The Entrepreneur's Guide to Setting Up a Social Networking Site ...

I gave myself six hours
?to set up a Social Networking Site for a school near my home, from scratch and using only opensource software

so here?s a log of my progress.

I have to admit to cheating a bit ?
My six hours were spread over two days.

because I already have a contract with an Internet Host.

Hour 1

To get started I logged on to the internet and checked out the two Open Source CMS systems I already knew ? Drupal and Joomla ? seeking suitable open source Templates suitable for a school site. I soon found that Drupal had the better templates for the job particularly as Joomla had not updated their ?rhuk_milkyway? template that we originally used on Computer-Virgin site ? we have now moved over onto Drupal ? to match their newest version.

By now the first hour was well and truly over.

Notes
1. Open Source software is free software available legally over the internet
2. CMS is shorthand for ?Content Management System?. CMSs provide the structure needed to set up your own commercial Social Networking Site as a vehicle to attract visitors to your online business
3. Templates are additional software ? to use in conjunction with your CMS ? controlling the appearance ? colour, layout, menus etc ? of your site.

Hour 2

Then logged into my account on to my Internet Host to set the wheels in motion. I like to know the names of the data bases used, and all the passwords etc involved, so I clicked on ?Data Bases? and created a new data base with me as core user. I also set up a directory in my existing site to know exactly where the system was going to set up the new site.

But if you?re not anal than you don?t have to go to all this bother. You can just click on ?Add a new Hosting Package?, select a package with database facilities ? in your case probably ?Business Standard? go through the procedures for paying them and then set it up with the name ? in our case computer-virgin.net ? you have chosen for your site.

By now the second hour will be gone.!

Notes 2

Appearances are everything When you are starting up an eBusiness people who have never met you and never will, must believe that you are someone to be trusted!

Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder or in our case the eye of the people visiting our site. In my case, the school site ? people need the information ? but you need to hold their attention for long enough to ?sell? your product. So our choice of ?template? is very, very important.

his may be stating the obvious, but you need to assess your target audience and decide on a template that will please them.

Hour 3

So I logged into my account with my internet provider, clicked on ?Configure your Hosting Packages?, then on the ?email? button against my domain name to set up an email addresses on my site eg my.name@mysite.net.

Different hosts will have slightly different access sequences but they are all generally similar.

But as I know that as soon as I have a site I will be bombarded with Spam so I set up two or three addresses. Visitors like to know whom they are talking to, so one address is in my name, but a second one, to be registered as the contact for the site is in the name of ?Webmaster? for the benefit of the spammers

So endeth the third hour.

Notes 3

There are no rules controlling what Open Source can call things and if there were, no one would take notice. For Instance Drupal calls Templates ?Themes?

Hour 4

So go on line and look for a template to suit you.

Use Google or another search engine an run a search for ?free joomla templates? or ?free drupal themes?. Use the quotation marks as shown to make sure you get offered the free versions rather than the commercials.

Take your time selecting a good one but remember you can always change them later. Down load it to your home machine and store it in a directory /mysite/templates for later use.

If this only took an hour then it is the best hour you?ll ever invest on your site.

Hour 5

Now you can log into your new site direct ? using your new url. Don?t be disappointed ? it will soon look as you want it to look but first some housekeeping.

Establishing the Facts

Some CMS software will take you through a procedure to set up the site and will want to know

1. The name of your site

2. Your site slogan

3. The location of your ?logo? ? otherwise they will use the logo of the CMS

4. Your Name and Address

5. An email address

On others look for a tab near the top of your page entitled ?Global Configuration? or something similar, and if necessary ?Site Information? and input the same material.

All this is necessary to get you listed with the Search Engines, without which your visitors will never find you. Establishing the Look.

I, for one, hate working on a site that doesn?t look as I would want it to look, so my next move is to deal with the template and that involves me in downloading my first Extension

Notes 4

Extensions, of various sorts extend the capabilities and look of your CMS. You will meet with

1. Templates or Themes

2. Plugins

3. Modules

as you build your site.

Extensions do not come with the basic CMS suite and have to be downloaded separately and then initialised. So enter your browser and conduct a search for a template that suits you as I explained in Hour 4.

If you followed my suggestion that you store it in your own home machine, in the original ?zipped? form, in a directory called /mysite/templates. Now return to your new website ? logging into wwww.mysite.com ? and locate the upload facility.

In Drupal 7 this is accessed through the ?Appearance? tab and in Joomla through ?Extensions ? Install/Uninstall?.

In either case you will be offered a box into which you enter the address of your template directory (/mysite/templates/name of template.zip) and a search facility to help you find it. Now click on ?upload file and install? and the software will do everything for you.

Hour 6

In an ideal world that would be it: but this is the real world Now you have to ?Enable? the new template and then to ?select? for day to day use.

In Drupal 7 this is simple ? the new theme will have appeared at the bottom of the page as a ?disabled? theme. Click on Enable and Select.In Joomla go back to the ?Extensions ? > Templates?, scroll down the list of templates to find the new one, click on the button to the left of the Template name before returning to the top of the page and clicking on the ?Default? Star.

Now if you go to your ?home? page (www.mysite.com) you should see the site beginning to look as you want

Roger Webb is now retired after a long career that culminated in his holding a number of CEO roles in the construction and logistics industries.

Often these were family companies or companies led by specialists who had grown in skill through years of practice. Some found it difficult to move with the times.

Too often they had little or no understanding of computers and the huge impact thay had had on their industry. In particular they had failed to grasp the commercial possibilities of the internet.

His site, http://www.computer-virgin.net/ helps anyone to come to grips with this problem and launch their own online business.

Computer-Virgin.net is built on a Drupal Open Source CMS

Source: http://webdiana.net/internet-and-businesses-online/cms/the-entrepreneurs-guide-to-setting-up-a-social-networking-site.html

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