How To Make A Website

Social Networking Sites

Unravel The Truth About Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are the talk of the town and probably virtually everyone you know are hooked up to famous social sites like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, if you have an account on those sites, you are considered to be part of the ‘in’ circle of this generation.

The popularity of these social network sites creates an interest among many people who wants to start a business on the Internet platform. Why not? The potential of having a huge base of people working together promises a good future for an online business model.

The problem is not every social networking site is going to be successful. If I ask you about social networking sites, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Chances are you’d think about the famous ones like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. But what of the others that don’t share the same achievement of those first mentioned? The point is it takes a large amount of time and effort to make it work and it’s never easy to do that.

Most people think a social network site is a valuable asset especially after it has grown

As Michael Masterson points out, “Many people think that being on social media is, in itself, a business model”. Sure, building a large base of people and increasing its number over the years is a good strategy and it’s a viable reason for making your own social networking site. However, where most people go wrong is that they jump in on the bandwagon, without further planning and they think that alone is sufficient. Without all the necessary plans and efforts, sooner or later, you’ll certainly be wasting your time on it.

Why It’s not Ideal to Venture on Social Networking Sites, Money-wise

• High Marketing and maintaining Costs

A successful social networking site that brings in lots of users comes with a hefty price in terms of marketing. Building your own social networking site is one thing. Maintaining it is quiet another.

While building your own site becomes less and less complicated these days because of the many website building tools arising from time to time, it still demands a lot when it comes to the marketing part. Employing programmers, support staff and other necessary human resources to market and maintain the site shouldn’t be left out if your goal is to get positive results.

• It Takes Time

Let’s say you have all the resources and the cost is not an issue to you. Still, the amount of time takes a lot longer than monetizing from your own website or blog. And don’t let the idea of having many people in the network to sustain your business fool you and think that it’s going to be worth the waiting. No it’s not. Having many people in your boat doesn’t mean they will all work for you.

With that being said, many things will happen after a month, a year, and you never know how your own social networking site will turn out to be after some time. And worst, if it didn’t turn out well, the effect will be harder to deal with since you have a number of people in the line. That is, if you do have people on your social network. In the end, it’s either you get what you want or you end up wasting time.

• Traffic may not be enough to monetize well

Since it’s a social network, you have people working together to provide the major content (of course, the first ones will come from you). Most social networking site like Friendster, display Google Adsense ads around the site in hopes of bringing in revenue as users click on those ads.

Here is where the monetizing issue comes in. Most social networking sites consist of videos, photos, and many kinds of applications. There are some contents but such are not capable to bring up contextual ads which in return does not bring maximum return, revenue-wise.

To have contextual ads, you need to provide high-quality and relevant information, and therefore, works well on blogs and information sites but not fairly well on social networking sites. Friendster is one classic example.

Additionally, in the case of social networking, users are there to keep up with friends and family, know where the next party is at and maybe whose pursuing who. The last thing they wanted is to deal with irrelevant ads.

Alternative to Building Your own Social Networking Sites

The best and arguably more practical alternative to establishing your own social networking site is to have your own website instead. It’s easier to maintain, more cost effective and the risk is more tolerable.

There are many ways to monetize from your own website, you could do affiliate marketing or create and sell your own products. Additionally, you could use Google Adsense where it’s more likely to bring up contextual ads (given that you have quality content, of course) and in turn, be more effective in generating revenue than on a social networking site.

Having your own website is also more flexible and efficient because you have full control over it anytime and however you want. No dealing with users and programmers.

Bottom line is, while social networking sites are very hot and possibly continue to be in the following years, it doesn’t mean that it’s totally reliable to start with especially if your main purpose is to monetize online and most importantly, if you are starting out in the field of online networking and online business.

Creating a social networking site has its ups and downs. Sure, there are advantages, but the disadvantages can far outweigh those once they come and it can take a toll on the whole plan as well as your purpose for starting a social network on the first place.

The key here is to start with what’s more realistic and less risky. Start on your own websites first. Once you’ve gotten enough experience on how the online platform works, you can then allow yourself to go to the next level. But remember, those who succeed are those who oversee all the possible effects as well as consequences of any business plan and judge its capability to succeed in the long run.