Social Networks for Everyone!! Blog

Did you know that you can have your own Social Networking website like Myspace or Facebook – and create multiple streams of income from these websites … while working from home?

Within months of launching their social networking websites, Myspace and Facebook were each valued over a hundred million dollars and are now each valued over a billion dollars after only a few years.  Experts agree, and proven by the success of Myspace, Facebook and other social networking websites like Youtube,  and Linkedin that having your own social networking website is one of the best business opportunities available today.

You can start your own social networking website and target specific groups of people and monetize the site in several ways.  This is very inexpensive to do and can be completely managed from home.  All you need is internet access.   Could YOU own a site like this?  Of course, why not?  For only a few dollars you can have an entire social networking website within a few minutes.  Just visit www.rsitez.com for details.

So why do I recommend that you have your own social networking site?  Because it’s very low cost, easy to manage, can be done from home, easy to monetize, and all you need to do is get people to join the site.  You can have a free site that sells ads; a membership payment site that you charge others to join; or a site that you use to sell products.  There are many other ways to monetize social networking sites, but these are the 3 most common ways.

Let’s talk a little about the difference in these monetization options.

Ads Sales – Advertisers are always trying to find new places to advertise their products.  Clearly, online advertising is putting newspapers and magazines out of business everywhere.  It’s less expensive, has a quicker turn-around time, and more targeted than the way your dad used to advertise.  You don’t need to have a Myspace with over a hundred million members to sell ads.  All you need is a very targeted niche site.  So let’s assume that you’re a stay-at-home mom and you want to build a network of moms.  And let’s say that you can attract a lot of the moms in your town.  All of a sudden you can now go to the grocery store, the bakery, the day care, the gym, the dentist and all the places you normally go and offer them the opportunity to advertise on your site.  You can set whatever price you like for your ads.  The main idea here, however, is that you have a targeted audience of moms in your town that people will want to reach.  This concept is the same for virtually any affinity group, professions, interest etc.  Here are some ideas:  social networking site for painters, musicians, firemen, police, teachers, snowboarders, travellers etc.  There is virtually no limit here.  Try to find something that you have a genuine interest in and imagine that others will to.  Your main job will be to attract these individuals to your site and create value or opportunities for them.

Membership Income – Some sites will have to be free while others will be able to charge a membership fee.  This depends on the value of the content of the site.  Example: a hangout for teens will probably be free.  However, a site that focus on teaching someone how to invest, how to speak French, or how to add some value to their life may charge some fee that the site visitors will gladly pay.  Why?  Because the cost savings and value added by the site to the member is apparent.  Here are some examples:  A site where you help employers recruit top talent; a site where you help people navigate through the financial crisis with proven investment strategies; a site where you provide strategies for lasting relationships; a site where you help someone find that perfect mate.  These sites will need to be credible and will need to provide the value advertised but once established, these sites could become very good cash machines.  This is a great way to make money because you can often charge a subscription fee for these sites, payable monthly, yearly etc.  The fee will be based on the value you provide.  However, you only need 1,000 members paying $10 per month to make $10,000 per month with this method.  That’s a six figure salary from working at home.  Not a bad start!

Selling online – What’s great about this method is that you already have your members online and you know what they like – if you have an affinity niche social networking site.  So let’s say that you have a site that targets football fans and you have an online store with the site.  Guess what you sell? That’s right football memorabilia and other related ‘stuff’.  T-shirts, calendars, balls, game tickets etc.  This could be on a local level – the college team U of M (University of Money), a national team, or just football fans overall.  But where do you get this stuff to sell?  You can partner with the local merchant, take photos of the items, upload the photos and description, collect the orders with your site, and have the merchant fulfil the orders.  Basically, members would be able to order the products on your site, your automatic notification system will email the orders to the merchant, and the merchant ships the products to the customer.    You take a percentage of the sales, thank you sir, for doing practically nothing, manufacturing nothing, warehousing nothing.  Another option is to use amazon.com or amazon.co.uk.  These guys now sell practically anything you can imagine – and they do all the warehousing and fulfilment as well.  However, the main idea here is that you get a piece of every sale for simply having a site that you can attract a group of people who likes to do what you like to do anyway.

Cashflow – It must be obvious by now where I’m going with this.  But here it is.  You can actually do all the above with your social networking site at the same time to create multiple streams of income with recurring cashflow.  You can have a targeted niche social networking website that you: collect recurring membership fees; you sell ads on the site to businesses and individuals; and you can have an online store for your members to buy products – all on the same site.  Of course, once you have the site and the audience you can also offer ‘premium services’ to your members.  Ching, ching … more streams of income.

So this is only a small sample of what you can do today to make money online with your own social networking website, without even leaving your house.

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

About the author

Rohan Hall is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business.  His clients include HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various other Fortune 500 companies.  He is also the CEO or rSitez, Inc. (www.rsitez.com), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create revenue with social networking sites.