Monetize your Bot in 24 Hours w/ these features!
Hi, I’m Kemar Darlington. If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably a member in the Facebook Bots group trying to figure out if the buzz words in my Facebook post hold any true weight. Well in all honesty, in the most humblest of tones, they do!
After months of trial and error, I’ve discovered the three core features needed to monetize bots in our current ecosystem. In other words, there are a very small number of bot experiences that the general public is currently willing to pay for and through research, I’ve found three of them capable of generating significant revenue. To substantiate my discovery, I’ll also include the Paypal earning statements behind each feature. However, if the discussion of these features in this article isn’t enough to start you on the road to earning with bots, I’ll also offer webinars, video tutorials, and even give you a bot of your own, complete with the three core features for earning! So yeah, this is not a boast post! I’ve spent A LOT of money and time trying to see if there is truly any revenue to be made in this space. I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to and without further ado, here are my l{earnings}.
Core Feature #1 : Paid User Submissions
Above is a partial screenshot of the Paypal earnings graph for the paid submission feature in one of our indie bots (FYI : a indie bot is simply a bot that comes with the three core features being explained in this article!)
This indie bot was built for a popular entertainment page in late February of 2017 and they were able to go from $300 to $12000 in revenue by early April. Revenue as of June 5th, sits at roughly $55,000.
Feature Explained :
This feature touches on something that most people desire & a particular field that bots excel in : data collection! It’s rather simple. Humans have a natural vulnerability or desire for feedback. The simple interface of bots allow for the rapid collection of data to provide such feedback in a quick and convenient fashion. In the example above, the entertainment page that we built an indie bot for had an audience composed of creators and musicians. This is a particular demographic that is vulnerable for exposure and feedback.
As a result, the paid user submissions excelled with this demographic with just only 2,000 users at the time. Users would pay $10 to $20 to submit their work & their content would then be distributed to a few hundred users that opted in to receiving daily blasts (87% of the user base opted in as they were given discounts for their own submission if they voted on others). Those users would then review that creators work, usually skyrocketing their views on a video or site (depending on the submitted link), and then give feedback on that work by choosing from a selection of emojis that represented ratings. After users voted with an emoji on a submitted work, they were also given an opportunity to submit their own content, which many of them did, creating a constant stream of revenue (as seen in the picture above).
For instance, every blast would make the company at least $200 in the first hour, as 8 to 10 other artist would then opt in to pay to submit their own work after voting. Don’t underestimate how much people are willing to pay for simply placing their work in front of an audience that gives them valuable feedback to change or better their craft. In fact, 47% of paying users returned with a new and improved product to have our audience give a second opinion.
Key TakeAways: This feature is not market specific. In its simplest form, its paid advertisement. As you know, paid advertisement is existent in every industry or market. All you need is a targeted audience that is willing to vote or give feedback on work or products from time to time. This task is a lot easier than you think as everyone needs advertisement. If you incentive voting by giving a discount towards a voter’s own paid submission , you’ll see that an active community of users will be born! Note : if you have a user base of users with similar interest you may not need an incentive to get people to vote as they may be already interested in each other’s crafts or businesses.
If you have a bot with just 200 people, there is a potential $2,000 to $5,000 that you’re currently missing out on!
YOU : So this all sounds good. However, to make sure this isn’t a boast post, here is what you need to monetize your own audience.
- An Audience of at least 200 with preferably similar interests. If not, involve the incentives discussed above.
- A paid submission & voting feature. So this is the obvious! If you’re a developer with a few weeks to spare, you can think of many clever ways to code out this feature. However, if you’re not a developer or simply don’t have the time, I’ll provide you with a bot of your own with the feature included (You can also receive the code or plugin to add to any existing bot product).
- A management App. Yes I know, why isn’t this a bot yet. The answer is : I’m working on it. However, as of now, I give my clients a management app that receives paid user submissions from the bot and automatically transform them into a gallery card ready to be sent out to their user base. The app allows you to manage these paid Ads on the go so you don’t flood your user base with these submissions without discretion. If you don’t have a management app, that will also be provided to you!
Core Feature Number 2 : Marketplace
In the first picture, we see a marketplace transaction occurring in the bot. Essentially two users matched with one another, a chat opened up between them, and a transaction was facilitated within the bot. Like Fiver, the company that this bot was built for decided to set the price for all services bought and sold in the bot at $40. This Uber model of control worked for them and they were able to process over $50,000 in transactions within the first month. At a 10 percent facilitation fee, the company made roughly $5,000. As of June 5th, their earnings from this feature currently sits at $32,000.
In the second picture, we have our management app which is connected to Paypal showcasing all of the transactions that occurred in the last 24 hours. The admin taps “Pay All” to payout to the users after the 10% fee is deducted.
Feature Explained
The marketplace feature is a feature that EVERY BOT should have because it touches on something that bots are really good at : gathering people in one place with common interests. Simply add it to your on boarding process and let it sit in the background. Within no time, connections will begin occurring and behold the cashflow from your facilitation fees. How? The marketplace feature works by simply asking every user 4 questions during the on boarding process. Those questions are : what do you like to buy, what is your budget, what do you like to sell, what is your price. By asking these questions to every user on your platform, a matchmaking process begins by matching potential buyers and sellers. Right away our matching algorithms will match the user that said he usually likes to buy vintage sneakers for $100 to the guy that says he usually sells sneakers for $80. No matter your market, everyone likes to buy and sell. Giving value to your users by matching them in your on boarding process shows them the power of your community and sends the message 0f “value” that boost bot reengagement.
Overall, the whole idea is leveraging the amount of data that each user brings to your platform. That data is POWERFUL and can produce LOTS of revenue. Imagine this feature in one of Persona’s influencer bots that has thousands of users. Imagine the amount of information the bot can collect from its users and repackage to add value to the experience of other users! To be honest, I’d sure like to know if one of the reported 100,000+ users in the Christian Grey Bot is in my area selling a signed autograph (JK).
Also, not to mention, Facebook has thousands of buy and sell groups. You can very well attach your own indie bot to one of those groups and watch users begin to match and facilitate transactions in no time! The amount of possibilities and markets to monetize using this feature is endless! Besides how powerful is it to know the buyer and seller profiles of every USER in your database? I don’t know about you, but in the world where big data equals big dollars, that seems pretty valuable to me!
Key Takeaways : You can make money with this feature by simply using it to leverage the valuable info gathered from your users to add value to their experience by utilizing it to connect them with other users! You set your facilitation fee and sit back as the marketplace runs on its own. It can be turned on and off by each user and won’t hinder the main experience you’re trying to facilitate. Imagine the amount of connections your users are currently missing out on. Instead of focusing on your bot creating value for a user, maybe open a medium to allow your users to add value for one another?
Note: You can also just find a industry to create a marketplace around and have that feature be the main functionality of the bot (Uber for haircuts? Uber for home maintenance? You tell me)
You : So how do you add a marketplace feature to your bots?
- In all honesty, this feature took months to build and is very intricate. It connects users, places them in a one on one conversation, and then facilitates a transaction before sending the users back to the bot menu. Everything is connected to Paypal so mass payout integration was a bit tough and a bunch of other complicated things! If you’re a developer, go for it. I can help along the way. If you’re not, we’ll give you an indie bot with the feature included.
- A Paypal Business account. Make sure you have a Paypal business account to handle all of the transactions! You can have upwards of $30,000 processing through your Paypal so make sure this is NOT A PERSONAL ACCOUNT.
- A user base of at least 500. In all honesty, you can make some okay money to cover your server costs or weekly groceries with 500 users. The real money begins when you have over 5,000 users as more connections are possible! A marketplace is only as powerful as the amount of users that it has ready to participate. The good news is that you can attach your bot to an already established group or page with the user base you need and simply negotiate a percentage split.
Core Feature #3 : Live voting.
Note : I chose to omit a screenshot of the earning statement as I don’t feel comfortable sharing the partnership deals of our clients.
Feature explained
Facebook Live is now a main way for influencers, brands, and businesses to communicate with their audience. However, besides the comment and the likes features embedded into FB Live , there really isn’t any data driven solutions to create an interactive channel with your audience. With the live voting feature, influencers, brands, and businesses can send out questions to their audience and see responses come in live! Imagine being able to ask your audience “which design works better for my new product?” and seeing responses come in live through an interactive display as you live stream. Now your audience feels more connected and has a better and more serious channel of communication with you. So where is the MONEY? Well, this feature is an advertisers dream.
In the example above, during a Live Stream that had commercials (thats possible now), an advertiser was able to send content directly to everyone tuned in! Their conversion rate increased by over 38% . Not only did my client make a percentage of sales, he also made money by providing the Ad slot. I’d estimate our client made over $15,000 from this deal.
YOU: What if your bot has no content worth live streaming and live voting on?
The short answer is that it doesn’t matter! One of our clients simply allowed a popular media page to utilize their bot for live voting and took an upfront fee. However, if you have a bot on a influencer page, you can have a much bigger pay day with this feature! It DOES NOT HURT TO HAVE! Think of it as a spare room. You won’t use it all the time but you might need it from time to time. If not, you can AIRBNB it to make a couple dollars. Facebook Live tends to be pretty popular right now so I don’t think you’ll have any problem finding a use case.
Key Takeaways : This is feature that can make you up to $50,000 and it only has be used or rented once or twice a year to yield that amount (I may have just gave away my clients numbers but hey, its an estimate!)
What’s Next ? : I know this seems like a lot and it is! However, I’d say that only 75% of the secrets to monetize a bot was shared today! If I had the time, I’d walk you through step by step until you made your first $1000! However, if you’d like consultation, video tutorials, webinars, detailed write ups, and the offered indie bot, reach me here at Dido consulting for business or write me directly by tapping here.