How to Start a Social Networking Site

If you have spent much time online, you have probably wondered in the past how to start a social networking site. It sometimes seems like every week there's a new website likeFacebook or Myspace for the Internet community to keep up with. With this much volatility in the market of networking, it can be quite simple to start a new social network.

There are five main steps in creating a social network. These steps are:

1. Define your purpose and why you are different
2. Set up your site
3. Get a few testers to try out your site
4. Promote, promote, promote
5. Monitor

Every social network caters to a particular niche. Facebook originally catered to college students, Team Sugar caters to beauty and fashion, YourChristianSpace to Christians and so on and so forth. You must define what type of site you would like to be and what type of audience you would like to attract. First, ask yourself, "what type of activities would I like to see on this site?" Do you see women using your site to pass recipes around or do you see a 65+ crowd looking to explain Internet tips to one another? Decide what your site will be.

Once you have answered that question, it is important to figure out why you are different. As there are already so many sites out there, many users won't immediately jump ship for new social networks unless there is something that attracts them. What new features will you offer them that will make them give your network a second look? For example, there are plenty of sites out there that let you post recipes. Perhaps your site will differ by allowing users to text message their recipes to their profile or send recipes to their cellular phone.

Any way that you can define yourself as different is important to your success as a social network.

Once you have established your purpose, you must get your site up and running. This is the point where all logical matters come into play, such as design layout or the cost of getting your own domain. Work hard to make sure the site is strong. Try to remove any possible errors that you can see. If you are not talented in HTML or the like, this may be the time to hire a friend who is (or perhaps pay a professional or freelance site designer).

Be aware that this stage is not all you will need to do to set up a website. There will always be problems that you will need to fix.

The testing stage is crucial to any website launch because it allows you to get as many problems out of the way as possible before releasing it publicly. Often called the beta stage, testing also allows you to gain a small crowd of followers.

A good way to get a group of beta testers is to get all of your friends to ask all of their friends. A good beta group can be anywhere from 20 people to a few thousand, depending how large you intend your site to be.

At this point, it is time for your launch. In order for that to go well, you need to promote your site essentially to anyone who will listen. Promote through whatever means you think works best for the type of site you are launching. Be relentless. With any hope, you will attract enough users to make your launch a success.

The work of a social network creator is never over. From the moment you ask someone how to start a social networking site to the minute of its release, the site is your baby. You will be responsible after launch for monitoring what is going on. If you initially will be running the site yourself, all problems - from users conflicts to login trouble - is on your lap. If you have people behind you, this is not as large a responsibility, but you will still need to monitor how things are going. If your user count is low, you will still need to promote. If there's a major problem going on for the users, you will have to find a way to solve it.

Starting a social network can seem a daunting task, but if you are ready to put the work into it, there are people who will be more than ready to help!

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