static fbmlLet’s spice up your Facebook Fan Page with some custom tabs!  But how do you do that?  With the application Static FBML.  FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language and uses a lot of the same commands as HTML.

If you are not an HTML wizard (I’m not), you can still easily put a custom tab on your page.  I’m going to show you one of the easiest thing you can add, a picture or copy of a flyer.

Two things you will need:

1. Picture or scanned item in a .jpg, .bmp, .gif format.

2.  Access to a website where you can upload your pictures or scanned flyer.

If you don’t have these two things, then these instructions won’t work.

Here are my step by step instructions.  You can also watch the tutorial below to see exactly where you click:

1.  Upload whatever picture or scanned document you want to have on your tab up to your personal website.  Make sure you know what folder you upload it to (I always use the images folder).  Don’t make the file too large or it will take a long time to load.

2.  Add the Static FBML application to your page by going to the application and clicking Add to my Page under the missing picture which is currently a question mark (they should get on that).

3.  Go to your Fan Page page and click on Edit Page.

4.  The FBML application should be there and click on Edit.

5.  The Box Title will be the title of your tab

6.  Paste this code into the body and change the URL to the place where your document or picture is stored.

<img border=”0″ alt=”” src=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/folder/image.jpg” width=”520″ height=”800″>

You may have to change the height.  This is an example from a scanned flyer.  If you have multiple pages, just copy and paste the same code right after the line above with the second page.

That’s the easiest thing you can do.  You can get fancy with multiple pictures, YouTube videos and e-mail optins.  My Welcome page is a little fancier and is mostly a series of images: www.Facebook.com/GrandmaMaryShow

If you want to get fancier and you don’t know HTML, just hire someone!  Don’t make yourself cranky over this.  Was this post helpful?  Let me know in the comments!

PS.  Facebook is discontinuing FBML but they will continue to support it.  So anything you create now will still be there when they switch to iFrames.  Don’t worry!

UPDATE: Facebook has now discontinued FBML and you can easily use an iFrame application such as Wildfire to create a custom page. Here’s my tutorial on it:  How to Add the Wildfire iFrame Application to your Facebook Page