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News Years Resolution: Make Money Online with Social Networks (Part II)

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In part 1 of this article I discussed how you can identify your target niche, create your social networking site, and market the site to start building your own social networking online business.  In this article I will discuss how you can manage, monetize, and incorporate you business from any browser anywhere in the world.

Manage Your Business

If you think of your social networking site as just a website to hangout and share pictures then you have a nice hobby, not an actual business.  Like any business, you will have some management responsibilities that will need to be done.

Engage your members:  You will need to add value to the site by posting newsletters, responding to forums, add interesting photos, highlighting active members.  You will also need to deal with the abusers of the site by warning, blocking or deleting these members.  You should host contest, provide reward programs, and find advocates on the site.  The more you engage users, the more they will feel a part of something live and keep coming back.

Provide more value:  In addition to engaging members you should find ways to provide more value to this audience.  The audience is niche and you should have some knowledge of the needs of the industry or the audience in general.  What kind of content or articles can you provide that they cannot find anywhere else?  How can you provide opportunities for them to gain recognition or financial value from the site?  How can you create opportunities for them to use the site to help make their business successful?  How do you add value to their personal life?  What’s in it for them?

Track site visitors with Analytics:  The best way to do this is to get a few lines of code from Google Analytics (google.com/analytics) and add to your site.  This will show you how many visitors you have daily, where they came from, which page they visited etc.  You will be able to see which marketing activities yield the best results and focus more on the message or source of the article that is providing the most visits.

Manage your Reputation:  Among other things, Reputation Management includes the ability to see what people are saying about you online.  Google has a free service called Google Alerts (google.com/alerts).  With this service you can see each time Google index content with a specific keyword.  This is important because you can tell Google to notify you by email each time they index new content with your website name in it.  So each time there is a blog, forum, article or other content posted online by anyone that includes your website name Google will send you an email so that you will be aware of it and can take any necessary action.  Additionally, this is a way to see what your competitors or others in your industry are saying or doing.

Cool Mojito – Social Media Marketing. More Likes, More Leads, More Sales

rSitez – Create your own Social Networking Website

Monetize your Site

There are different ways you can go about doing this.  It really will depend on your site, the amount of members you have, and the focus of your site.  However, here are some ways you can monetize your site.

Advertising:  This is the most common ways.  You can sell advertising to the specific industry you are targeting for your social network.  Once you have created a membership base you will be able to sell ads to businesses who want to sell their products or services to that membership base.

Membership Fees:  Sites with a clear and specific value may be able to monetize via membership fees.  With this you will be able to charge a monthly or yearly fee for access to the site or for access to premium content or features of the site.

Online Store:  You can sell relevant product to your site members.  If your site targets university students you may be able to sell books, laptops or other products they may find useful.  If your site targets parents, you may be able to sell children toys, clothes, or products.

Sell Services:  You may also be able to sell services that are relevant to your audience.  A site that targets small businesses and entrepreneurs may be able to sell accounting and legal services.  You do not have to perform the services yourself. You may be able to partner with service providers and use the site as the means to finding customers in need of these services.

To learn more details about monetizing your website please read my other blog How to Make Money Online like Myspace and Facebook.

Incorporate your Business and Open a Bank Account

Once you are able to monetize the site you should create a business structure with a business bank account to collect and protect revenue, and  to minimize personal and business liability.

By having a business entity and a bank account, you will be able to create merchant accounts and collect payments from credit cards, debit cards, Visa, Master Card, Amex etc.   You will also be able to write off business expenses to reduce your tax liabilities and separate your personal assets from your business expenses – therefore reducing the chance of personal risks.

1 – To start your business online:

Get your Employer Id Number (EIN) from the IRS.  This is done completely online and can be done in a few minutes.  Your EIN will be needed to start your business bank account and online merchant account

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html?portlet=4

2 – Register your business with your State

To do this you will need to go to the ‘secretary of state division of corporations’ website for your state.  On this site they will have an online form or pdf to allow you to register with your state.  For instance, if your state if Florida, search for ‘Florida secretary of state division of corporations’

3 – Create your Bank Account online

Most banks today allow you to create an account online without ever having to go to the bank.  I don’t remember the last time I have had to go to a bank for any reason except to sign a couple documents here and there.   Go to your bank’s website and find the link to open your account online.  You should be able to manage and monitor your financial transactions from your bank’s website.

4 – Create your Merchant Account

You will need a merchant account to collect funds online.  Some social networking site includes the ability to collect payment via different payment sources.  However, you will still need to create the merchant account yourself that is needed for you to collect the funds.

Vendors:  Paypal.com, authorize.net, paysimple.com

Summary

Once you have created your social networking business you are now on the path to participate in one of the most active and high growth areas in business.  There are no real overnight successes and you will need to work at this business as you would any other business venture.  But you will now be able to start pursuing your dream of building your own online social networking business.

To learn more about creating and monetizing your own social networking site please visit www.rsitez.com.

About the author

Rohan Hall is the Founder/CEO of rSitez, Inc. (www.rsitez.com), a technology firm that helps entrepreneurs create unique revenue-based social networking sites.  He is the author of Stop Working, a book that teaches entrepreneurs how to use technology, globalization, and networks to build a global business.  He has developed technologies for a wide range of entrepreneurs and Fortune500 clients including HP, Corning, Oracle, Honda and various others.

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Posted in December Tagged: community site, develop social network, entrepreneur, Facebook, linkedin, make money online, myspace, new year, New years resolution, Ning, recession, resolution, rsitez, saas social networking, social network software, social networking, social networking software, socialengine, twitter

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