Monetize Chat Apps with AIM Money

Kevin Farnham, June 23rd, 2008

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AOL is now offering developers who create applications using the Open AIM API the opportunity to make money. AIM Money is a new revenue-share platform where developers profit from ads they embed into their Open AIM applications.

As Stephen Shankland reports over at Webware, AIM Money is enabled by new features in AIM 6.8 and extensions to the Open AIM API. The new developments let developers:

Write software such as the mini-applications that plug into AIM’s own chat software, bots that can communicate with humans on the network, Web-based AIM interfaces, and software that show when AIM members are available online through the service.

The payment model is simple: you are paid for each ad displayed, on a monthly basis, using PayPal.

To get started with AIM Money, go to the AIM Money home page, log into your AIM account, and click the “Sign Up Now” button. Once you agree to the terms, you can get the ad code you need to embed into your AIM application.

The AIM advertisements are packaged into HTML <iframe> elements. The frames, which are served from a subdomain on AOL’s Userplane.com site, come in three different sizes, letting you apply the ad size that works best in your AIM application.

See our WebAIM API page to view some of the types of applications people have developed using Open AIM. For example, the TinyBuddy IM mashup applies AOL’s OpenAuth API along with WebAIM in an IM client that works on the iPhone and iTouch, as well as in standard browsers (more details at our mashup profile).

You can find good tutorials on developing Open AIM applications at the AIM Central site. And by adding in AIM Money you’re on your way to monetizing your next chat application.