The guys over at Peanut Labs put together a really interesting panel this week about strategies people are using to make money online (specifically in the social games space).

Some interesting anecdotes:

• TV-style programming works on the Web.
  If you're a Heroes fan, you know what's going on every Monday night - as a matter of fact, you look forward to it every week and plan accordingly. Websites can benefit from this same psychology. Pogo games sees a healthy jump in traffic every Tuesday morning. They program for it.
  
• Create strong emotions in your users and make it really easy to transact, unless you're chicken.
  Virtual world games are very popular in Asia. One particular game became a hangout for swingers. Frequently, a disappointed member would spend ten real dollars to buy advertising warning away fellow members from less than desirable mates.
  
• Collect a little bit of money from everybody, all day long.
  When I was a kid, we'd spend $20-30 on a video game cartridge - now they seem to start at $50. The pay-as-you-go model many gaming sites now use, where power-ups are bought as-needed during gameplay, enables serious gamers to spend serious money. The panelists expect the average user to spend at least a few hundred dollars per game, with passionate players sometimes spending hundreds of thousands.
  
• Even nerds appreciate a little affection.
  It's generally easier to automate the tedious work than to do it by hand every time, but humans have a special place in our hearts for the handcrafted. IGG was able to triple its revenue in six short months by hiring humans to organize group games, rather than letting the bots do it.