How to Start a Social Networking Website Part 3: Networking Software & Developer Contracts

Totally agree with your conclusion. The real work is the time an $$$ it takes to build the community.

Nevertheless, choosing the right software platform can provide tools to make that easier. You don’t want to choose a software system that will not scale with your community. It is a real pain to migrate to another system so keep this in mind.

Also, keep in mind that no matter what you choose, there will be drawbacks. No system is perfect.

I chose Drupal because it provides a great deal of functionality and many larger sites like Fast Company are using it. It has a steeper learning curve, but once you have this under your belt, you’ll be ok. Also the Drupal community is large and very helpful.

My Score counselor suggested using a certain email marketing service to collect and mail email newsletters. Drupal has a module that seamlessly interacts with this email vendor’s software, so there’s one less headache to deal with. Ditto for Adsense if you want to use it.

The drawbacks of Drupal are its stock themes and the learning curve to implement the system. It is steep, but well worth it. In the end you can get someone to modify a theme as I am doing.

Hope this helps.

The best option for social networkers interested in generate revue with the site and that lack technical skills is provided by rsitez. This software gives you total control of advertisment and let you collect membership fees directly in the application you can check it at http://rsitez.com .It’s easy to set up and it has all the functionality to send newsletters, emails, etc. I agree that scalibility is to consider so be sure you choose a company that allow you to upgrade your service and you know in advance how much it will cost you, to migrate your data to other solution could be really expensive.

The info is very good, I will be the next Craig Newmark with no expereience.