Hello everyone 
!,
I’ve had hours of frustration, days of head banging and much worse while I started developing Facebook Apps !, So I thought I should write up a little post that will give you 10 important notes you should keep in mind before starting your next hit app !
In the next few points i’ll be discussing how your app should work, how it should look, and what it should contain to become a great app !, so read along 
- You need to do good research before you start working on your app !, The app might already be there, so make sure you look around really good before making any steps forward.
- To build a hit app, you must utilise all of the platform’s integration points !, from publishing to user’s walls, telling his/her friends about action he/she has done in your app, Integrating a profile box and a tab (Tabs and boxes will be deprecated) , Find every single piece of integration and use it !, this is the real strength points and what makes facebook a great platform !
- If users like your app, give them an option to become a fan of your app, it will grab potential users !, Fans have been a great way to get more users, and it actually goes exponential!, so as soon as you implement it in your app, You’ll find a great impact on the number of users of your app !
- Advertisement ? Well you need to think alot about it and find a good strategy !, as advertisement tends to blow away your users!, You don’t want to load your app with ads so the user gets disoriented and leave right away, Keep the main important parts of your App where the user interacts clean and neat !, I find banner ads of a good simple design on top or bottom of the page a good practice !Avoid advertisement as much as you can !, Try to find a better way to get money out of your application, integrate virtual currency, use paypal or Spare Change , If advertisement is a must, then find a nice way to add them to your app !
- Add the option to invite, but don’t force users to do so. Inviting is a way to allow users to share your app with their friends if they like it !, instead of copying/pasting the app URL, and confusing users.
Inviting can be great, but If you start forcing users to do so will deter them right away!, I’ve seen apps where you had to answer 15 questions about your friends to see what your friends have said about you, and much uglier things !
Forcing users to do things is to be avoided at any cost ! - Love your users, Contact them as soon as there’s new options in your app, Ask for their opinion, Interact with them and allow them to express their selves on your app !, People will want to come to your app to have fun and this will keep them coming back !
- The developer wiki IS your best friend, and only friend !, You must visit the wiki ALOT to learn about any changes, The facebook platform is under constant change all the time !, you must be aware of every single change and every single modification to come !. you must be aware of your platform !
- Be really, really creative !, Facebook doesn’t need “Yet another gifting program”, Facebook needs applications to use !, and needs applications to solve real world problems and perhaps add options that you think Facebook is missing !
- Your design must be Intuitive, and your users shouldn’t be able to differentiate between your app and Facebook’s design !, When you design your app to seamlessly integrate into Facebook, users will be more comfortable with it !
Loading your app up with strange buttons, funny looking fonts, etc.. user’s won’t know where to go, what is a button and what isn’t and you will end up going a road you don’t really want to ! - Facebook Connect ?? , YEAH !. Facebook connect is a great way of brining Facebook users and their Identity to your website !
It’s a great practice outside your app, If your app basically doesn’t run inside facebook, just use facebook connect, you will integrate the power of Facebook into your webapp or desktop app, without the need to go to facebook !, Connect is growing really fast, more and more websites are using facebook Connect and It is becoming more popular between end-users , so it will be a great addition to your app to be able to connect Facebook identities !
Ok to sum up, I discussed the 10 main points you had to know before working on your next hit app, however, I haven’t “Technically” discussed it , I haven’t told you how to write your first app and how to code it, but i’ll talk about it in another post soon.
Have fun on Facebook:)