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Community projects

by startefl
2 replies
Hey,

I've got this idea for a community project. In essence it's 1 main website, a bunch of smaller sites, that advertise on the main site and sell specific products, capture re-sellable leads or just high paying adsense sites.

The whole project is driven by the traffic produced from social media, specifically Facebook. It would have around 50 fanpages, all going back to subpages of the main site, and it would all make sense.

I've seen a working model of this, it has 6 million followers on FB and around 1,2 million website views per month. I've looked at this and have come up with some 'improvements' or ways to scale up this model.

I actually have all the skills to create and deliver this project, there is just no where I can build 50+ FB fanpages and create the content necessary. Not a chance.

So I thought of a community project. Or I suppose a JV involving numerous people. It would work even better if some of the partners actually had a passion or interest in some of the fanpages created as well.

Immediately I feel it's doomed before it starts. I see a lot of problems with this kind of set up. Has anyone been involved in one that actually worked?

I'd love to hear some 'war stories' of failures or successes

Cheers
#community #projects
  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    I think you need to get something pretty viral going in yourself first before you could involve partners in your plan. Is not easy to convince people to invest time or money in something when there really is no clear model for success other than that you told him there was. If you can show them that you have a successful model that can be repeated then it's easier to get them to join up with what you're doing.
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    I've participated in community websites before.

    It's really like trying to set up your own social networking platform; it's definitely a handful.

    The projects that I participated in produced less than encouraging results, but I'm not saying that your results would necessarily be the same.

    In fact, I would encourage you to pursue your plans.

    I just want you to go about it with eyes wide open.

    The main problem you need to be on the lookout for, the main problem that you need to solve, is simple.

    You're trying to solve the empty restaurant effect.

    Just as you wouldn't want to go into an empty restaurant, your potential users would not want to join your website if it's not stuffed.

    Also, they won't join you if they don't feel that it has a high level of activity.

    You're stuck with the very basic chicken-or-egg question, and you need to solve that.

    Of course, there many different creative ways to do it.

    My advice is: Do not use automated means of solving the "empty restaurant" effect.

    I've had clients that used my text to create automated profiles, and it usually ended up in disaster.

    You need to a build an organic community, and you need to build it one step at a time.

    The good news is that you can outsource to places like the Philippines, Bangladesh, India; and if you know what you're doing with outsourcing, you can actually have those people produce quality.

    If you need help in setting up the proper parameters, ask the community or ask me and we'd all be glad to respond.

    Make sure that you are clearly aware of the challenges you're up against.

    It's very easy to try to build a community site because you're all excited about the prospect, but -- if you're not careful -- you could end up wasting a lot of time, effort, and money.
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