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).
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
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 !
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
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.
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
Follow on Twitter: @holliscarter
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
Hi; Hollis.
My name is Kevin and I am in the progress of starting my own Social Networking Site. I am definitely interested in your software application. My idea is very unique and It will sell. Please advice me on where or when I can pay for a copy of your soft ware application.
Follow on Twitter: @holliscarter
Hey Kevin,
Sorry for delay and sorry to say that we are currently in SOLD OUT mode.
But if you are still interested you can go to email my support desk at support@snempire.com and let them know I said let you in from your blog post.
To your success,
Hollis Carter
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
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?
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.
I have been speaking with individuals via linked in but how do I go about getting a large audience to come to the site.
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.
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
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.
i think social networking and sociable plug-ins are pretty useful.
i get fair share of traffic by doing just minimal efforts too..
but i like ur opinions.. keep up the great work.
Hi Lisa
Yet another great video and you are dead right, so many people think that Dreamweaver will just create all the great scripts that make social networks and often its too late, they have spent the money on the software that does not do what they think it does.
Have you seen kickappz before, they are a pretty good provider much like ning.
Great work
This video is not very informative, I’m sorry to say. It seems like lisa has only given you two options when in reality there is a smarter and cheaper way to having your own social network site and you sure CAN compete with myspace or facebook and make money while you’re at it. Here’s what lisa doesn’t know or did not care to mention… (Side note: no pun intended I just to inform people with another alternative)
There are many scripts already created that miror most of famous social networks like myspace, facebook or hi5. These scripts are legal, not to expensive ($100 - $600) depending on which one you choose to go with. It’s simple, just do a google search for fecebook clone or myspace clone and you will find already made script that is almost identical to the original sites. They are also customizable. you can add your own site logo, change the theme, color fonts, buttons, email notifications messages, etc…
One of the most commonly used is phpfox as a myspace clone and it comes with addicional plug in features that you can install wich are pretty much any feature that myspace has.
Now about making money and paying for hosting… You can start out with basic hosting and of course use google adsense to publish ads and make some money. If and when your social network get popular, that’s when you will need to switch to a dedicated host. Of course by then you should be making enough to cover this expense.
What about competing with the big social network? In order to compete, you should focus on a specific demographic. For example make an “Emo Social Network” and promote it emo kids. Or like Lisa said make a hockey mom Social network and build on it.
Well, I don’t want to write to much but I’m sure that I’ve pointed you in the right direction. Do some research and I’m sure you’ll find your way to success. Good luck and best wishes. Happy Hosting
I’m not gonna spell check, sorry. hope you understud.
Hi Dale, thanks for that..it was really useful. Have you created your own social networking site? U seemed to be quite experienced and know what you are talking about….Anyway..I am looking for someone who can help desin my website, which I want it to end up as a Networking website(Not really socail)….If you are a programmer….r u interested????
this message for dale..i wonder if you could give me some advice..i recently finished my social network which was built from off the shelf sooftware..it looks good but its not that interesting and i am needing more content..it is a niche and one which will take off,im sure..i havent launched it yet as i want to add more to it..maybe blogger,advertising(for free)please help x
Cindy, additional features like blogs, albums, videos, music, classifieds, forums, events, and other widgets will be important to keep people active on your site however, I recommend focusing on gaining traffic first on a basic social network and then slowly introducing new features. Here’s why… First of all it’s a niched site so you have the uper hand over other social networks because it’s topic focused. People will join just for that reason but since your site is new you don’t want to add more content empty pages. For example if you were to add a forum or classified section before you launch, this will only make the site look even more empty because you will not have any posts at first. So, once you have some members start adding new features like the ones listed above. This will also show your members that you are actively improving the site for their enjoyment.
As for advertising, sign up for google adsense. Ads can sometimes make your site a little more colorful and you can earn some money at the same time.
If you want to add a free advertising section (Classified) the best way to do it is to make it apealing to marketers. For expample: lets say your niche is “a skaters network” then contact some local or known skate shops and let them know about your website’s free classified section. If they see that you have a good amount of skaters on your site, I’m sure that they will post ads regularly and will keep this section of your site active. Same goes with any other niche. If it’s a car racing site, contact car shops, if it’s a tech network, contact computer shops.
Here are a few other things that you might find helpful when you’re ready to launch.
It’s a good idea to start off with a closed network for members only until you build up a fair amount of people on your site. What does that mean? It means unless you’re registered you can not browse the site. WHY? because it’s like throwing a party, no one wants to be the first few people there. They want to get there once the place is jump’n. So don’t let them peek. Once they’re in, they’re in and they are most likely to return.
You can also try the “invite only” method. Everyone likes to be part of something exclusive thus, it can give you a marketing advantage.
Another thing, try to maintain a quality network and interesting place for everyone. How many times have you browsed through member’s profiles on a network site only to find that out of 10,000 total members, only less than half of them have a picture on their profile? Require a photo at sign up so that your site does not look like people signed up and then left.
Good luck Cindy
Cindy, this is FANTABULOUS advice!!!!
dale,thankyou so much for your great advice and for taking the time to write..i aalready have blog,chat,films,videos etc and yes they are all empty..i have mailed the members we have and asked them to add pics but they have not done so..well some have..i only have 30 members so far but only finished the site few weeks ago..love he idea of members only and cant browse unless registered,need to look into that..i dont know if you looked at the site but it does have a market here and in certain other countries..you see i am struggling as the guy who was doing all the work for me has taken ill so i am on my own but hopefully will gat there.xx
Hey Cindy I didn’t see your website until now. I didn’t know that your post included a link until you mentioned it.
Your site is a perfect example of why the “members only” or “by invite only” is a more effective method to launch a networking site. I browsed through your members and found a total of 37 registered users but only 10 bothered to post a picture. Now that’s fine if they came and went because they lost interest but, you have to take advantige of their initial visit by requiring that they add a foto when signing up. Let me reiterate why. If someone comes to your site, signs up and never comes back again. At least they gave your site a little more light the few minutes that they were there by creating a profile that new users will see and not know the difference wheather that is an active member or not. For a new user the first impression that they will get is “wow, there’s other people here” and maybe they’ll hang around or come back periodictly.
Another advantige is that a profile with a foto is more likely to get viewed. If your social site has email notification for new messages or comments left on a members profile then there’s the posibility that a user who came and went, may return to your site if they recieve an email notification because someone saw thier profile and left them a message or comment. But no one will be commenting on no-face profiles, trust me.
Since you’re on your own with this project now, keep a very close eye on your traffic reports. I don’t know if your host offers Cpanel with Awstats but if they do, it’s a great tool to track how long a visitor is on your site, what pages are viewed, where they are connecting from, the amount of unique visit per day, and avarage repeat visits. Plus a whole lot more detail including reffering links and effective keywords.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When I went to your site I noticed that it does not have any keywords. SEO is very important and that’s something that you should also look into.
Well, as always… I wish you the best
And thanks Cindy!! You’ve given me a great idea. I think that I’m going to make a forum for social networking webmaster where we can discus different ideas, show off our sites, cross advertise, etc,. I’d love to see you there when the site is up.
Cheers
Cindy
couple of questions for ye seen as you are experienced now!
You said you used off the shelf software, did you customize it much yourself or did you buy in help?
I am contemplating creating exactly what you did and could do with some pointers.
Cheers
Co.
To Dale and Eva,
You guys have provided a lot of useful information. My partner and have been thinking alot lately about creating a social network targeted towards a specific group. If it were successful it would probably be competing with facebook and myspace. But a problem we keep running into is to make sure it is a legitimate website and we wouldnt be sued for things such as copyright violation. If you guys have any advice you can share we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
SJ,
I am quite concerned about that as well…I want to create a social networking site but its gonna be quite unique and could my website be patented?
Jett
Lisa, thanks so much for the information. Everything you said was very helpful. I will be visiting your site often.
Beebe
Thanks Lisa, great video. I’m currently in the process of creating my own social networking website and these pointers have been extremely helpful. Now some of you have been talking about creating a blog or other website with keywords and building traffic on that site and then telling the visitors of that site to check out the social networking website…and I’ve been thinking of taking a different approach (please tell me what you think): I was thinking of including a section in the social networking site that includes a lot of articles about the theme of the website and I’ll make sure that the articles include a lot of keywords…won’t this be a better approach? won’t this make the social networking site easily listed in search engines?
I’m not using any off-the-shelf software, mostly because I did not know that they existed. However I still believe that knowing the technologies used in creating dynamic websites is extremely important. I’ve spent 2 years teaching myself ASP.Net, VB.Net and MS SQL Server and now I can say that I’m very familiar with these technologies. I’m saying all this to let you all know that if you’re thinking about creating a social networking site, you really do need to become familiar with relevant technologies since members of the site will expect new features to be added periodically. Knowing HTML is not enough and being familiar with PHP or ASP.Net will give you more control over what you can add to your website. I don’t agree that you can simply download “scripts already created that miror most of famous social networks like myspace, facebook or hi5″ and expect to get rich from them. I think that people won’t be interested in a website with the same features as other popular social networking sites. However you can download these scripts and change or add features so that you’ll be offering people something new…this won’t be possible if you don’t know PHP or ASP.Net.
Jesmond
Thank you all soooo much for your info. I was so lost at where to start and some how came across this site! I was headed in the right direction but wasn’t sure until I came across here.
I too am starting a social network(music) and I needed to know how to go about creating it in order to compete with other very large groups.
The marketing advise is a “jewel” I don’t know about programming and there are so many programs out there that offer you there software but as Lisa said I want my stuff custom so i may have to invest a bit,I was thinking of maybe going to a nearby college to enlist some help from some of the program students in training.
I Feel I can do this because my idea is something that is needed and something that I would want to join if I was not creating myself you know!
hey nice site, i jus need some small help, well i want to create a site where people sign up, and with the information provided, they are bascially placed in a group ( like the communities in orkut), and the site should have a search bar which searches my site for the group name in the search bar, if the group is present or not and if it is present it should show the group members. ppl should be able to send messages to the group members.
what do i do? do i have to learn php\javascript\mysql or do i get readymade scripts? or can some one do it for me:)
i can do most of the part of creating site, jus wonderin bout the creating group part and sending messages part.
pleaseeeeeee help.
to Haridas: If you don’t know how to use the appropriate technology for creating dynamic websites then you’ll have to get someone to do it for you. Or if you want to learn you’ll have to become familiar with PHP or ASP.Net, database managers (such as MS SQL Server or MYSQL) and AJAX or Javascript. And you will also need to take into consideration other technical aspects like implementation of security in the site. All this will take a lot of time to learn, and it’s by no means easy.
However I think that the site you want to develop is fairly simple so it’s not worth going through all the trouble of learning all these different types of technologies. I’d suggest that you find someone to do it for you.
well i approached a few of d web developers in the city, and they quoted like 40,0000 rupees (800 dollars). and thats a bit too much. so i decided to learn php / MySQL not completely atleast so that i am able to understand when i look at a code, by this way i can modify an existing code to suit my requirements.
any good books that teach to create a networking site, not necessarily a social networking, that u could advise me…
thanks for ur reply btw.:)
hey dude finally got the website done- by myself, it took a month. I used a CMS , and got it done without any knowledge of PHP mysql etc.:)))
This is great information. Dale - thanks so much for all your advice. I have an idea too for social networking and have been trying to teach myself programming. I realize now that is not where I should be focusing myself and will now hire someone to do that. I worry about how to hire someone well-qualified - are there any key questions that I should be asking to ensure they are legit and can do the job? Also, is there some site that tells me what to expect to pay for the job so that I know I am fairly compensating? Love the idea that you will create a social networking forum.
Well, as I always say: “Google is your friend”
I learned ASP.Net and SQL Server completely off the internet, I never paid a single dollar and I never opened a single book. If you’re already familiar with PHP and MYSQL then you will be able to easily follow online tutorials. I think you should start by googling about creating a signup form, just type something like: “php signup tutorial” and that should get you started.
Good luck
jus found out about the open source software - Drupal, its an awesome software and make website building job a lot easier. It suits to my requirements mostly but will have to tweak the modules a bit if i need to use it.best part no coding required if u are using custom modules.
guess i wont be needing to learn php and MySql…:)
Try http://www.socialgo.com - super easy and top features.
Lisa,
Great video. I was hoping to start a social networking site but now realize how hard it would be. With that said what do you think of Joomla.com and Joomunity.com
As for joomla it’s good but you need to know some php to go along with it.
Lisa,
I am a chef and I begun developing a social network for people who suffer from Interstitial Cystitis. My developer is develpoing all the code that is going into creating MyFoodStyle.com. His compensation is contracted to come out of my profits…so he is actually being subcontracted. We both believe in this site very much, and so my question to you is this….when creating this site how much would it cost to buy dedicated server space to hold enough data that would include: video, blogs, newletters, personal profiles, recipes, etc? And are there any suggestions of where I might go to purchase these dedicated servers?
Thank you,
Daniel.
Creating a Social Networking Site to compete with MySpace of Facebook is essentially making a brand new corporation, not just a new site. The kind of expenses you are talking about can be covered if you are able to find investors and get bank loans. Though Ning wont help you compete with MySpace and Facebook, it might be a good idea to make a blue print site with Ning to show investors. Then when you have the money move off Ning and start it the legitimate way.
oh and right now I’m developing one 4 my highschool It’s not complete but I’m breaking head way now.