I started a fan page about 1.5 weeks ago and i have 20k fans as of today using a lot of the methods from this article.
As far as monetizing, i currently have 2 ways i'm doing it:
1. LEGIT offers from my niche (no rebills or any shady crap)
2. Reminding people i have more content on my blog and linking them, resulting in adsense rev from my site.
As long as you offer good content on an ongoing basis, mixing in some aff offers work. Also, facebook is great at giving you demographic info for your fans. So you can even find some offers that relate to your target but may not relate to your niche exactly...