Creating a social networking site! Very excited!

[Nikstokes]

I have a concept for a new social networking site, I'm learning to program html, css and php. Been learning for about two weeks but previously had no idea how to program lol

i want to create this site and have profiles for users but not sure how to do that. All the researching I've done has said to use some type of CMS but don't know exactly what that is or how it will help.

Can I have some suggestions on what to do?

 

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[brob742]

Been learning for about two weeks but previously had no idea how to program lol

If you are excited about the potential, you shouldn't develop it yourself at this stage unless it's a project you want to do for fun to learn.

You will never get to market fast enough building from scratch and just now learning how to code. Keep learning the craft, but if you are serious about the site, I would look to outsource the MVP to bring it to market quickly.

 

[Nikstokes]

Sorry, what do you mean by outsourcing the Mvp

 

[Mike39]

Sorry, what do you mean by outsourcing the Mvp

Minimum viable product, the simplest and roughest product you can release that will meet the needs of your customers. By the way, is this social media site for a niche or just for the general public, what makes it unique?

 

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[EastWind]

Take a number, you are person number #152,683,324 who is now excited about a new social site with a new twist.

 

[CommonCents]

I'm looking at fooling around w/ wordpress w/ buddypress social media plugin and bbpress forum plugins. As I read it is easier to work with for inexperienced.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/embed/PTNdMn8rGlg[/video]

 

[buggy]

If you're just learning how to program then don't waste your time developing a social network unless it's a hobby project. It will take months to learn enough that you're not dangerous and many more months to create a very basic product.

Normally I would tell someone to try Buddy Press first but if you don't know what a CMS is then pay for a hosted solution like Ning instead (Disclaimer - I haven't used Ning in many years so I don't know how good it is these days).

This will allow you to focus on overcoming the network effect. No one wants to feel like the only person hanging around your site. You'll need to invite some friends to join first and create the initial content. If you don't do that then people will turn up, see the ghost town and move on to the next site.

 

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[joschi]

i hope you have a good niche for it
take a look at https://www.google.com/search?clien...=social+network+open+source&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

elgg is realy a good cript and you should use something like this instead of programming it your self. if you want to learn how to code thats ok, but dont expect you can programm a facebook like clone alone in 5 month

with kind regards

 

[Nikstokes]

My idea is in my opinion original, marketable and profitable. I don't want to say exactly what it is, just for protection of my idea but it is something that has originality but people using Facebook, twitter etc will be excited to use it. And it can be combined with FB and twitter.

And actually that leads me to my next question. If I create a mockup of my website, send it to a web developer, how do I protect myself from that web developer stealing the idea for himself?

And also, the other reason I'm thinking I should program it myself is because I will have the most control of what I do and don't want on there.

 

[brob742]

And actually that leads me to my next question. If I create a mockup of my website, send it to a web developer, how do I protect myself from that web developer stealing the idea for himself?

I would suggest that you do a lot more research before continuing based on your questions. They have been asked many times and sifting through posts on the forum will be more valuable than waiting on responses.

And ideas literally mean nothing.

 

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[brighterside]

Hey Nik,

I hate to burst you bubble but I'm almost 99% sure that there is someone out there that has the same exact same idea as you do. They probably also have a head start in terms of resources such as experience, manpower and even money in putting together a social networking site. If its a hobby or something that your doing for fun, that all the best to you. However, think long and hard before putting time and money into create a social networking site. Your not only competing against Facebook, your competing against hundreds of people that has probably thought of the same concept and have a head start doing it.

As for social networking websites, you do know that you can turn any wordpress site into a social networking site by converting into a buddypress site. It works just like any social networking site and just about anyone can create one. I've looked into creating one myself.

Don't be discouraged though. Wordpress uses PHP architect and thus you might hire out your services in tweaking themes. Or you can create that same exact feature which you said was "unique" and create a plugin for wordpress buddypress. Sell it and make a profit that way. Just my two cents on other ways to use your valuable time and energy rather than reinventing the wheel.

 

[Nikstokes]

I completely understand! Thank you all for your advice. One of the reasons I wanted to create it myself is because I didn't want to violate the commandment of control. I wanted to have full control over everything that goes on with this site.

 

[Nikstokes]

Also, keep in mind, that this isn't a blog but like a FB or twitter with user profiles, friends lists, photo albums etc

 

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[wade1mil]

Also, keep in mind, that this isn't a blog but like a FB or twitter with user profiles, friends lists, photo albums etc

Facebook and Twitter have user profiles, friends lists, photo albums, etc. What will make someone join your social network website other than those things that are part of every social network website ever created?

 

[Nikstokes]

I have a little niche that people can combine with FB and twitter.

But people want new, constantly. How many people switched from MySpace to Facebook? How many people have you heard say "ya, I think I'm going to delete my Facebook profile." ? People are getting over it. That's where I come in. I create a social network like Facebook, with a little twist and people will flock to it. It's human nature to want something new.

 

[Mike39]

I have a little niche that people can combine with FB and twitter.

But people want new, constantly. How many people switched from MySpace to Facebook? How many people have you heard say "ya, I think I'm going to delete my Facebook profile." ? People are getting over it. That's where I come in. I create a social network like Facebook, with a little twist and people will flock to it. It's human nature to want something new.

So it's that simple huh? Shoot, I just knew I was doing this entrepreneurship thing wrong...

Don't worry, I think about 85% of new members wanted to create a new social network when they first joined (myself included), hopefully you'll get over it before you waste any money on it.

Here's a list of some huge social networking sites, many of which you nor I have ever heard of.

43 Things
Academia.edu
Advogato
aNobii
AsianAvenue
aSmallWorld
Athlinks
Audimated.com
Bebo
BIGADDA
Biip.no
BlackPlanet
Blauk
Blogster
Bolt.com
Busuu
Buzznet
CafeMom
Care2
CaringBridge
Classmates.com
Cloob
CouchSurfing
CozyCot
Cross.tv
Crunchyroll
Cyworld
DailyBooth
DailyStrength
delicious
deviantART
Diaspora*
Disaboom
Dol2day
DontStayIn
Draugiem.lv
douban
DXY.cn
Elftown
Elixio
English, baby!
Epernicus
Eons.com
eToro
Experience Project
Exploroo
Facebook
Faceparty
Faces.com
Fetlife
FilmAffinity
Filmow
FledgeWing
Flixster
Flickr
Focus.com
Fotki
Fotolog
Foursquare
Friendica
Friends Reunited
Friendster
Frühstückstreff
Fubar
Fuelmyblog
FullCircle
Gaia Online
GamerDNA
Gapyear.com
Gather.com
Gays.com
Geni.com
GetGlue
Gogoyoko
Goodreads
Goodwizz
Google+
GovLoop
Grono.net
Habbo
hi5
Hospitality Club
Hotlist
HR.com
Hub Culture
Hyves
Ibibo
Identi.ca
Indaba Music
IRC-Galleria
italki.com
Itsmy
iWiW
Jaiku
Jiepang
Kaixin001
Kiwibox
Lafango
LAGbook
LaiBhaari
Last.fm
LibraryThing
Lifeknot
LinkedIn
LinkExpats
Listography
LiveJournal
Livemocha
Makeoutclub
MEETin
Meetup (website)
Meettheboss
MillatFacebook
mixi
MocoSpace
MOG
MouthShut.com
Mubi
MyHeritage
MyLife
My Opera
Myspace
Nasza-klasa.pl
Netlog
Nexopia
NGO Post
Ning
Odnoklassniki
Open Diary
Orkut
OUTeverywhere
PatientsLikeMe
Partyflock
Pingsta
Pinterest
Plaxo
Playfire
Playlist.com
Plurk
Qapacity
Quechup
Qzone
Raptr
Ravelry
Renren
ReverbNation.com
Ryze
ScienceStage
ShareTheMusic
Shelfari
Sina Weibo
Skoob
Skyrock
SocialVibe
Sonico.com
SoundCloud
Spaces
Stickam
StudiVZ
Students Circle Network
StumbleUpon
Tagged
Talkbiznow
Taltopia
Taringa!
TeachStreet
TermWiki
The Sphere
TravBuddy.com
Travellerspoint
tribe.net
Trombi.com
Tuenti
Twitter
Tylted
Vkontakte
Vampirefreaks.com
Viadeo
Virb
Vox
Wattpad
WAYN
WeeWorld
Wellwer
WeOurFamily
Wepolls.com
Wer-kennt-wen
weRead
Wiser.org
Wooxie
WriteAPrisoner.com
Xanga
XING
Xt3
Yammer
Yelp, Inc.
Zoo.gr
Zooppa

 

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[Nikstokes]

So what am I doing wrong? In my opinion, my idea is fastlane. But I do appreciate your opinions, lets keep this going.

 

[Mike39]

So what am I doing wrong? In my opinion, my idea is fastlane. But I do appreciate your opinions, lets keep this going.

Wow, props for not getting mad at that, most people would just go on the defensive. Okay so while a Social Media Site might meet fastlane commandments and sure it can make you a billionaire within 10 years, there are some reasons why personally think you should look other places.

Reason #1: Niches
If I was forced to attempt and create a successful social media site, I would go for a niche market. It's much easier to get a small group of people who all identify around one specific topic whether it be knitting or white water rafting to come together and talk with each other. It's much harder to attract a large un-targeted group than a smaller and more targeted group, it is also much easier to sell products to a targeted group because you know exactly what products they are most likely to buy (ie fishing gear for a fishing site).

Reason #2: Other SM Sites
For me, I mostly go on LinkedIn and check Facebook maybe once a day. I created a twitter account and I have maybe 2 tweets on there, I never use it anymore and I have never used instagram, pinterest, or any other social network. In fact I think if there was an individual who used every major social media site, they wouldn't get out of the house more than an hour each day. Maybe this is just me personally, but I see a lot of saturation in the social media market and there is almost too many choices available already.

Reason #3: Percentages
While creating a social media site can sure make you very rich, but your percentage of chance for you making the next massive SM site is probably lower than .001%. While thorough research, proper execution and, expert development may help your odds; I personally would rather see someone put their efforts into something with a much higher chance of success. Why pour 3 years of your time into a business that has a .01 chance to succeed versus one with a 75% chance? Then once you are filthy rich and bored with driving your ferrari around you can work on creating a social network

Reason #4: You're not different
This is something that took me a while to grasp and once I did, I advanced by leaps and bounds. You are no different than the other guy who's business just crashed an burnt to the ground. I read a story about Chad Muereta and how he made multi-millions from creating iPhone apps and (like a multitude of members on here), I thought "I'm just like him, I can do that". I read about the multitudes of people who's apps failed and who never got their initial investment back but I instantly said "Well I'm different" in my head (InLikeFlint should get a kick out of that if he reads this). "I'll be one of the guy's who makes millions, I'm different than all the losers, they just don't know anything!" Oh boy was I wrong, I launched my iPhone app and the downloads trickled in; I had to hustle my a$$ off and consequently wasted a bunch of time I could have spent dong something else but I managed to get my initial investment back and crawl out of the crater of app hell, but still, no millions. You would think I learned my lesson but no, I wen't on and made this mistake a second time with some software (more on that below); it was only after that failed that I realized I was just as mortal as everyone else. Thing's wouldn't just go differently for me than they did for others, I had to realize that I was on no special go given path and that I was just one of the 7 billion specs walking this earth; once I realized that I started working on projects that were within my complete control and I started actually making serious progress instead of spinning my wheels in the mud.


Reason #5: Don't reinvent the wheel
I learned this from personal experience so it resonates with me deeply, see I spent a couple months devoting my time and resources into trying to develop this amazing educational software product that would revolutionize the industry. $3,000 and a couple months later I realized that I was fighting an uphill battle, I was trying to sprint before I ever walked and even after these several months of building a business I had nothing to show for it besides an empty bank account. When I took a step back, stopped trying to re-invent the wheel and stared small, I started making some money; and I found out that you don't have to start a social network to make six or seven figures a month (no I am not making that yet, working on it though). So in my opinion, just walk and get your bearings before you go diving in 1,000 ft. over your head like myself.

Conclusion:
So this is what I wish someone would have told me before I started working on my software project. Instead of putting that $3,000 into software; Mike, start with something basic that solves a need and work on that, then go from there. If I would have followed that advice instead of chasing the stars, I would be well ahead of where I am now. That's just how I feel, howver there is no denying that you could make the next Instagram and become ridiculously rich, nothing is impossible but I would just take a different road.

Hope something in that post resonates with you. I am not saying don't do the social network; all I am saying is that from someone who was standing in your shoes not a long while ago, I wish someone had told me this before I started my journey. It would have saved me months of wasted time having to learn this on my own, and maybe you need to experience this for yourself for it to really make sense.

 

[Ivan]

Dude, if you feel like you have something to offer the market, go for it. I personally think there's a market for a social network that protects user info and respects privacy. I would totally pay a small yearly fee ($20 or whatever) in exchange for the peace of mind that comes from knowing my photos, info, etc wouldn't be sold to the highest bidder.

That being said, I realize I am in the 5% or so of the American public who thinks that way.

I heard this on a radio program recently wrt social networks:

"If you're getting a service for free, you're not the customer. You're the product that's being sold."

 

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[johnp]

But people want new, constantly. How many people switched from MySpace to Facebook? How many people have you heard say "ya, I think I'm going to delete my Facebook profile." ? People are getting over it. That's where I come in. I create a social network like Facebook, with a little twist and people will flock to it. It's human nature to want something new.

I think your logic if flawed here. First, Facebook has what like a billion users? You are hearing these complaints from the minority. I hate Facebook, but I have no intention on leaving. I may even say that one day. But it will never happen. A lot of 'new' social networks have built their brand around this logic alone, and they have tanked. You might get some traction, but it's hard to gain traction while advertising another company's brand. And if you do get traction, FB will squash you.

Second, FB is always reinventing itself. It just created the new graph search. Now it's redoing the news feed. To some, it's always like new. So I don't think it's getting old. The main thing that Facebook has lost is the coolness and simplicity that it once had.

Maybe you can cater to college students? But then again, if you do that then you will have to compete with me. And well, there is no way in hell that you would win that battle.

Mike touched on a lot of good points. My team is focusing most of our efforts in offline marketing for our social network. It's very hard to gain traction, that's for sure. Even Twitter failed a couple of times in its early days. But don't get discouraged by the posts. If you think you can do it then go for it. But start educating yourself and get ready for a lot of sleepless nights.

 

[Nikstokes]

Thanks guys for taking the time to give me advice.

What I think I am going to do, is, continue to learn how to program and build a site from scratch, once it's built, maybe do some free advertising. At the very least I will have traded a little time to learn a valuable skill that can make me lots of money someday.

I don't plan to make it big (or legendary lol) overnight, I just wanted to create something that has the potential to touch millions of people, I'm trying to live by "if you connect with millions of people, you make millions.".

Thanks again guys! I really do value your opinions!

 

[Mike39]

In one one ear and right out the other... Not to worry, it was only a thirty minute post out of my busy schedule to try and give you some valuable insight from past experience.

Good luck. I'm sure your different

 

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[Skys]

The first page grosses me out. Yesterday I had a good discussion in a thread, where I was called negative. This thread, the first page, is full of people telling somebody not to start, to give it up and to forget about it. F*ck that.

Dude, if you feel you are on to something. Keep going. You can only learn from the experience and you might use your new learned skills for another project in the future, if you fail.

 

[Skys]

In one one ear and right out the other... Not to worry, it was only a thirty minute post out of my busy schedule to try and give you some valuable insight from past experience.

Good luck. I'm sure your different

Dude. Some time ago, you where the guy who was trying to release an app right? Same story. Good luck. I'm sure you're different.

 

[Mike39]

Dude. Some time ago, you where the guy who was trying to release an app right? Same story. Good luck. I'm sure you're different.

Ya and I explained why that was a mistake if you would actually read my post on the first page, ffs. You clearly didn't read it thoroughly if at all.

I am glad at least one person found it valuable and din't just instantly sluff it off as me telling him not to do it or didn't read it because it looked long (you know who you are).

This thread as the big K'O would say, is dead to me.

 

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[Ivan]

Nick, whatever you end up doing, try to test it as cheaply as possibly (under $500). Don't be like some of the clowns on here who say they need $300k+ when all they have is an idea.

 

[Nikstokes]

Sorry if this thread is making people upset. But the reason I'm learning to program is because its a great skill to learn that can benefit me in the future. I plan to start small with the sn is if I see that it has potential then build from there.

I don't plan on spending tons of money. So far, I've invested about $13.00 to get the domain name and that's about it. I am learning to program for free. I haven't spent any money for hosting because I don't even have a website up.

So as of now, this isn't a business, it's an idea that I'm completely building from scratch, I won't invest tons unless I know it will be profitable.

I don't mind taking a year or two to learn how to become a good programmer. Learning that skill can profit me in a number of different areas.

 

[CommonCents]

I think eventually an open source social network will replace facebook as it continues to monetize, it'll overstep its bounds on users information. The replacement will need to have some good network/connection migration though, that is the barrier to take on FB, recreating your network from scratch.

 

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[johnp]

I think eventually an open source social network will replace facebook as it continues to monetize,

How does an open source social network make money??? Does open source mean free? I really have no idea, that's why i"m asking.

Servers are expensive to run. That was one of Facebook's issues in the beginning. They couldn't afford to expand at times and they were making money in some odd ways in the beginning. You can't get by on a $10.99 server plan with even 1 million users. So wouldn't an open source social network end up having to monetize? Unless it takes on donations like Wikipedia. That might be a possibility.

 

[Nikstokes]

After talking with a few people, I've decided to make this a dating website where it connects people according to their most common check-ins and also has content sections where articles can be posted on dating and things like that.

I was thinking of using Wordpress or template monster to build this site but I don't know if it will give me the flexibility needed to integrate the most common check ins and content sections.

Does anyone have any suggestions?