http://www.fabianschonholz.com/2007/12/09/the-march-to-profitability/

1. There's a VERY low cost of entry to build a facebook app. and you don't need to know that much 'tech' to do it.

2. At the same time, the more you know about the technologies you do choose to use, and how to implement them, the better your app is going to scale and perform (once people find it).

3. Just about anything you put out as a facebook app right now is going to get at least a little attention - so if nothing else, it's a fairly cheap form of advertising (the first version of my app was really nothing more than a glorified ad for people to come to my site to play the real game. Even on my mini scale, there has been some conversion!).

4. Everyone suggests making your apps as simple as possible, but I disagree. Simple is great for getting people in, but I think it's the more advanced apps that will keep people coming back (so I think the better advice is to stick with the same concepts that work on a web site in general -- simple design, full and involved features).

5. You don't have to worry about *if* people will try your app, you have to worry about *when* people will try your app. There's a good chance you're going to get them to try it, but getting them to fall in love with it is your new challenge...

I have more but I think I've rambled enough already :)

@Andrew . .

I presented these ten items as "learnings" not tips. The framing makes a difference. For example, we learned that this new form of persuasion -- Mass Interpersonal Persuasion -- has emerged. That's not a tip but it is a learning. The same applies to the other nine things we list.

Backstory: The day before the event we didn't have this list of ten items. We were simply planning to tell the story of the class, sort of a narrative approach. But the night before I reread the title Dave McClure put in the program (something like "What Stanford Learned Creating Facebook Apps"), and I told my TAs we should deliver on the title. So I came up with the list -- in about 10 minutes. When I reached 10 items, I stopped listing things and went to bed so I could get up at 3am and fly to San Diego for the presentation.

Dave and I both admit we made mistakes in the course. Before things started, we knew this would be the case and we announced it the first day in class. We encouraged students to drop out if they needed an unchanging syllabus and clear directions at every turn. Because this was new material, all of us learned new things week by week. Given all the uncertainties, we were happy that *anything* succeeded during those 10 weeks.

I think the next question - that is alluded to in the comments too - is how to make something lasting, something valuable, something interesting on a level other than "installs."

So, take Dr. Fogg's cue about "Mass Interpersonal Persuasion" and Kevin's tip #3 & #4 and build the answer!

That's what we're doing at THiNGi; our next "group e-commerce" apps will leverage group persuasion and participation for some of the first true social e-commerce revenues.

"Aim for speed & flexibility in launch and iterations" - Get something built before Stanford's class schools you all next semester!

You can read our developer's diary on our team blog:
http://thedigitalist.net/?p=71

I think our main learning point is that a week is a long time in Facebook. The book-behind-the-app is a diary that sets a weekly challenge to help you change your life. The app was structured around these weekly challenges. We are pleased with the numbers, but it didn't 'go viral'.

Check out the other apps, also niche topics like Healthy Diet, Buddhism, Food Word of the Day, and more: http://www.answers.com/main/facebook_apps.jsp