Developing a Social Networking Website
Written by: Jan
Since there are a lot of sites devoted to one or more social groups, and since it is relatively easy to develop a such website (although some specifications can require a lot of programming resources), it is more and more important to get the right visitors at the right time. Nowadays any application can be created in a reasonable time, however turning the finished application to a living project requires strategies which don’t have anything common with programming.
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Take some forum in its basis as a social website (this is just a simple example). Say that it’s devoted to web design and it’s divided into categories which deal with various sub-topics (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, HTML, Flash, web browsers, etc.). Once the owner of such forum reserves a domain and the application is uploaded to the server, it’s live. The question is: how should I go about attract returning visitors to my new website?
Many people would answer “SEO”, but actually this is not the right way. Search engines positioning doesn’t guarantee that people are going to register or share their experiences on a given topic with others.
The initial analysis
When you’re going to launch a site, you should define its goal. Some sites may bring together social groups while others may simply be selling a product. In addition, some sites may be a combination of social websites, shops and informational resources. Moreover you should analyse its potential. For example, a site dealing with very specialised guns will naturally attract less visitors than a website offering information about dogs, but bringing organic traffic to the website devoted to dogs will be much more difficult than encouraging visitors to a website with guns. It’s all down to competitors.
As time goes by, your website’s goals may change. The idea of connecting many people at one place is a very important part of success. For example, hobbies are what connects social groups, no matter if people are different races, genders, ages, or if they live in different geographical locations. On the other hand, some social websites may be more general in their scope.
As an example, I’d like to mention these topics: goals and dreams, books, races, music, teens, dating, photo-sharing, animals, on-line games, countries (UK, Australia, etc.), business, wine, students, etc. In fact, there are an unlimited number of possible combinations.
The Development
This stage must go hand in hand with the results of your earlier analysis. Social websites are characterised by the sharing of ideas and experiences between users, so forums, blogs, messages, rating, and searching are necessary components. The registration process may be based on invitations (if your website is well-known and you don’t want to lose seriousness), or it may be paid (if the website deals with money-making ideas for example). More usually, it can be free.
One of the most important things when developing a social website is to ensure that the structure of databases is carefully designed. Picture a website with approximately 1,000 users on-line and browsing simultaneously. Add search engines into this calculation and you’ll realise that a lot of hardware resources are required. Of course, you will not see such large numbers of visitors on your site overnight, but this is a possible scenario. If the site is going to be installed on a single PC, all databases must be optimised (and the same applies to processes and scripts).
The launch
When everything is on-line, it should be tested by a small group of people. Take some friends, members of your family or hire someone. Let them test the website and report every bug and potential problem. The testing stage can be integrated within the development phase.
Once all detected bugs were fixed, your social networking website is ready for real visitors.
The Traffic
There are a few ways to make the site really social:
CPC (advertisement based on clicks) or CPM (advertisement based on impressions). These will bring you traffic immediately. The conversion rate depends on chosen keywords, descriptions, and geographical targeting. This strategy should be combined with SEO.
SEO (search engines optimisation, or search engines positioning) is not the fastest method, but it is usually cheaper than paid advertisement. On the other hand, if you want immediate traffic, SEO is not recommended.
You can also try building the social group with a few friends. This is just an additional method, but it is a must. Remember that you’re probably not the first person dealing with the topic and there may be 2, 5, or even 50 social networking websites which cover your topic already! If your visitors don’t see any content on your site (user-generated content, that is), they are unlikely to join the site.
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That’s a very interesting article that you have. I stumbled on a new one the other day. They look open , but very similar to linkedin.com with more of a social business directory look and feel. Nice thought out interface though. Located at SocialTerrain.com