Create a Social Networking Site and Monetize it

As an entrepreneur it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day efforts of product development, marketing, and sales. However, a key factor in building a long term, sustainable business is the relationships you create and maintain with customers, partners, and employees.

rSitez CEO, Rohan Hall, was quoted this week in an article by Inc Magazine that provides excellent tips that business owners can use to create better business relationships that can strengthen and grow their business.

The link to the article is below.
http://www.inc.com/guides/201101/how-to-build-better-business-relationships.html

DAVENPORT, FL, January 19, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — There are many people that will agree that the United States education system needs some work. The recent movie, ‘Waiting for Superman’ pointed out many of the issues and made some suggestions towards resolving some of these issues. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, donated $100 million on the Oprah Winfrey show towards this cause. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Rupert Murdoch and other tech giants all have gone public with their position on the need to make America more competitive with education reform. And now a new social network called Moolakee has been created to help with this effort. The site was recently featured on Fox News (http://tinyurl.com/moolakee-foxnews) as a 21st Century Teaching and Learning tool and has just partnered with Costco to provide discounts to its members.

The following is from a recent interview with Jewell Folta, the Founder/CEO of Moolakee and her vision of how she can help the school system compete better with Moolakee.com.

What is Moolakee.com and why did you create the site?

“ESCAPE to Moolakee! is a place where educators feel they are valued and have purpose. ESCAPE to Moolakee! is a rewards-based social networking community for educators that promotes excellent educational standards, resources and rich dialogue while contributing to benevolent cause.

“Because I interact with teachers on a daily basis, I see how stressed out they are. I also see how much education has changed over the recent years; while the change directive means well, it has put a lot more pressure on educators and I see how this change has affected their once cheerful personalities.

“I wanted to create a place where teachers could engage in a professional environment however, they would feel appreciated and have fun with it, too. Another reason I am passionate about this idea is because ESCAPE to Moolakee! gives purpose by providing 21st Century practices as well as giving to philanthropic causes.

“If I may elaborate more on this, there are many children and adults who are very sick with cancer and other diseases. Currently, students sitting in classrooms, right at this very moment, have the potential to be our future scientists, researchers, presidents, etc, that will find cures for these diseases. Don’t we owe it to our teachers and students to give them everything they need, so effective teaching and learning can happen? It’s all one big circle and each depends on the other. That’s one reason why ESCAPE to Moolakee gives so much of the membership fee to charities. All of these things, as whole, will make a difference in our world’s future.”

Do you have a background in Education?

“I’ve been in education since graduating from Miami University of Ohio in 1996. I also hold a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Technology. While teaching high school Biology at Lakota Locals Schools, I also served as the building’s Student Government Advisor and supervised students to raise thousands of dollars for local charitable organizations. I was deemed one of the district’s Master Teachers and was one of four key leads the district’s successful goal, for all faculty and staff, to become Novice Certified. I accepted an Administrative position as the district’s Educational Technologist, at Springboro City Schools focusing on 21st Century Teaching and Learning. I also conducted several eTech Ohio presentations and organized the district’s Summer Technology Mini-Conferences, participated in Battelle for Kids Value-Added Data for Learning initiatives, was a Discovery Education Star Educator and also was on the High Schools That Work committee, before founding ESCAPE to Moolakee!

“Several years ago I was a part of an educator network that provided teachers with excellent resources and professional development. However, to be a part of it, one; the district had to purchase their product and two; the educator had to apply and there were requirements and expectations. Therefore, not all teachers could be a part of this exclusive community. When I was part of this community, I remember thinking how wonderful it would be if there was something this great that ALL educators could be a part of. Opportunely, I acquired a position to work with a company that had this vision in mind. However, the company did not see it to fruition and decided to finish the work. Web 2.0 is a way that teachers can connect with each other from all over the country and the world therefore adding priceless, incessant value.”

How were you able to create this social network website?

“I am technology savvy when it comes to the user interface however; I am not experienced in writing or developing a program and definitely needed someone to do it for me. After several months of trying other do-it-yourself solutions, I knew I had to find a company that could help me. I found rSitez.com via a Google search using several search terms for example, “white label social network.” I liked a lot of the out-of-the box features that rSitez provided and rSitez beat competitor bids with customizations that ESCAPE to Moolakee! needed. Not only were the out of the box features wide-ranging, Rohan, the company’s CEO, is very cordial, accommodating, professional and really took the time to understand ESCAPE to Moolakee’s needs.

“I couldn’t find a white label service that provided ALL of the features and options that I needed to be available for educators, in ESCAPE to Moolakee! specifically, a document library, reward structure. I don’t think there is even one out there that will do it all. Most likely, if you want to set yourself apart from other competition, you’re going to have to invest in some customization.

“The rSitez team has been delightful to work with. They are very talented have been prompt in response to support tickets. I also value that the team has been very professional and courteous. I wish I could take them all out for Starbucks!

“I’ve had several very nice surprises from rSitez. One day I logged in and the theme was absolutely beautiful! I had no idea that rSitez was working behind the scenes on a brand new theme that captures the feeling that I wanted ESCAPE to Mookee! to have; and I didn’t even ask for it! That was the big one however, I’d like to mention there were a few other functionalities that rSitez understood were important for ESCAPE to Moolakee! and they surprised me by creating them. Very thoughtful and rare to have a company help you this way. I’ve been very pleased with the experience and rSitez has given me some customizations that I did not have to pay for and I really appreciate that.

“Working with rSitez has been a very nice experience. The management and the development team are hard-working, professional and courteous and really listen to understand what your company and social network needs are, during the custom development process. I’ve been impressed with everyone that I’ve worked with. I would like to mention that I value that Rohan, the company’s CEO, especially understands the challenges of an entrepreneur and seems to become part of the entrepreneur’s team by valuing and supporting the company’s mission and objectives.”

rSitez specializes in creating unique social networking websites. Each site comes with a variety of social networking features including blogs, chat, video, photo sharing, audio and a lot more. The sites are integrated with Facebook for content sharing, and include a variety of monetization features to allow the site owner to generate revenue from the site. The sites are 100% white labeled and can be customized to the last detail.

Maybe you have an idea to create a social networking website.  Not one like all the others that you have seen.  Many of them look the same and have exactly the same features.  You have an idea that will make your site … unique.  A vision that will make your social network stand out from the rest.  You have thought about how to grow and monetize the site.  You know what features you would like to have on the site.  You have a targeted niche audience and a clear value that you would like to provide. The problem now is to find someone to build the site exactly the way you like and to do it within your budget.  How do you go about this?

You can create a social network within a few minutes by simply going to rsitez.com.  However, rSite go beyond the 1-site fit all approach often used with social networks.

rSitez makes creating a custom social networking site easy by using the UDD methodology to develop a custom social networks.  These sites are based on your specific requirements.  This approach involves 3 steps in the process.

rSitez UDD Methodology

Understand (U) – A Project Manager from rSitez team will give you a call to discuss your vision for the project.  The technical responsibility of the project definition lies with the Project Manager, not you.  So you don’t need to understand the technology, code, technical jargon or fill out long forms in order to try to explain how the software should work. You will simply need to explain in your own words on the phone with a live person what you want the site to do.

The project manager will be able to ask follow up question to get a clear understanding of your project, the features you would like, and how to implement these features.  The focus will be on your vision for your social networking software.  Once we are clear about what you want from our discussions with you we are ready for the next phase of the UDD methodology.

Develop (D) – Our Development team is responsible to developing the application per your specific requirements.  They convert your vision for your social network to actual code for the application.  For example, instead of searching for members by city you may want to search on members within a certain radius (ex: within 100 mile of your location).  The development team will write the code to do this.  Or you may want to have integration with your corporate system where someone can click a link from your corporate application and automatically login to your social networking site without having to sign in again.  Our developers will write the code to do this or any other custom features you would like for your site.

Some examples of recent custom features our developers have created for clients include:

- Single signon where members from a corporate system can automatically login to their social network

- Facebook feeds with comments and friends

- Radius search to target geographical advertising

- Facebook integration where content and branding from the client site is posted direct to members facebook wall

- Full document library where any type of document can be uploaded and shared with other members

- Webcam and video sharing features

- Payment and monetization options and integration with different payment processors

- Different member types where specific features and access are given to members based on client specification

- Points and reward systems

- Management content reporting and downloads

and much more

Deploy (D) – Our development team will help you to deploy your application.  This includes providing full documentation for custom developed features, responding to any questions about the application, and providing technical support. The team continues to support the application indefinitely after the deployment based on our licensing agreement.  The team is also available to create additional features or meet new development requirements per request.

The end result is a custom social network with unique features that meet your specific requirements.  This will enable you to provide a targeted offering and let your social network stand out from other networking sites online.  This could help your site to grow faster and better than competing social networks. In the end your members will appreciate the specific details, value, and targeted approach provided by your network.

About the author

Rohan Hall is the Founder/CEO of rSitez, Inc. (www.rsitez.com), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create custom, revenue-based social networking sites.  He is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business.  He has developed technologies for a wide range of entrepreneurs and Fortune500 clients including HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various others.

Techcrunch announced that Ning has layed of 40% of their staff and will be discontinuing their free services.  All Ning network owners will need to pay for Premium services to continue using their Ning network or they will need to migrate their network to another platform.

The news was released in an email from  Jason Rosenthal who took over Ning CEO Gina Bianchini position about a month ago.  The email from Rosenthal stated:

“My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business. Our Premium Ning Networks like Friends or Enemies, Linkin Park, Shred or Die, Pickens Plan, and tens of thousands of others both drive 75% of our monthly US traffic, and those Network Creators need and will pay for many more services and features from us.”

At the end of the day the lesson learned by Ning is that “FREE” is not a business model.  Even with over $120 million in investor funding, Ning still needs to generate revenue to pay its bills and to grow its business.  At some point, investors need to start seeing a return on their investment as well.

At rSitez, we understand this very basic business fact and provide a variety of payment plans for everyones budget.  Our plans include more features than Ning and we provide the opportunity to fully customize your social networking sites.  We will literally develop any feature you would like to make your site unique and competative and are loved by entrepreneurs for this reason.  Additionally, network owners own all the content in their network and take it anytime they like.

rSitez continues to grow every year and more than doubled revenue last year.  We’re a financially and technically strong company and do understand the reality of having a solid and reliable business model.

We wish the best of success to all the Ning network owners and welcome this opportunity for them to compare our offering and prices at www.rsitez.com with offering provided by Ning or any other network provider.

When we start marketing and networking on social media sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, we sometimes forget some of the simple rules of engagement.

In his book, “Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten,” author Robert Fulghum reminded us of the basics of getting along with others. Although it was originally published in 1989, his observations are timeless.

Even in our high tech world, we can look back at some of the lessons we learned in elementary school, and see that it applies to establishing successful relationships online.

1. Don’t be bossy. If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, chances are you are bursting with excitement about your product or service. You want to shout its praises from the rooftops. But when you are building tenuous relationships with others, especially across the Internet, you need to take a more subtle approach.

Instead of delivering a heavy handed sales pitch, focus on your customers and what they need. What problems are stumping them? What is costing them time, energy and efficiency? Then, let them know how your products or services can help.

2. Don’t say anything you don’t want your mother to hear. Although social networking has a casual element, keep in mind that you are building a reputation online for your business. Be careful before disclosing too much personal information or getting caught up in controversial discussions. If someone posts a negative comment on your blog, don’t immediately shoot back a flaming response. Mom wouldn’t like that.

3. Listen to others. The whole purpose of social media is to get others to interact with you. That means you have to create an environment where people want to respond. If you have your own blog, you can do this by asking questions. You can visit other blogs and find out what others are thinking and join that discussion.

If you have your own social networking site, like ones offered at rSitez, you can start a community discussion through blogs, forums, and chats. Once you’ve gotten your readers talking, listen to them and let them know you appreciate their interests.

It sounds simple, but how many times have you clicked on a website looking for information and been inundated with heavy sales copy? Or read a blog where the author dismisses comments that contrast his? Or see where someone says something completely inappropriate on Facebook that diminishes your view of him?

By remembering the basic social rules that you would use in establishing face-to-face relations, you’ll have success in creating relationships online.

Imagine a luxury yacht heading into the open  seas.  The wind is calm; the weather is mild.  Best of all, a well trained, reliable crew is expertly handling the boat with care.

Finding the right crew, whether for one trip, or for one year, is a result of diligent recruiting and networking.  For the crew, finding the right position is just as important.  A mismatch on the high seas can lead to long-term misery.

Captain Sean Blaise understands how essential it is for crew and captains to find each other.  He created a way to help that process with his company, Yachtcircle, which is a placement service that uses social media to match employers and employees.

“We saw a demand for low priced crew placement for the yachting industry, and furthermore we were pioneers in taking social media and adapting it to meet the varied and diverse interests and needs of the international yachting community,” Captain Blaise said.

One of the most essential aspects of Yachtcircle was to give both the employers and employees an opportunity to talk with each other, and become comfortable with each other before making a long-term commitment.

Although Yachtcircle business concept was sound, it was difficult to find a software application that fulfilled the company’s needs.

“We were unfortunately misled by a software company that claimed to have the social media chops to meet our complete requirements,” Captain Blaise recalled.  But undeterred, he continued to look for vendors who could incorporate social media into his site in a very dynamic way.

Then, he found rSitez.

“What initially appealed to us about rSitez was their extensive and robust social media platform,” he said. In order for Yachtcircle to be successful, it had to first provide a network for yacht crew.  From this, recruiting services could be developed.

Like its competition, Yachtcircle provides a resume and job listing site but it also provides opportunities for members to network through blogs, forums, email and chats.  Members can stay updated about current events in the yachting world, share videos and photos and issue invitations to upcoming events.  By working with rSitez, Yachtcircle.com was able to build a community.

While the quality of rSitez exceeded Captain Blaise’s expectations, the price did not.  Although he had previously invested in a software product that didn’t meet his needs, the great price points and reasonable start up costs that rSitez offered made it easy for him to try again.   And since rSitez version of Yachtcircle.com went live, results have been impressive.

“With our first website, we barely gained a few hundred members in our first six months due to the poor software conceptualization. With rSitez, we have grown to over a thousand members in a very short period of time,” he said.

If the captain has any regrets, it’s that he didn’t use rSitez sooner.  “Had we discovered the strong platform of rSitez, we could have invested a substantial amount more and have had a successful initial launch.”

The Market

Social Networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin and others are the buzz of the day.  But more than being the buzz of the day, they are the faster growing segment on the internet today.  Additionally, the founders of these companies seem to enjoy unprecedented wealth valuation in only a few short years.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, at age 25, is now worth an estimated $2 billion and is now placed at #158 on Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world, according to Forbes.com.  He’s the youngest self-made billionaire ever since Forbes has started publishing this list.

According to Nielsen, a respected consumer and business research organization, in their March 2009 Social Networking Global report – Social Network grew twice as fast as email, search and any of the other popular online sectors.  Just think about that … I (and everyone that I know) use email and search everyday and cannot live without them on a daily basis.  But Social Networks grew twice as fast last year.

Nielsen also reported that ‘Time spent on Social Networks and blogs grew over 3 times the rate of overall internet growth’.

But is Social Networking mainly for crazy American teens, as some would suggest.  No, Nielsen reports.  Their report further concluded that ‘The greatest growth for Facebook has come from people aged 35-49 years’.  They also found that ‘The number of unique visitors who are 65 or older on social networking and blog sites has increased 53 percent in the last two years alone.’  Facebook is the #3 most visited destination for people who are over 65 years old, according to Nielsen.

I make these points to illustrate that we’re at the beginning of a global phenomenon… not the end.   That this could be a significant shift in how we communicate, network, and interact with each other on a local as well as on a global basis.  But this is not just an American phenomenon.   Germany had the ‘strongest growth’ for online communities according to Nielsen.  The UK, Spain, Italy and Switzerland also had very strong growth, according to Nielsen.

The Opportunity

Given the above facts, one may ask themselves, ‘is it possible to create a similar site or business to take advantage of this trend?’  And, is it possible to still create a successful business from this technology or is it too late?  Because, make no mistake.  Myspace is not just a website.  It’s a business!  Facebook and Linkedin are not just places to network, they are global businesses.  Both rSitez.com and Ning, social networking website providers, announced over 150% percent growth in 2009 – that’s more than doubling the business they did before the recession.  These are businesses expanding at an incredibly rapid pace in a global market, even during the worst economy in our lifetime.

Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn are some of what we consider the ‘first wave’ sites.  They paved the way for other sites and benefit from this by having tens or hundreds of millions of members.  These mega sites will most likely be around for a long time and will continue to grow globally as long as they continue to provide value to their audience.

However, we’re now seeing what we consider the 2^nd wave of social networking sites.  These sites are niche social networking sites.  They cater to specific groups and niches, instead of a general product like Myspace or Facebook.   To be successful, sites like these will need to cater to the specific needs of a targeted group or audience.  They will need to provide more than technology.  They will need to provide true value and hopefully solve specific problems faced by this niche or affinity group.  In many cases, providing technology will not be enough.  They may need to provide related services as well.  By providing the appropriate technology and targeted services, these sites will be able to prove value and as well have options to monetize this value.

For members of these niche sites that provide real value, it will not be a choice of Facebook or this targeted niche site for consumers.  It will most likely be Facebook AND one or more targeted niche site.   The reality is that no one particular site will serve ALL our needs.  We will most likely belong to multiple sites that serve different needs.  A musician, for example, may use Facebook to keep up with friends, but may go to a site like GenNextMusic to listen to or sell his own tracks, but then post and manage his business profile in LinkedIn.

Therefore, entrepreneurs who understand this opportunity and create a specific niche social networking site to target a specific audience that they can add value to, still has the ability to create a successful online social networking business even today.

In Part 2 of this article we will discuss the technology and leading vendors that you can use to create your own niche social networking site and the advantage and disadvantage of the different ways you can create your site.

About the author
Rohan Hall is the Founder/CEO of rSitez, Inc. (www.rsitez.com), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create unique revenue-based social networking sites. He is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business. He has developed technologies for a wide range of entrepreneurs and Fortune500 clients including HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various others.

In part one I discussed the market and the opportunity that still exist to create niche social networking sites.  With this post I will discuss the technology required to create these sites and the leading vendors you can use to do this.

The Technology

The problem with creating a social networking community site or business is the complexity of creating a site like Facebook or Myspace.  How can you do this?  Is this only for techies or can anyone do this?

Can you make money from this type of online business?  For the answer regarding monetizing these sites, please see my other blog post   How to Make Money Online like Myspace and Facebook.

The fact is anyone can now create their own social networking site and a surrounding business from it.  There are basically 4 different approaches that you can use to do this.  Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages.  The level of technical knowledge you need vary based on the vendor and product.  Here are the 4 main ways you can go about creating your own social networking site and the current market leader with each method.

SaaS Sites

SaaS means Software as a Service.  Vendors that provide these products will automate the creation of the social networking site for you.  The sites are typically point and click to create and completely managed online from a browser.   You will be able to upload logos, banners, and content based on different payment plans offered by the vendor.  Some sites will allow advertising and possibly membership fee collection as revenue options.  The features of the sites will vary depending on the vendor that provides the technology.  Your main job will be to put your own branding on the site, do minor configuration, and invite members to start using the site.  These sites are often white label social networking sites, meaning that you can put your own brand or label on the site to hide most or all of the vendor’s own branding.  In most cases you can do this within a few minutes or a few hours.  After that your main job will be to market the site and manage the site members and content.

Advantages:  You can literally have a social networking site up and running in minutes.  Typically, they have an established and stable architecture.  You never really have to worry about the technology; everything is taken care of for you.  You don’t have to worry about servers, IT staff, backups or other related issues because this is normally included with the service or there may be a cost for some of these items.   

Disadvantages:  You may not be able to completely have your own branding, depends on the vendor.  You may not be able to use your own domain name or there may be an additional cost.  You will not have ownership of the code.  You may not have ownership of the content uploaded to the site.   Normally does not include software development services to modify the standard application, therefore all sites will have the same basic structure and features based on the selected plan.

Primary Vendor:  http://www.rsitez.com/, Ning.com 

Premium SaaS Sites

These social networking sites offer the same advantages of other SaaS sites.  You are able to create a complete social networking site in minutes.  You can upload your own banners, logos, content and configure the site as you like.  These sites can often be 100% white labeled, meaning that you can completely remove the vendor branding and label from the site and replace it with your own.  Your site can be up and live within minutes or hours.  They will have all the same features or sometimes more features than some SaaS sites.

In addition to the SaaS model, these vendors also provide premium software development services to their customer base.  These services include the development of new site features, the modification of existing features and modules, the development of custom themes and widgets, custom developed revenue models or payment options, custom logos and banners, or even major site rewrite.  The goal of these vendors is to provide SaaS sites then surround the site with various software development services to create unique products for their customers.

Advantages:  You can literally have a social networking site up and running in minutes.  Typically, they have an established and stable architecture.  You never really have to worry about the technology; everything is taken care of for you.  You don’t have to worry about servers, IT staff, backups or other related issues because this is normally included in with the service or there may be a cost for some of these items.    Plus, you can have new premium features developed by the vendor that none of their other customers have, or features changed or written to your specifications to create a unique product offering.

Disadvantages:  There may be additional cost for premium features developed by the vendor or to own the code.

Primary Vendor:  rSitez.com

Downloadable Software

Some vendors provide complete social networking applications as a download that can be installed on a server.  Once the site is installed and configured you will have similar advantage of their SaaS counterpart.

Advantages:  You and your IT staff have full control of the application and code.  You may be able to customize the site yourself or hire software developers to make changes to the site for you.  You may be able to change the code to add more features, if the vendor permits this.

Disadvantage:  You will need to pay IT resource to install and support the application.  You will need to pay for servers or hosting, backups etc.  You will need to pay server admins to protect the application from hackers and malicious individuals and programs.  You will need to rely on software developers that may or may not have expertise on the particular application.  You will need to be responsible for the ongoing upgrade, maintenance, and support of the application and their related cost.

Primary Vendor: SocialEngine

Write your Own Code

You may be able to hire a team to build a social networking site for you.  They would write all the software code needed to create the site. Since Social Networking is still a relatively new type of software application you will need to find individuals who specialize in this.  Your local website designer or corporate IT programmer may not have the required experience to build the architecture needed for this kind of application.  The site could be built to your exact specification and once completed can be launched online like any of the other options above.

Advantage:  You will have full ownership of the code and site content.  You can have the site built to your specification.  The site can be branded or targeted with features to any group or audience.

Disadvantage:  There is an extremely high risk of finding experts in this area to develop these products.  There is a very high cost in developing a social networking application from scratch, even if outsourced.  The time to develop a full social networking site and take it to market can be 8 – 12 months or more with an experienced team or longer with an experienced team.  The product could have bugs that are not discovered until after launch and the team may no longer be available to fix the issues.  You will need a development team, design team, server admin team, servers and other ongoing overhead cost to support and maintain the application long term.  With the long development time, you may lose your early to market advantage by time the site is launched.  

Primary Vendor:  No clear market leader

Summary

Anyone can create their own social networking site today.  You can use any of the above options and make that choice based on your research, cost, risk, and value.  Most importantly, if you plan to take advantage of this market you will need to clearly understand how your site will create value for your members, and this value will need to be a part of your offering. 

Please let us know of vendors in any of these categories that you would recommend to other readers to create their social networking product.

About the author

Rohan Hall is the Founder/CEO of rSitez, Inc. (http://www.rsitez.com/), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create unique revenue-based social networking sites.  He is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business.  He has developed technologies for a wide range of entrepreneurs and Fortune500 clients including HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various others.

It was late 2008, and Shawn Hyland was contemplating a change. As president of Move the Earth, a faith based ministry, he wanted to establish a separate organization that could bring people together who were eager to make a difference in their communities, but weren’t sure how to get started.

“We wanted to connect people who have personally experienced ‘change’ in their life (former drug addicts, prostitutes, criminal offenses, etc)…. and now wanted to reach beyond themselves and change their community and change the world,” Shawn explained.

Historically, grassroots organizations have sprung up through word of mouth, as people from all over unite to work for a cause. Shawn decided to take that idea and expand it through technology and social media by creating a netroots organization called YOUmovetheearth.

“We see a need to empower passionate people who wanted to know one another based upon the desire to make a difference in certain social problems,” he explained.

But in order to bring–in essence—strangers, together, Shawn needed a site that had the right components to help people find and communicate with each other.

Fortunately, he found rSitez, a social networking site that uniquely fit his needs.

“In other social media sites, you have to personally know people to connect with them online or you search for people based on career, education, and pop culture,” he remembered. “There was no social media site where you search for people based upon their passions to take on certain causes i.e. pro life, environment protection, religious persecution, child abuse, domestic violence, etc.”

The search component that rSitez offered also allows users to perform a geographic search. For example, once a member has identified a cause, he can then search geographically to find other members near him who are also interested in that cause.

“This was the perfect way to connect LIKE MINDED people around a cause as an individual,” Shawn said. While major organizations may have mailing lists than can be sorted by state and cause, the average person who wants to make a difference doesn’t usually have access to that information.

Of course, the best site in the world won’t help if it’s not user friendly. And with the potential for so many individual users, YOUmovetheearth.org had to be easy to navigate.

While Shawn had a clear idea of what he wanted for YOUmovetheearth.org, he didn’t have web building technical skills. rSitez’ combination of a pre-built site that also allowed for customization was the answer.

A bonus: the pricing. As a new organization, money was tight.

“Many other people wanted $10K to build a great site,” Shawn recalled. “rSitez allowed room for growth in their program and a small start up fee.”

Now that his site is up and running, Shawn is very pleased. The ability to use the site’s web 2.0 tools has really allowed members to reach out to each other. In fact, his site has been effective in reaching a new generation of members that his mailing list campaign did not.

The tools rSitez provided, along with great pricing and ability to customize gave Shawn Hyland just what he needed to make the right change.

To learn more about creating and monetizing your own unique social networking site please visit www.rsitez.com.

In part 1 of this article I discussed how you can identify your target niche, create your social networking site, and market the site to start building your own social networking online business.  In this article I will discuss how you can manage, monetize, and incorporate you business from any browser anywhere in the world.

Manage Your Business

If you think of your social networking site as just a website to hangout and share pictures then you have a nice hobby, not an actual business.  Like any business, you will have some management responsibilities that will need to be done.

Engage your members:  You will need to add value to the site by posting newsletters, responding to forums, add interesting photos, highlighting active members.  You will also need to deal with the abusers of the site by warning, blocking or deleting these members.  You should host contest, provide reward programs, and find advocates on the site.  The more you engage users, the more they will feel a part of something live and keep coming back.

Provide more value: In addition to engaging members you should find ways to provide more value to this audience.  The audience is niche and you should have some knowledge of the needs of the industry or the audience in general.  What kind of content or articles can you provide that they cannot find anywhere else?  How can you provide opportunities for them to gain recognition or financial value from the site?  How can you create opportunities for them to use the site to help make their business successful?  How do you add value to their personal life?  What’s in it for them?

Track site visitors with Analytics: The best way to do this is to get a few lines of code from Google Analytics (google.com/analytics) and add to your site.  This will show you how many visitors you have daily, where they came from, which page they visited etc.  You will be able to see which marketing activities yield the best results and focus more on the message or source of the article that is providing the most visits.

Manage your Reputation:  Among other things, Reputation Management includes the ability to see what people are saying about you online.  Google has a free service called Google Alerts (google.com/alerts).  With this service you can see each time Google index content with a specific keyword.  This is important because you can tell Google to notify you by email each time they index new content with your website name in it.  So each time there is a blog, forum, article or other content posted online by anyone that includes your website name Google will send you an email so that you will be aware of it and can take any necessary action.  Additionally, this is a way to see what your competitors or others in your industry are saying or doing.

Monetize your Site

There are different ways you can go about doing this.  It really will depend on your site, the amount of members you have, and the focus of your site.  However, here are some ways you can monetize your site.

Advertising: This is the most common ways.  You can sell advertising to the specific industry you are targeting for your social network.  Once you have created a membership base you will be able to sell ads to businesses who want to sell their products or services to that membership base.

Membership Fees: Sites with a clear and specific value may be able to monetize via membership fees.  With this you will be able to charge a monthly or yearly fee for access to the site or for access to premium content or features of the site.

Online Store: You can sell relevant product to your site members.  If your site targets university students you may be able to sell books, laptops or other products they may find useful.  If your site targets parents, you may be able to sell children toys, clothes, or products.

Sell Services: You may also be able to sell services that are relevant to your audience.  A site that targets small businesses and entrepreneurs may be able to sell accounting and legal services.  You do not have to perform the services yourself. You may be able to partner with service providers and use the site as the means to finding customers in need of these services.

To learn more details about monetizing your website please read my other blog How to Make Money Online like Myspace and Facebook.

Incorporate your Business and Open a Bank Account

Once you are able to monetize the site you should create a business structure with a business bank account to collect and protect revenue, and  to minimize personal and business liability.

By having a business entity and a bank account, you will be able to create merchant accounts and collect payments from credit cards, debit cards, Visa, Master Card, Amex etc.   You will also be able to write off business expenses to reduce your tax liabilities and separate your personal assets from your business expenses – therefore reducing the chance of personal risks.

1 – To start your business online:

Get your Employer Id Number (EIN) from the IRS.  This is done completely online and can be done in a few minutes.  Your EIN will be needed to start your business bank account and online merchant account

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html?portlet=4

2 – Register your business with your State

To do this you will need to go to the ‘secretary of state division of corporations’ website for your state.  On this site they will have an online form or pdf to allow you to register with your state.  For instance, if your state if Florida, search for ‘Florida secretary of state division of corporations’

3 – Create your Bank Account online

Most banks today allow you to create an account online without ever having to go to the bank.  I don’t remember the last time I have had to go to a bank for any reason except to sign a couple documents here and there.   Go to your bank’s website and find the link to open your account online.  You should be able to manage and monitor your financial transactions from your bank’s website.

4 – Create your Merchant Account

You will need a merchant account to collect funds online.  Some social networking site includes the ability to collect payment via different payment sources.  However, you will still need to create the merchant account yourself that is needed for you to collect the funds.

Vendors:  Paypal.com, authorize.net, paysimple.com

Summary

Once you have created your social networking business you are now on the path to participate in one of the most active and high growth areas in business.  There are no real overnight successes and you will need to work at this business as you would any other business venture.  But you will now be able to start pursuing your dream of building your own online social networking business.

To learn more about creating and monetizing your own social networking site please visit www.rsitez.com.

About the author

Rohan Hall is the Founder/CEO of rSitez, Inc. (www.rsitez.com), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create unique revenue-based social networking sites.  He is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business.  He has developed technologies for a wide range of entrepreneurs and Fortune500 clients including HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various others.