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Social Network Website too much to ask for?

by freedom4me2
18 replies
Hello everyone,

I am interested in creating a social network website for a particular niche I am working on. I really do not want to create a product to sell. I would like to create a long term site that would grow over time. Do you think this could be a doable project? Am I asking too much? I am willing to give my business time to grow and I have some financial resources available.

Any ideas on what software will be best? Free vs Paid? Any mentors available that you would recommend that would be willing to work in a different niche other than IM and that have been knowledgeable/successful in creating community sites?

Thanks for any suggestions you can help me with.

Mayra
#network #social #website
  • Profile picture of the author TheBacklinkProdigy
    Anything is a doable project if you're willing to put in the money & the hard work to make it happen. Obviously paid scripts would give you better results, I highly doubt you will find a good free social network script. I just did a quick Google search and I see that there's a lot of scripts for social network like websites, so if I were you I would go through them all and see which one looks the best & has all those neat features that everyone wants to use. Also don't go the cheap route with this, you get what you pay for when it comes to scripts. I talk from experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author BruceWood
    I think your idea is totally workable for building a niche site.

    With Joomla's community builder you can make a basic membership site. There's several plugins and it's all very inexpensive. Here's an example site I made with Joomla.
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    Bruce Wood
    High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing
    Creative Marketing For Local Businesses
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Barboza
      Originally Posted by BruceWood View Post

      I think your idea is totally workable for building a niche site.

      With Joomla's community builder you can make a basic membership site. There's several plugins and it's all very inexpensive. Here's an example site I made with Joomla.
      Nice site. How inexpensive is that?
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  • Profile picture of the author jdpackaging
    I just want to build a new site, and joomla is good
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    • Profile picture of the author freedom4me2
      Nice site, Bruce.

      Thanks for sharing it with me.

      I am definitively willing to put the investment into creating a nice and durable site.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Honestly, you aren't going to get a good social networking site for under 30 grand.

    We just did a project that was niche specific, and a social network catering to that niche and we went about 35,000 with it. You could use community builder but then no one will really want to be at your site. I have never seen a social media site using community builder, the decent ones at least use jomsocial.

    Don't do it unless you have the money for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author freedom4me2
      I Am Name Less,

      Quit question. Can you scale it up in stages? Or would I have to come up with the $30K from the beginning? I see a need in a certain community of people and I really think that they will benefit from such a site. Also, my long term plan is to eventually sell the site, so I am looking and something long term here. Also, would it be better to start with a smaller site just to make sure that the community will engage in it?

      Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
        Originally Posted by freedom4me2 View Post

        I Am Name Less,

        Quit question. Can you scale it up in stages? Or would I have to come up with the $30K from the beginning? I see a need in a certain community of people and I really think that they will benefit from such a site. Also, my long term plan is to eventually sell the site, so I am looking and something long term here. Also, would it be better to start with a smaller site just to make sure that the community will engage in it?

        Thanks.
        Oh absolutely, I do that with almost every bigger project, so it kind of works like a paycheck.

        You aren't the first person, or by any means the only person thinking about a social network. The market is hot right now, and since you're a fellow warrior, I might as well be honest with you, the majority of the clients I have had wasted time and money.

        The reason why they wasted money, was they didn't test it out first. When myspace started, sure it was robust, but it was still simple.

        The way to really see if you're going to succeed is to start small at first, build up traffic, listen to suggestions and then implement them.

        What are your goals? How many members do you want? Starting a social network, and planning to sell is a good way to go about it.

        The last social network I did was niche related and the major problem is that they forked over all this money, with only about 500-1000 members. My suggestion is to spend about 3-5 grand developing the basic design, and integrating social network features, and then build up traffic and get members. After you have a few members, then we work on another part of the site, and so on. That is the best way to do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author dreamclutch
    I agree with iamnameless. To get a really good social networking site that ranks properly you should do get it custom programmed. For example, I designed and programmed my own site Celebitrix that ranks well in search engines however using some other types of packaging social networking packages may not offer the best SEO practices. I maintain my own social networking platform and occasionally use it for other purposes. Good luck with your pursuit!
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  • Profile picture of the author jargonbust
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author freedom4me2
      Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I really want to do this, but I have wasted plenty of money on the net and now I just want to put a laser focus in my net biz, so I can eventually quit my dead end job.

      IAmNameLess, can I email you to discuss this further?

      Mayra
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  • Profile picture of the author freedom4me2
    Great, I will be e-mailing you later today, after I get a few things out of the way. LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author garraye34
    To be honest with you, IM stuff is not social media thing. What you can do is to create a custom fan page.

    You can get this cool tool " pagemodo .com" template to do this.
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    This ended my endless cash drought... Happy to show you my secret sauce
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  • Profile picture of the author CMCarlin
    Your original question is very broad and open-ended. But, your success will be in your EXECUTION of the plan. Keep that in mind.
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    I can help your business grow. Spend less time backlinking and more time focusing on your clients. Skype me anytime for more details. Custom packages available.
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  • Profile picture of the author freedom4me2
    Thanks everyone for the idea. This time I am going to make it happen, so I am in the do it mode. I have no other choice, if I want to turn my life around.

    Garraye34 I am looking at a different niche other than IM. Thanks for the suggestion. Will take a look at it.

    Thanks again.
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