Creating a Social Networking Website

Sep 28 2008

There’s been a lot of talk on my forum about creating a social networking site and what is involved.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a fan of building these kinds of sites from the ground up unless you have already have the traffic and programming expertise to support it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the success of MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. and think this is the way to get rich online.

Unfortunately most people discount the amount of technical expertise involved in building and maintaining a social networking website.

On the other hand, there are some situations when creating a social networking sites is a good idea.

Watch my video below to learn when and how I recommend you create a social networking site (if that’s your goal).

The Next MySpace?

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12 Responses

nick dafos

September 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
1

hi lisa !

that was a great video.

thank you for mentioning ning.com ! i may have to check it ! i wonder how it will be !

although i would just do it for hobby, not in a serious way ! lol !

because a social networking site is too too ambitious !

p.s. you were looking so great again ! amazing lisa !
brent

September 30th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
2

great post
so what kind of hosting do you have since you have so much traffic to your 2createawebsite site
and isn’t sitsell shared hosting as well
lisa

September 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
3

Brent, 2createawebsite is not a social networking site so I use a regular shared hosting plan. In this video I’m talking about people who want to create a social networking site from the ground up. Site Build It! is not for social networking sites.
Robin Piggott

October 20th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
4

Just discovered you today Lisa and want to thank you for the depth and quality of your content.
Your videos are quite exceptional and clearly lay out what is required for each topic you cover.
Look forward to following you on Twitter.
p.s Great Traffic E Book..thank you
Hollis Carter

October 21st, 2008 at 9:12 pm
5

Hey Lisa,

I just came across this video when searching out for competitors for my software application that I just created to give people their own social networking site that could actually compete with a big on of the bigger sites, but for a nominal fee.

I loved everything you said it is the exact reason I created it.

Cheers,

Hollis Carter
Josefina Hart

October 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
6

Hi Lisa!
I consider you my web coach Ha! I just finish my website it took me long time but I did it.
Thank you for the push…I had washed your videos and even print some of your great and hung them up in my desk while I was doing my website you had been very inspirational to me.
Now I am in my next step signing up with affiliated programs.
I had found myself thinking too much which advertising or adds mash my website content like you said and it is been hard for me to add links that mix with the content of my site.
I don’t know what to do but I will keep trying because I really fall in love with this idea. I had never been computer savvy and now am doing things that I never though I will do so I am so exited.
It is hard but also I have been having lot of fun! I had been very excite to see the fruits of my hard work.
Thank you so much you are so smart and your advices are gold to me.
Thanks a lot keep the good work!
Love! Josie
TalkisCheep

November 10th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
7

Great Post. I know that it is difficult to create a social network from scratch, I have been running into many roadblocks myself with getting one started. I had this idea to create a social network for B2C networking called TalkisCheep for Small Business owners who may not be able to afford an online marketing campaign to advertise their business. It would serve as a Word of Mouth, intimate social network for consumers to get information about their business and to feel comfortable about an online business they may not have heard of. The reason why I came up with this idea is because I have had many friends start up ecommerce sites with little to no money to invest in advertising such as display or SEM. Being that I am a Search Engine Marketing Professional I thought this would be a good idea for Small Business owners to invest time in.

What do you think?
lisa

November 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
8

I think it’s a great idea TalkisCheep, but just like any other social networking site you need tons of traffic to make this a success. Do you already have a small business audience you can market to? If so, then yes this can go over well. I think the reason most social networking sites fail is not because the idea is bad but people don’t have a large enough audience to promote it to.
TalkisCheep

November 11th, 2008 at 7:15 am
9

I have been speaking with individuals via linked in but how do I go about getting a large audience to come to the site.
lisa

November 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
10

I get most of my traffic through Google, Yahoo, and all the other free search engines. That’s why creating a social networking site is not usually a good idea to do before you’ve learned to do that and have a traffic base. It would be much better for you to create an information site about the topic you want to focus on and learn how to get listed and ranked for various keywords. THEN once you have the traffic, you can promote your social networking site to your audience once they find your site. Social networking sites are harder to get listed in google because there’s no content/theme. It’s better to build a content rich site or blog first so you can build an audience.
TalkisCheep

November 11th, 2008 at 11:44 am
11

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the great information right now I have a blog called talk is cheep and I have been posting articles about the topic I would like to work with and that is how social marketing can help your business and foster word of mouth advertising but I am not quite sure on how to get individuals to my site.

I would love for you to take a look at it and give me some feed back.

Greatly Appreciated,

Africa
Bob Smith

November 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
12

You need the content. Even if you are an expert in a field the real work starts when sitting down to write everything you know. We struggle to get content for their websites, so I guess we would have to chose carefully who we create social networking with.