Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi everyone,

I`m a new member to this site and but spent a couple of weeks trolling around reading articles and posts from all of you. I`ve been wanting to start my own business for some time now and this site really helped me to get motivated to just start something even if it ends up failing. I have many ideas on small business I would like to do but, my ideas cost way too much. I figured if I started a web site, and as it grew in membership, I could use the money from advertisers to finance and start something even bigger.

I decided to start on something with no overhead and relatively easy to run. I want to start a new Community Based web site like Myspace but with a little more "freedom". (No, it would not be a porn site) Does anyone have any information on where I can find a web template for Community Based web site?  I looked all over the place online and most of the templates are just forums that do not provide the user the ability to create a profile page like Myspace, Facebook or Friendster.

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It takes a brilliant mind to entertain a thought and not accept it.

Maybe this is what you are looking for?

phpBB

If you took existing opensource software and modified it, your costs would be GREATLY reduced vs. writing it all yourself.

Nanoboy... may I ask... how do you plan to differentiate your community based site from the current title holders? How is your system going to be better than what`s already out there if you are using a template? How do you plan to grow your membership/viewers to gain advertising dollars? Why should the advertiser come to you instead of MySpace or the other, quite popular, proprietary software writers?

Not trying to dog your concept or idea... but trying to understand how well you have thought this plan out. Maybe we can fire up the support of a great idea right here on SuN!


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Hi,

Checkout Drupal or Joomla as well, these are quite powerful opensource CMS.  But to make your site attractive you probably will have to do some customization. 

There are quite a few community sites out there with the similar kind of idea, so you already have competition.

Good Luck.

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A relationship without trust is not much of a relationship.
www.adaptivesolutionsinc.com

Just to inform you.  This is really something big that you`re heading into.

A CMS is not going to give you what you`re looking for.  And neither will a forum.

You`re going to have to look long and hard to find one, not even one that`ll fit your needs, just finding one!

Iouone2,

Thanks for your reply, the difference in this will be the purpose. Most of the community sites are just friend sites that allow you to build little profiles with music,videos, and pictures. Without giving everything away, the site I want to create is a 1st Amendment site for specific groups of people to vent their problems to the world without restriction. These problems are issues that only this particular group goes through and would understand such as sterotypes, race relations, gender relations, work relations, music genre issues and other things. This site would also have sister sites that deal with the same issues but are targeted towards other specific groups.   

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think something like this would backfire and end up costing me more than it`s worth?

 

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It takes a brilliant mind to entertain a thought and not accept it.

Yeah I`ve been looking into this for a while now and the reason I was looking for a template was because I don`t have any programing experience but I do know how to make HTML changes to a template. The problem is that there are no templates for these kind of sites, which means I`m going to have to pay big money for someone to create a new one from scratch. Like I said I can make the HTML changes in Dreamweaver/Cold Fusion I just need to get as close to the community based format as possible.

 

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It takes a brilliant mind to entertain a thought and not accept it.

Hi nhgnikole,

Thats the plan, I just need to find something thats close and modify it the way I want. 

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It takes a brilliant mind to entertain a thought and not accept it.

The idea is not bad, social networks based on emotional support.  Since I have a slight interest in psychology, I know there are at least forums out there on various topics where people can connect and share online.  They are very niche and most people who are not involved in such issues don`t even know they exist.  I don`t know enough about how good or helpful they are or what.  Maybe your idea is just what people need to find better anonymous support online.

Another technical idea you may want to consider is partnering with someone who does know how to build a site the way you need it.  I am currently building a community based web business.  But I have extremely little technical knowhow, so I partnered with someone who has.  I don`t pay him as we are both equity owners (no equity yet of course).

Plus there are great advantages to not going at it alone.  He`s brought incredible ideas to the table which has helped shape the site and business.  Furthermore, he has suggested technical concepts for building the site that I wasn`t even aware existed.  I understand you have some HTML editing capabilities but can you add a great feature if you think one up?  Do you know enough to really create what you envision?  I suggest finding someone who does.

Steve,

Thanks thats really good advice. The hard part is finding someone with the same interest and doesn`t want alot up front! How much do you think advertisers will pay to advertise on a succesfull site?

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It takes a brilliant mind to entertain a thought and not accept it.