News Years Resolution: Make Money Online with Social Networks (Part II) December 20, 2009
Posted by Rohan in December.Tags: community site, develop social network, entrepreneur, Facebook, linkedin, make money online, myspace, new year, New years resolution, Ning, recession, resolution, rsitez, saas social networking, social network software, social networking, social networking software, socialengine, twitter
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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.
News Years Resolution: Make Money Online with Social Networks (Part I) December 18, 2009
Posted by Rohan in December.Tags: community site, develop social network, entrepreneur, Facebook, linkedin, make money online, myspace, new year, New years resolution, Ning, recession, resolution, rsitez, saas social networking, social network software, social networking, social networking software, socialengine, twitter
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2009 was a tough year for many people and businesses as we experienced the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We saw many the largest companies fail, countries bankrupt or on the verge of financial disasters, and trillions of dollars in consumer wealth disappear. But during the same year, Twitter.com audience grew 343%, Tagged.com grew 330%, Ning.com grew 251%, and rSitez.com grew 151%. Not only that, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook.com Founder/CEO at age 25 ranking in Forbes.com went from 321 to 158, as his net worth went from $1.5 billion to $2 billion during this same period in the last year.
If these businesses did this well in such a terrible economic period imagine their possibilities in the next 1 to 5 years as the global economy recovers. Could you have your own social networking business and possibly benefit as the global economy recover as well? Have you ever thought it would be nice to ‘get in the game?’ Have you thought about trying to position yourself to benefit from what could be the next stage of growth for online businesses? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then please read on. Here are some things you can do to get your own online social networking business started today and to start positioning yourself to take advantage of what will certainly be a new recovery period for building wealth in a new global market.
Identify a Niche Market and a Clear Value
Creating a website like Facebook or Twitter will not be enough. Even though members will have membership to multiple social networking sites, the key driver will be the value you provide to this audience. Therefore, you should have a good understanding of the audience you will want to join your site and the clear value you will provide to them. Why should someone who is a member of Facebook and LinkedIn also join your site? What clear value do you provide? What problem do you solve? Once you are clear about this then you are ready to move to the next step.
Create your Social Networking Site
There are different ways you can go about this. To learn about some of these options you may want to see my blog about the Top 4 ways to create a social networking site like Myspace and Facebook.
When selecting a vendor to create your site you should consider what you want your site to do to create a clear and unique value to your audience. Can the vendor provide this to you? Do these features exist in the core application? If not, can the application be customized or modified to provide this value? What costs are involved with this?
Vendors: rSitez.com
Seed your Site
Once your site has been created you will need to pre-populate it before your launch. No one wants to go to a ghost site. If you were to go to a newly launched site with only 2 members you would probably leave and not come back. Recruit friends and family or a focus group to help you add photos, blogs, articles, videos etc to the site so that when members arrive they won’t feel like they are alone on the site and they can start to immediately receive the value provided by the site.
Market your Site
‘If you build it they will come’, phrase is not true in this case. There are many social networking sites with very few or no members. The correct phrase for online businesses is ‘if you market it they may come’. Here are some ways to market your site.
Press Releases: You can post free or inexpensive press releases about your site and demonstrate the value of your site. Even though press releases are traditionally targeted to journalists with the hope of someone writing about your product, this has changed somewhat. Press releases are now picked up by the major search engines and can be used as another way to inform internet surfers about your product and services even if no journalist pick up your release. Press releases have become multi-media and social. So now you can push multimedia content to social networks and online communities. Multimedia content including photos, videos, links and other content can now be embedded in your release.
Vendors: seopressreleases.com, pitchengine.com, prbuzz.com
Blogs: Blogs are one of the best marketing tools available. You can write about any information valuable to your industry or niche group to bring attention to your website. Blogs are free and with the correct content and tagging, can bring a lot of visits and attention to your site. You should always include a link about your site or reference to your site as a part of the blog or in the credits so that people will be able to find your site or click through to your site. Blogging also helps you to demonstrate your expertise in your specific niche area.
Vendors: WordPress.com, blogger.com
Social Bookmarks: Social bookmarks sites allow you to bookmark your site online. A bookmark is basically a link to your site, blog, or article. This link is then shared by others on the social bookmark site. The more people that bookmark your site or content, the greater relevance the article has. But also, the more links you will be able receive to your site from the article.
Vendors: delicious.com, stumbleupon.com
SEO your site: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps programs from Google, Yahoo and other search engines (called bots or web crawlers) to understand your site and to index your site so that the site can be easily found when people are looking for similar or related content. The more search engine friendly your site is, the more likely it will be positioned highly when people are looking for this kind of content. Your site and all content you post online should have SEO involved to help increase visits to your site. Your blogs or articles should be tagged to increase your SEO relevance.
Post Articles: Writing articles is similar to blogging. The main difference is that with blogging you are typically posting general or targeted information on your own or related blog. With articles, you are typically writing content as an expert which you can submit to be posted on other sites. These articles can be posted on online magazines, expert magazines, online newspapers etc. These online journals can often have high ranking and prestige that will create greater credibility for your site and drive a significant amount of traffic to your site. Each online journal will have different rules for submitting articles so you will need to read these rules before submitting them. This is also a great way to demonstrate your expertise in a specific area.
Vendors: ezinearticles.com, ezinearticles.com/
Google AdWords: You can be placed in the top of any search results based on the amount of money you can afford to spend on Google Adwords. The concept is very simple but brilliant. You can try every way to be found ‘generically’. A generic search result is the list displayed on the left side of the google search results page. Or you can be guaranteed to be found among the millions of sites at the top of the page or the right of the page under the list of ‘Sponsored’ site. You can set whatever budget you like. Each time someone search on a keyword you set your ad is displayed. Each time someone clicks on your ad, you are charged a set fee by google.
Vendor. Google.com, yahoo.com
In part 2 of this blog I will discuss how you can manage your site, monetize it, incorporate a new business entity and collect money without ever having to leave your home or without even needing to go to the bank.
To learn more about creating and monetizing your own unique 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.
Top 4 Ways to create a Social Networking site like Myspace or Facebook (Part II) December 14, 2009
Posted by Rohan in December.Tags: community site, develop social network, entrepreneur, Facebook, gennextmusic, linkedin, make money online, myspace, Ning, recession, rsitez, saas social networking, social network software, social networking, social networking software, socialengine
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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: 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. (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.
Top 4 Ways to create a Social Networking site like Myspace or Facebook (Part I) December 14, 2009
Posted by Rohan in December.Tags: community site, develop social network, entrepreneur, Facebook, gennextmusic, linkedin, make money online, myspace, Ning, recession, rsitez, saas social networking, social network software, social networking, social networking software, socialengine
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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 2nd 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.
How to Make Money Online like Myspace and Facebook. February 17, 2009
Posted by Rohan in February.Tags: community site, entrepreneur, Facebook, linkedin, make money online, myspace, recession, social network software, social networking, social networking software
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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.
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