just wonder how many game developers will copy them and release their own game with incentives for affiliate offers.

  24. This is interesting topic. Farmville is very popular, even my friends all of them joined that game. They keep on inviting me to join but I refuse. Due to this, more and more e-books and blogs created.

    I really don’t understand why millions of people are addicted to this game.

  26. It is a great idea to follow any big trends like this. There are bound to be some monetization potential anytime there is a stream of well targeted traffic. They are bound to have some similar interests and needs.

  28. WOW! Didn’t realize farming was that lucrative. I guess I need to go back and reconsider my game plan..

  29. A bunch of guides selling on CB have a pretty high gravity. 80 Million users for a farm game! Damn!!

  31. I'm having a lot of fun playing FarmVille, and I'm enjoying blogging about my progress. I also try to find new and interesting information for my readers. And, of course, I offer an eBook and video set on my site. Making money and having fun too? Not a bad idea!

  32. farmville has take zynga to some new heights – and it's really growing like anything and that proves online gaming with social networking sites are yet to be explored

  33. farmville is good and will keep growing everyday – that's one hell of the game
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  34. Great idea how monetize Farmville users…great thinking…
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  35. wow great i have read many articles about this topic and everytime i learn something new i dont think it will ever stop always new info , Thanks for all of your hard work!
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  36. Being an avid fan, I guess I am part of those that give Farmville owners there billions. Its really interesting to know that we can ride on their success and make money from it. Thanks for this wonderful idea.

  37. nice article friend!. I was reminded of my friends about it, maybe I’ll tell her this blog, and some other friends

  38. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks
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  40. Thanks for introducing me to the Farmville concept. I had never heard of it before.
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