This is poached from a conversation we had with one of our clients about making money on Facebook. I really wanted to post it, if not only for the insight, but for how much it reminds me of high school in Flagstaff. I’ve only slightly modified Dan Blaker’s words..

My initial thoughts about the world of Facebook apps:

There’s a small (but noisy) subculture of young import-car aficionados in Portland. They tend to gather on weekends in parking lots with their Hondas and Mitsubishis etc. This subculture is broken up into three subgroups: people who don’t have cars, people who have flashy cars, and people who have good cars.

If we break out Facebook users into similar subgroups, I’d say most Facebook apps cater to the flashy-car people. That is, the apps are fun and look cool (like a giant spoiler or under-car neon) but they don’t really do anything useful. And just as you can buy all manner of pretty (but useless) ground effects from a massive number of vendors, you can trick out your Facebook profile with a million pointless apps. Unfortunately, the lifespan of most of those apps is pathetically brief—people quickly get bored of flashy things.

For a Facebook app to be useful and persistent in the Facebook experience, it needs to have a real-world result. If an app saves people time or money or helps them legitimately connect with friends, they will integrate it into their routine and recommend it to others. This is not “viral” but it is sustainable and potentially very profitable. So let’s make the app equivalent of a new performance chip or a 3-inch mandrel-bent exhaust, not the equivalent of Altezza lights or “Type R” decal.