startup social networking community

[tcennis]

I have built a social networking website that really falls in a specific niche. It has grown popular in recent months with a about 300,000 visitors a month and over 2 million page views. I am forcasting to get to 1m visitors and 7m pageviews by end of 1q 2008.

What I would like to know is roughly how much I could profit from using Google/DoubleClick or other advertising company.

[BusinessAdviser]

Congrats. But do tell, what is your site exactly. You're leaving us in suspense.

[tcennis]

Congrats. But do tell, what is your site exactly. You're leaving us in suspense.

I would love to, but I am considering seeking private capital to grow the site rapidly and dont want the VC people to be able to come back later and track my research to this forum.

I really am looking to get an idea that I might be able to start and focus my business plan around...

[2gould]

I would love to, but I am considering seeking private capital to grow the site rapidly and dont want the VC people to be able to come back later and track my research to this forum.

I really am looking to get an idea that I might be able to start and focus my business plan around...

Come on man. If your company is truly as good as you think the VCs are not going to give two shits that you were asking questions on this forum about google ads etc - if they even bother to look. Why give up the opportunity to attract some of us to your site by not giving the name?!? I smell something fishy...

[tcennis]

Come on man. If your company is truly as good as you think the VCs are not going to give two shits that you were asking questions on this forum about google ads etc - if they even bother to look. Why give up the opportunity to attract some of us to your site by not giving the name?!? I smell something fishy...

s0bercircle.c0m

replace 0's with o's. I may be paranoid, I dont know....

[SendBlast]

well..not a fan of myspace clones, but it looks like a good market. as far as monetizing goes, of course there is the adwords, sponsors, maybe premium membership upgrades.

how have you advertised this site?

[akula]

s0bercircle.c0m

replace 0's with o's. I may be paranoid, I dont know....

ha! that's soooo my kind of community
just joined!
ok...you'll need to fix up ur alexa and compete.com rankings (467k and 133k respectively) because at first look they're at odds with the traffic results you're reporting. these are just the first two numbers people look at, and they've gotta be much lower to match your traffic stats. 1st impressions count.

plus, there's the members database. the search of the database shows that you have about 12k registered members. out of those 0.5% will be active in the community (i.e. 60 people)...it's unusual for the participation rate to be over 0.5% (unless you're facebook). anyway, with 60 active members, again the stats won't stack up

i'm not being difficult..i'm just telling you how other people will diligence the information you're giving them

[akula]

What I would like to know is roughly how much I could profit from using Google/DoubleClick or other advertising company.

i dunno..what's the cpm for your kind of keywords?
it'd be $2-3

[artistport]

Yes, I think google and some other resources will help you get more traffic

[jasaunders]

ha! that's soooo my kind of community
just joined!

You quitter!

[2gould]

s0bercircle.c0m

replace 0's with o's. I may be paranoid, I dont know....

Good man! Welcome to the forum!

[tcennis]

ha! that's soooo my kind of community
just joined!
ok...you'll need to fix up ur alexa and compete.com rankings (467k and 133k respectively) because at first look they're at odds with the traffic results you're reporting. these are just the first two numbers people look at, and they've gotta be much lower to match your traffic stats. 1st impressions count.

plus, there's the members database. the search of the database shows that you have about 12k registered members. out of those 0.5% will be active in the community (i.e. 60 people)...for example with ye, this ratio is lower...30k registered members and about 100 active members...it's unusual for the participation rate to be over 0.5% (unless you're facebook). anyway, with 60 active members, again the stats won't stack up

i'm not being difficult..i'm just telling you how other people will diligence the information you're giving them

I dont fully understand the difference in traffic. I am basing numbers off Google Analytics. I know Alexa is pretty legit, but why would Google have so many more pageviews?

Also, my internal stats show about 2000 member logins a day. I am picking up 100 new members a day and the other 1900 are returns. That would put residuals at over 10%. I know thats very unusual and would surely drop as member base rises, but its a different demographic the recovery community.

[tcennis]

Good man! Welcome to the forum!

thank you...

[akula]

I dont fully understand the difference in traffic. I am basing numbers off Google Analytics. I know Alexa is pretty legit, but why would Google have so many more pageviews?

Also, my internal stats show about 2000 member logins a day. I am picking up 100 new members a day and the other 1900 are returns. That would put residuals at over 10%. I know thats very unusual and would surely drop as member base rises, but its a different demographic the recovery community.

yah man..that's sweet..some cosmetic changes might need to happen
1) create more dummy accounts to push the number in the db from 12k to 120k
2) fake the alexa rank to around 10k
3) fake the server hits so your compete.com is at 30k or so

umm...it's more of a marketing exercise more than anything. if your site appears bigger to journalists or new members (based on alexa/compete) you'll get more members = more active members

from a financing perspective...the representations about traffic numbers don't make it into the contracts so you won't need to worry about misleading financiers..at this stage, you'll just have to alter the perceptions of end users/bloggers/journalists and there's nothing wrong with fixing up ur numbers for that purpose...besides, if you're talking to financiers you can just disclose this stuff - they won't mind if you do..you're an entrepreneur after all

essentially, if you're gonna be asking someone to review your site, it'll help if ur alexa is under 10k

[dtechm]

What I want to know is how do you fake an alexa ranking?