Need Help Designing New Professional Networking Site

[kawilude]

Hi Everyone,

Just joined the site today. I have a great idea for a new professional networking site that will be a mix between Linked In & Facebook. I am looking for someone to help put it together. I have the website purchased but honestly dont know anything about designing it. I want users to have profiles and be able to post and answer questions. I also want the option of members paying a small fee to use the site to its full potential.

Does anyone want to help me with this? I can explain more about it in detail to the right person. I can handle everything, I even have the appropriate contacts for the first few hundred potential members.

Please let me know ASAP

Thanks!

-Chris-

[Dirtynerd]

You can Try using Morthix.com



I have a website through them and its awesome, super friendly also.

Its webmasterp2p.com Its new but a work in progress. They set it up for me.

[nonrate]

kawilude,

I hate to possibly disappoint you but I get the impression since you've never done something like this before, you're not aware of the costs involved. Both Facebook and Linkedin have spent millions of dollars in development and operational maintenance to build what they have today. To compete with these models is possible at a far lower cost, but if you want a full set of features these folks currently offer, be prepared to start at about 50k of investment to get a workable and usable system in place.

If you are willing to conced some level of customization but get most of the functions developed, you can design using CMS systems like drupal or joomla. These platforms already have the basic social networking features developed, but you lose some flexibility in how data is shared between the different modules and functions, and may have to sacrifice customizations in messages, responses, and general application workflow. However, using one of these you might be able to get your usable prototype developed for $3-10k instead of $50.

Of course, with the lack of detail in your spec it's impossible for any web developer to let you know what the real costs of your idea is. Keep in mind, you are paying for time here. Time not just to type code, but to meet with you, design the applciation, phone conversations, change requests, reviews, etc. and that all adds up.

Good luck with your idea.

[kawilude]

Thank you both for the responses!

I have a couple companies that are actually interested in developing this idea with me and making it a reality. They are in the same line of work as me and see it's potential. I definitely appreciate the info on the start up $$ as well, WAY out of my league.

Hopefully someone will bite and this will take off, seems to be my only way to do this right now.

Thanks again!

[Ctash]

I am thinking to about starting a networking site with several aspects of education. One of the biggest concerns that I have is maintaining a viable revenue stream. How is your site going to accomplish this? I believe that Facebook is struggling right now to create a steady revenue stream even though it has been valued in the hundred of millions.

[The Stealthy One]

Hi Chris,

Why not post your project on elance.com? You'll be able to spec it out and then receive bids from various developers. That might be the best way to find a quality developer for this project.

[rpermana]

If you are good in programming... maybe you can buy ready-to-use script... example :

Social Network Software and Community Software - webNetwork

[Tony717]

This could be expensive...actually it will. And if ever were to get big you'll need servers, a number of them. It'll be alot. I too would recommend posting it on some kind of a freelance site like gonogging.com or something. Gonogging tends to be a bit cheaper than other fl sites.