Any success with non-fanpage methods?

I see most of the discussion lately has been focused on fanpages. Anyone have decent conversions marketing within a single profile? Such as adding 5,000 friends and using status updates?

I'm looking to get back into marketing one step at a time just to earn maybe 30-40 bucks a day.

Wondering if there are any scaled down methods that are worth my time. Right now I want something more "instant" that has modest returns to keep me motivated.

There are always groups (unless you would class them as the same thing as pages) or apps

I had posted a thread in which suggested to create small groups (< 5k members) and send them PrivateMessages with your aff. link or link to a landing page where you placed an affiliate/CPA offer. I actually made some money using this method, but there are some bad sides... however, the thread was deleted (don't know why) so whatever...