How Do You Run Your Own Social Networking Site??

Hey BHW world im trying to launch my own Social Networking Site soon but i have some questions Please.


Questions

1 how much does it cost a month to run a site like myspace?

2 what kind of servers do i need?

3 do i need to hire a bunch of moderators programmers and staffs to successfully run my site?

i really need this questions answered thanx

plez i need some answers guys

thanx

I want to do this as well. I'm no pro at this so I like to start small. So here is what I'm up to so far:

1. get maybe a vps host. if the site grows, ask for a bigger package.
2. open source script. for me this is a must. i don't want anything calling home and timing out. And the code must be able to be modified by me when I want. Also, i can head out to get*a*fr33lancer.com or something like that to get modifications (or do it yourself if you know how to code).
3. since i'll start smaller I'll be the only mod for now. plus I'll make the site in all english so I can read stuff. plus I'll make sure all the emails,pics etc have a "report abuse" feature so in essence the users will p01ice each other.
4. cost? for me it should not be too expensive. the biggest cost will be the script. and then another cost is getting traffic. your time is very expensive can't put a price on time.

This is what I'm up to so far, and like I said I'm planning to start small.

If you are a corporation or firm or want to start big then this information may be useless.

I won't bullshit you, but If you are asking for such an questions you are Mentaly NOT ready for this, To answer your questions
1-~$2-500k per month (server-traffic costs If not even more)
2-You should Contact some Company Regarding this for a custom setup!
3-YEs You will need, if you want to make it big as myspace get ready to hire at least 100persons to menage all.


BUT! If you want to Just start some simple social network-not like myspace
then $500 would be more then enaugh to start and you can menage all by yourself!

An option that's out there for free, you don't host or anything is:

http://www.ning.com/

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I haven't used the site myself so I can't comment on usability or
reliability but it seems quite a few people use it.

thanx for the info

so any one else wanna shed some light on this thread??

thanx

holishit $2-500k per month u kiddin riight? i thought $5000 to $10,000 a month wud do?

bumba said:

holishit $2-500k per month u kiddin riight? i thought $5000 to $10,000 a month wud do?

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No I'm not kidding!
$5k would maybe handle 0.5% of the traffic what Myspace gets!
And Since they have Videos what to stream as well then Costs just goes booooom!

If I remember corectly then at one source there were writed that YT is spending 1,5million/EACH MONTH just for Traffic!

But A Server for $200/month could easily handle for you ~15k uniques per day without lag and if there isn't much video streaming! (what perfectly Fits To Start-up)

Facebook and myspace dominate the social networking scene. You obviously don't know what your doing. Take a step back and evaluate the companies. They have headquarters in several locations. Facebook borrowed 300 Million dollars just for server cost. Myspace itself uses nearly 500 million+ just for servers every 6 months. Even niched social networks don't last long. Good Luck though.

i have a few sites that I am hosting/running for clients that have members of 3000 to 15000 and growing every day

i dont expect you will get that many people overnight - so hosting wont be too much of a problem, i can recommend a good vps provider who we have been using for 4/5 years now, that will cost you about $50/month we are using a few of these already and one of the smaller sites is running on this with no problems

software - for all the social networking we have used joomla both 1.0 and 1.5 the older one will be moving over to 1.5, we use community builder with both of them and a ton of custom developed components to make the site fun and useful... that will be your cheapest option, adding custom components is going to cost you $$$ but start with whats available... take a look at for current available extensions for your site... theres 100+ just on there

by the time you need to upgrade your VPS you wont care cos you should be making good $$$ from it by then so it will be worth it....

good luck

tyrvidar said:

An option that's out there for free, you don't host or anything is:


I haven't used the site myself so I can't comment on usability or
reliability but it seems quite a few people use it.

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ning does look good as does i think another one called dolphin, for me though since the new joomla is extremely flexible you can make it do pretty much anything you want and has a much bigger and larger user base to help you out....

imho, successful social site needs a lot of money (for the traffic, server power, manpower etc).
if you're not ready financially, find partner(s). if it can running on low end hosting, then it surely have not enough visitor yet.

The simple answer would be using a PLIGG site which is getting very popular like Wordpress... Build your own social networking site like squidoo... uing Pligg.... DOnwlod COnver#cation DOmination by Howie.. I highly recommend it..

you need an unique way of 2.0 site

if you follow other social network. Question is : Why ppl have to leave their sites to join you, And Why new ppl come to your site instead of current ones

If you find the answers then you can move on to the next step to create and maintain it.

well im going to start small remember myspace and facebook didn't blow up over night so thats what im going to do start small and put up some cpa offers and adsense then once the money start rolling in i will just upgrade

theres already loads of social networking sites dont think its worth making one

social network traffic is just trash and don't convert. Look at the amount of trouble you would find when advertising on FB.

Google spends 1 mill a day on Youtube for server cost, not 1.5 a month. Plus, youtube is NOT profitable given the trashy traffic.

Use Ning, ist not brilliant but its OK, I use them, and better try with some niche social networks. general niche is hard to compete

Interesting topic.

Did you have a theme or interest area to start the social networking site for?

Here are some thoughts:
1 how much does it cost a month to run a site like myspace?
a) Social Networking scripts can range from being free to a few thousand dollars. If you get someone to code it for you, it will easily run you in the low thousands and upwards.


b) Anywhere from about $30 to $300 (monthly recurrent for shared hosting to VPS, to dedicated server hosting)

c) Traffic generation costs - depending on your "recruitment" rate, you might want to actively generate traffic (free or paid) until you get to a critical mass or unless/until the existing members can help you generate sustainable (profitable) levels of traffic or recruit new members adequately.

d) Cost in terms of your time (e.g. if your hourly rate for doing any other job is $100 / hour, then spending 10 hours a week maintaining/moderating the site will be costing you $1000/week).

2 what kind of servers do i need?
a) Depends on the i) script ii) number of members iii) whether you have resource hungry components running, i.e. image upload and storage, audio and video upload and storage, live chat or even video chat features). Higher end site probably have to worry about the server as well as the bandwidth costs. Good thing is that you can scale up as go along.

Small tightly niche focused social networking sites without too many bells and whistles should be able to run off of a shared hosting account just fine.



3 do i need to hire a bunch of moderators programmers and staffs to successfully run my site?
a) Depends on how much time you have, the theme of the site, how much automation is available etc. etc. etc... but "showing" a presence periodically is probably a good idea (think "Tom" from myspac3) and if you are making any profits off of the members.

You might want to try using Boonex Dolphin, which is free and mess with that a little bit, just to get your feet wet. After that, you could scribble a plan on paper:

a) Your theme/concept for the social networking site
b) How you plan on populating the initial critical mass of members (e.g. 1000 active members; 2000 semi-active members, and another 2000 somewhat active to dormant members).
c) How you plan on getting traffic to the site (b, c, and d are probably related)
d) How are you going to "convert" visitors to actually sign up and become a member of your site? (e..g can you leverage on existing social networking sites or forums say you make friends on myspac3 with a bunch of dog owners and you set up a social networking site for dog lovers and invite your myspac3 friends to your new site).
e) How you plan on getting members to keep coming back and posting.

Another idea is to use a wordpress blog and manage it as if it is a social networking site. (this would be cheaper and easier to manage although some folks might disagree on this idea. In a way, it also depends on what your mean by "Social Networking Site" because it could refer to different things to different people)

Perhaps other members can share their thoughts and ideas too?

Cheerio

bumba said:

Hey BHW world im trying to launch my own Social Networking Site soon but i have some questions Please.


Questions

1 how much does it cost a month to run a site like myspace?

2 what kind of servers do i need?

3 do i need to hire a bunch of moderators programmers and staffs to successfully run my site?

i really need this questions answered thanx

Click to expand...

I'd agree your wasting your time and energy in that space. What I'd suggest is finding some PHP script to host video's that don't have to be on your server. Hit some really good niches and promote. The startup cost and the ROI isn't worth it.