social network site 1000 members in 1month

what next and any ideas

[successlieswithme]

Hello,
i have started a social networking site on 9th of oct,
and today we have reached 1000 members mark,
i know its very very little success, but still iam damn happy with it.

by spending 100% for advertising, i have got this amount of members,
and of them about 100 members are active in the site.

my site is aimed at indians in india and outside india.

do you have any suggestions for further improving?
like making revenue money from it (currently iam making 4-5$ per day from adsense) and getting more members.

thank you.

[jtara]

Sounds like an excellent start, really!

I'm interested in your results, because I am starting a "guide" type of site, and intend to initially get traffic through search advertising. Search advertising will work well for me, because there isn't a good, prominent guide for the subject right now, and most people get their information on the subject online through search. It also will be a social site, as it turns out it's a guide to places where people socialize. :)

What is your ratio of advertising cost to revenue? I'd be happy if the revenue covered the advertising cost, though I suppose that might be unrealistic, particularly in the first month.

[successlieswithme]

hello,
iam sorry... i have to mention 100$ but i typed 100%,
means i spent only 100$ in this first month.

for you,i can guess you will get 50% of what you spend on your site.

[Shiznaught]

congrats. did you code the site yourself or did you use third party software?

[successlieswithme]

i used 3rd party software,
then i coded a lot to it,
still i feel only 10% of site is finished,
90% more have to be completed,
i think it takes 6months for me to finish everything,
i want to use complete web2.0 for it,
it shd have facilities like gmail...

[AjiNIMC]

I am in the community field for last 3 years or 14,000 hrs and I like the comment on [bestbbs.com...] which says "there is no such thing as an instant community".

It is very true that their is no instant community. Getting members is easy but making them participate is a big challenge. You will have to answer following questions :-

First Set of 7 questions
-----------------------
1) What are your users getting out of it?
2) Is there an area related to your segment which needs community help? Target it by promoting it.
3) Am I providing enough tool to help community members communicate. Simplicity is the key.
4) Are my participatory platforms simple enough?
5) What are the barriers in participation?
6) Am I promoting users as there is no better motivation than getting community recognition. Like enabling avatars, signatures, contributing members, ranks e.t.c
7) The final one, what is the vision of this community? Always be prepared to change it if community is showing a different pathway.

One you have answered this question tell yourself
-------------------------------------------------
1) I will not worry about money for x months. If possible remove all ads for few months.
2) I will keep trying different things for next y months.
3) I need to get Z moderators in next A months.
4) I will make a model to share my revenue after x months.
5) My only goal is to help community by providing right platforms (not right answers alone).

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
AjiNIMC

[carli]

I agree that simplicity and engaging your community is the key.

Kiar

[successlieswithme]

what do you mean by "engaging"?

btw, i just got 2,000 members to the site

[AjiNIMC]

what do you mean by "engaging"?

We generally empower our members by involving them in marketing and other decision making.