Vvek

I am looking to create my own SNS and was wondering if anyone could tell me the startup cost of Myspace or Facebook, I've always wondered but have had trouble finding out. Are social networks generally cheaper in comparison to other sites?

If anyone could give me a ballpark estimate of this site I would appreciate it...http://www.stylehive.com/

Thanks, Vivek

drd

Theres a lot of Development rather than Design involved. Are you going to be doing any of the work or paying people to do it all start to finish?

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Web Designer

edochon

A ballpark estimate will be impossible without knowing what you really want to achieve, how much will go into it, what resources you will need and other stuff like that.
My advice - sit down and so a little bit of planning. That way, you begin to get an idea of what will be involved and what it will cost.

There are open-source content management systems which can get you on your way like Elgg and Joomla. Also check out KickApps.

Vvek

Thanks for the help, I dont have any web related skills so I would be looking to hire help. My good friends uncle is a web programmer and he offered to help out with our idea for a SNS. I'm looking for most of the basic functions that myspace and facebook have such as customizable profiles with html embedding, inbox's, comments, friends, picture upload, search, browse, and so on. I would like for users to be able to upload pictures and then label them with descriptions which can be used as search tags to find them in a search engine. I pretty much have all my ideas narrowed down and the functions I would like to incorporate into the site but I dont have a clue as to what costs what and the time it takes and the manpower required. Could anyone tell me what information someone building my site would need to accurately give a cost for each stage? Markup language, servers, functions, work hours, pages, this is where I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. Basically I have a great idea for a solid Style/Fashion SNS with little idea how to create it efficiently and cost effectively. Any info you need I can probably give

WickedGoddess

Myspace and Facebook are two giant sites that needs to have lots of $$$ for funding. Not sure on the estimate tho, but to keep it running, a vast sum of capital is needed ( obviously)

Ducky

if I had to put a number on it I'd say at least 5k if you hired in a development company after that your issue is marketing and just getting the userbase in, also hosting costs are likely to be large if you expect your site to grow fast.

drd

Yes they do cost a lot to keep going now, but they didn't in the beginning and as they grew and started to make money that easily covered the overheads..

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Web Designer

Vvek

I would say my maximum startup budget is around 10-15k. As far as what I have planned goes I'm not sure if my ideas are anywhere from far outside my price range or easily within it. Assuming its within does anyone have a recommendation for a firm I could contact? I live in Austin so I could possibly contact someone fresh from the University of Texas looking to increase their work experience but I want a quality professional at least appearing proffesional site so maybe students aren't the way to go.

Bocaj

Look for freelancers, they have lower overheads than company's and thus generally are alot cheaper, however most can only do smaller jobs on tight timescales unless they have the contacts for collaboration projects.

Look for people who are passionate though, and have a portfolio that shows that.

Avoid agency's, i work for a few on an odd job basis, and the ones i do work for take 10-20% cut and you'll the one that's paying that at the end of the day.

However i'd reccomend requesting quotes from a mix of the three, find 3 of each you like and use that as a basis for comparison.

Make sure the balance between quality and cost is good, somethings that look good aren't always.

Your website needs a clean foundation for expansion, you don't want future coders to have to rewrite what's already there, that just becomes costly.

And try to keep as much money as you can aside for marketing, just my thoughts anyway.

quehegan

Your biggest expense will be bandwidth. If your site gets popular you can pay huge amounts just for bandwidth. Also if it gets popular you may want to look into getting a dedicated server for the site. Facebook and Myspace have clusters of servers that keep them running. You will also need massive amounts of storage space if you want your users to be able to upload pictures and videos. All this will not be an issue when you first start, but it is something to think about if it gets popular. Best of luck on your project.

Vvek

Thanks for the info, given that the site planned is a style/fashion related SNS I would like to include clothing brands in the search engine so that users can search for their items contained on the site, I was wondering if I need to contact these brands and receive permission before ever putting their brand names & clothing lists on my search engine. Wanting to mix e-commerce in with the social network aspect I think eventually someone with knowledge of internet law will be needed but if I dont need permission to include these sites that would make things a lot easier and quicker to deal with. Anyone know if this is something I can find out without hiring someone to work out the kinks?

shalom_m

I think most contributors above have under-calculated.
I would not undertake such a project without US$ 100K in hand (for development costs for V1.00) and a written guarantee for another US$ 250K during the first year of operation.

Vvek

Yikes... Someone mind explaining what exactly would drive the development cost so high? Is this something that can be changed or simplified to decrease start up cost? Thanks

Bocaj

Big money gets the ball rolling quickly, with 100k you could have your project up, running and expanding quickly within a year.

Lower budget, realistically i think your looking at 1-3 years and around 99% chance of it failing, although success chances (i.e making it profitable) on the higher budgets is still pretty low.

Social networking is pretty much been bled dry, it's a craze that's dwindling a little, but it's also one thing that will always be there now.

shalom_m

See attached zip/excel file for details

Attached Files

Company.zip (6.7 KB, 14 views)