Clarification of Answer by
shiva777-ga
on
06 Dec 2002 17:09 PST
Well again sorry for the delay. I made it extra good to make up for
it.
Hope this helps!
-John
Plan to Build a Personal Site
Phase 1: High Level Design
This phase is about thinking and writing. This business plan is the
beginning part of this phase. As more time and thought is put into
manifesting this blueprint for the site, details will come into focus
and some changes will no doubt be made. It’s important that the
project is thought out very thoroughly before actual construction
begins. Some of the things that need consideration include the
following. Many of these points are gone into further detail later in
this plan.
Name of the Site – This is a very important step. The name should be
very easy to remember. It should be broad enough to appeal to all. For
example, having the word “mates” in the title would not be appealing
to those looking for a more casual relationship. It would be best to
have either one word domain like Kiss.com or Match.com or a two word
phrase with good alliteration.
Target Audience – The site and advertisements for it should be broad
enough to appeal to all and at the same time target specific groups
(e.g. tech-savvy young professionals). The site and all marketing
should also be geared to some extent towards women as they are still
minority users on personals sites, although this is changing.
Questionnaire: Many people dislike having to fill out profile
information. For this reason, it is suggested to have 2-3 levels of
profile information. The first would be all of the basic profile
questions: age, height, location, interests etc. These are mandatory
and are mostly multiple choice with two essay questions to talk about
themselves and who they are looking for. After this, users would be
encouraged to fill out a detailed multiple question survey on their
particular interests, likes etc. Also, there would be for them to
write out answers to essay questions (e.g. what are your goals in
life? This kind of detailed questionnaire really appeals to some
people and makes for excellent search functionality. This part of the
questionnaire should be optional, but as an incentive it can be
required if visitors would like to use the advanced search features.
Search Engine – The search capabilities of the site should be
excellent. With the kind of information gathered from the detailed
questionnaire, users will be able to do more intricate searches than
at most sites. They can chose to use the basic search form, but should
have the option to do a detailed search. Having a keyword search is
important as well.
Features: Some ideas for site features: regular articles on dating,
horoscopes, relationship advisors, phone based chat rooms and a travel
section. These and more are gone into later in the plan.
Fees: A payment model needs to be decided upon. One idea would be to
have a token based system with a pay per month option. Each token
could be used for one contact or service. Often, people browsing might
see just one person they are interested in contacting and $5 is a much
more reasonable price than $20 (the average price per month of these
sites).
Suggested pricing:
• 1 Token = $5
• 3 Tokens = $10
• Unlimited Tokens = $20/month
Most services are currently using the $20/month model.
Programming and Technical Needs – There will be a need for a small
team of programmers to build the site, at least one ongoing person to
maintain it, and at least one ongoing person to work on implementing
new features,
Hardware/Software Needs – Servers will need to be bought, leased or
rented. During development not too much will be needed. A database
system and programming language will need to be chosen.
Customer Service – Excellent customer service will need to be
provided. A brief training manual will need to be written.
Accounting – Accounting includes keeping track of income and expenses,
dealing with credit card issues, financial consulting and other
related services.
Marketing – A detailed marketing plan needs to be drawn up.
Site Map – The site map is created. A flowchart that provides a bird’s
eye view of the site is drawn up.
Basic Layout – A mock-up layout is created including templates that
can be given over to the programming team.
Technical Write-up – Clear, detailed instructions need to be written
for the initial programming team.
Projected Man Hours for High Level Design - 200
Phase2: Developmental Groundwork
This phase involves assembling a team to implement the site as well as
particulars such as developing a company brand, hiring or outsourcing
employees/freelancers, buying or renting equipment and more. The
following are some of the things that will need to be considered and
implemented.
An Overview of Manpower Required:
Note that although these are specific jobs, in many cases it will be
possible in some cases for one person to do several of the jobs listed
here.
Workers needed one time during development:
Web Architect – Creates the blueprint for the site and oversees
development.
Graphic Designer – Develops logo and other branding pieces of graphic
art. This person will also work with web architect to create
graphically pleasing and effective web site and create advertisements.
Copy Writer/Editor – Responsible for writing all text on the site
including copy, help sections, articles and more. This person can also
assist in creating advertisements.
Programmer/Web Developer – Responsible for the functionality of the
site. This can be one person or a small team.
Database Programmers – One person or a small team of database
developers and programmers to create a well functioning, scalable back
end.
Usability Testers – A number of people will be needed on a limited
part time basis throughout the development phase to use the site and
offer feedback.
Ongoing Workers Needed:
Manager (1 person) – Will oversee other employees/freelancers and take
care of the day to day operations of the site. Should have excellent
communication skills and be able to effectively organize a project of
this size.
Web Developer (1 person) – Someone to implement new front end
features and fix any problems with the site as they come up. This
person should be proficient in HTML, graphic design, XML, Javascript
and web development in general. Experience in programming helpful.
Technical Expert/Programmer (1-2 people at first. More as membership
grows. Should be proficient with the database system used and have
knowledge and experience in developing web based applications. If
servers are bought and not rented, they should have hardware
experience as well.
Accounting (1 person) – Should be able to handle bookkeeping, handle
credit card transactions, and issues and billing.
Marketing Specialist – (1 person) Responsible for all aspects of
marketing including organizing advertising campaigns, handling
strategic partnerships and getting the site listed on search engines
and directories around the Internet.
Customer Service (2 people at first. More as membership grows.) They
should be able to communicate well via email promptly and courteously.
Customer Service can be done on an email basis only, making it ideal
for outsourcing to a freelancer. If this is done, the freelancer can
be paid on a per-email basis. Quality control can be maintained by
having each customer service support email also be bcc’d (blind carbon
copied) to a designated email account where they can be spot checked
by the manager. The amount of customer care needed (per member) should
decline as recurring questions can be added to the Help/FAQ section of
the site. Customer service will also be responsible for screening all
content and optimizing photographs. Having good looking photographs in
member profiles is critical and should not be overlooked.
It will be important to have plans in place to rapidly expand customer
service for unexpected jumps in membership. It would be very easy to
have a large spike in people using the site and have customer serviced
overwhelmed with help emails. One possibility to consider might be to
outsource this to a company with the resources to expand rapidly if
necessary.
Hardware
There are many different directions you can go in when choosing the
correct hardware. My recommendation for this type of speculative
project is to keep expenses in this area at a minimum until the
business starts turning a profit.
For hardware, there are basically two options to choose from:
Buying or Leasing
Leasing or owning your servers and having what is called ‘colocation’
hosting which means that the servers are physically stored at an
Internet Server Providers (ISP) facility and connected directly to the
Internet through them. The advantage to buying your own equipment is
that you own it. The disadvantage is that you will have to pay a
technician to run it for you and do daily maintenance. The ISP will
only take care of making sure the hardware stays properly running. Bug
fixes, patches, updates, backups, etc all have to be done by your own
technician who can cost $50 an hour or more.
If the lease option is chosen, get a lease of less than 3 years and
one with a buy out option.
Renting
Another option is to rent the server. For roughly the same price as
co-location, the day to day maintenance tasks of the server are taken
care of by the ISP. In this scenario, if you have only one or two
technicians working for you, they can concentrate on fixing up
problems on the site and adding enhancements rather than spend their
time doing maintenance chores on the server. The ISP will do automatic
back-ups, take care of security issues, etc.
Webadept from Google Answers had this to say:
I like the rental idea much better than the purchase idea to start.
The last thing you want to worry about when getting a site this large
up and running is hardware problems. Once the software is done and
working and you get 10k users on there pushing the code, then start
looking at taking on the extra strain of dealing with the hardware
area as well. Hardware is cheap. IBM's with all the fat on them will
cost you about 1.5k a server. That's not the worry. The worry is the
man hours maintaining those bad boys. System maintenance is a time
consuming project with 10,000 users on there. You are looking at
hiring at least one SysAdmin for $50.00 per hour to keep three servers
running as well as they can. Compare that to dedicated server hosting,
and really it's no contest.
Hardware Brand
EJ, an expert on development planning had this to say:
Compaq Proliant servers are one of my favorite and industry’s most
highly regarded platform. Many Application Service providers use
Compaq Proliant. I believe it’s now HP, however, HP kept the product
line for this very reason.
It is also highly recommended to buy from a VAR (value added
reseller). This way if a serious hardware problem develops you have
the VAR on your side when dealing with the manufacturer which is a big
advantage.
Web Host Providers
There are several things to look for in a web host provider. One is to
make sure they get their connection from a Tier 1 connectivity
provider like AT&T, UUNet, WorldComm. They should provide an Service
Level Agreement (SLA). This stipulates guaranteed uptime, guaranteed
bandwidth, etc. Usually if they are willing to sign SLA, that means
they are fairly confident about their product. Two recommended
companies when starting out are Pair (http://www.pair.com) and
Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net). Both of these companies have
very good reputations. Which one to use depends on whether machines
are bought or leased. When the project gets big and needs Managed
Application Hosting a good company to go with would be Corio
(http://www.corio.com).
Software
Databases
There are two main choices to consider: MySQL and Microsoft’s SQL
Server. Both are great choices, fast and scalable. The main
differences are price and features. MySQL is very inexpensive ($400
per server), but is stripped down as far as development features
making it a bit more difficult for engineers to work with. MS SQL
Server has many more development features but is substantially more
expensive. For a starter it cost $2,000 per server and when the site
gets large enough it will need the ‘enterprise’ edition which cost
roughly $20,000 per server. Also, if Microsoft is chosen an MS server
will have to be bought as well for another $2,000.
Engineers that were asked during the research for this plan said that
there was no discernible difference in speed or reliability between
the two and most suggested using MySQL.
Language
This choice is dependent on which database is chosen. If Microsoft is
chosen then the entire technology ‘stack’ should be Microsoft in which
case ASP/ODBC would be the likely choice. If MySQL is chosen then
there is a broader range of choices. PHP, Perl and Java are the likely
choices. Of the three of these, Java is recommended for several
reasons. As an object oriented language, the back end of the site can
be built as distributed components making it more easily scalable. It
is also a much easier language read and to pass on to another engineer
to work with.
Projected Man Hours for Developmental Groundwork: 50
Phase 3: Front End Design
The site conceived in Phase 1 starts taking form.
The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is created.
Pages are laid out and linked together. Adjustments are made to the
site flowchart as needed. Photographs and other graphics are added.
Writing – Site copy, articles, help sections ,etc. are written. All
writing should be at about an 9th grade reading level. Articles can be
written from scratch or bought. The help section should not be worked
on until the site development is in its final stages.
Advertisements can also be made at this point. Standard sized banner
ads are out. Smaller, various sized ads are in. An especially good
type of ad for this kind of service is a search box that affiliates
can integrate right into their sites.
Projected Man Hours
Front End Design: 180 hours
Writing/Editing: 120 hours
Creating Advertisements – 30 hours
Total – 300 Man Hours
Other Expenses:
Stock Photography - $800
Digital Artwork (logo, etc) - $1500
Phase 4: Back End Programming
This phase can actually begin after Phase #2 in conjunction with the
front end design. Appropriate pages and templates are given to the
programmers who add the functionality. Most of the site will be built
with "dynamic" pages. The user has a record in the database for
his/her profile. The page is a single template. When someone requests
to see a user's profile, the template is filled in with the record
data and a temporary web page is created.
There are 3 main phases of programming:
1. Creating the database
2. Connecting the database so it works seamlessly with the front end.
3. Adding Javascript and other small programs to add functionality to
the site.
Adding new functionality to the site will be an ongoing process.
It is possible for the initial programming to be outsourced to a
foreign company saving substantial money. There are reputable
companies based in India that charges $15 a man-hour (compared to $60+
average wage here). The drawbacks are that most communication will
have to be through email due to cost and time differences. It is
advisable to communicate with any foreign companies a while before
signing any contracts to ensure they have good English communication
skills.
Here is a breakdown of man hours needed for the back end development
of the site.
Projected Man Hours:
Functional/Business Process mapping 20 hours
Functional/Performance Requirements 40 hours
DB Architecture 20 hours
System Architecture 20 hours
Backup/Restore strategy 8 hours
Feature Development 200 hours
Unit Test (2x development) 400 hours
Hardening (½ times development) 100 hours
Acceptance Test: 8 hours
Hardening (½ times previous hardening cycle) 50 hours
Production/Deployment 10 hours
876 hours
Phase 5: Testing the Site
This phase involves bringing in different people to test the site out
and give feedback and will occur in conjunction with phases 3 and 4.
Both the user interface and the stability of the site need to be
thoroughly tested throughout the production process. There should be
a large scale test that emulates as closely as possible the condition
of having at least 20,000 simultaneous users online. This should
probably be done by an outside company that specialized in this sort
of test.
During the first few months the site will need to be watched
especially closely as bugs will still need to be worked out of the
system.
Projected Cost for Testing: $5,000
Phase 6: Marketing the Site
Outlined below are different marketing strategies for the site.
Marketing can begin even during the first phase of development. Once
the name has been decided on and the domain acquired, the site could
be put online with a ‘Coming Soon’ along with a request for people to
add their profiles. For an incentive there could be a contest of some
type for everyone who enters their profile where winners would be
drawn on the opening of the site. Naturally everyone with a profile
will have to go back to the site to see if they are a winner when the
site is launched. In addition to being entered just for adding a
profile, there should be a special prize(s) for the most creative and
interesting profiles to encourage people to write quality profiles.
Advertising should appeal to all but be especially oriented towards
women.
It is common knowledge that if you build a personals site, men will
come. Women have to be brought. This trend is changing, but the
statistics show that men are much more likely to share profiles and
especially profiles with photographs than women are. Getting profiles
on (and ultimately members) should be the primary purpose of the ad
campaign. Ads can be put on sites geared towards women as well as
women oriented print magazines.
Projected Hours: Marketing is an ongoing project so man hours have
not been assigned. At least one full time person should be dedicated
to this and more if possible.
Here are some specific online marketing techniques:
Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are web pages that are optimized for high search engine
placement. When someone visits them they are immediately transferred
to the main site that is being promoted. It is preferable for doorway
pages to have their own domain. For example, consider the domain name
olderwomenpersonals.com. A page is created with the words ‘older’,
‘women’ and ‘personals’ all over it. This page is made with a piece of
software called ‘Web Position Gold’ which knows what kind of keyword
combinations the search engines are looking for. The page is put
online and eventually is indexed (spidered) by a search engine. Then,
when someone types in “older women personals” into a search engine
like Google, this doorway page should shows up in the top search
results if it was made well.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising on Search Engines
Pay per click advertising should be bought on Google and other search
engines. For an example of this go Google and search for the word
‘personals’. On the right hand side you will see their ‘sponsored’
links. If you click on any of these that company will get charged a
certain amount. The ones at the top are the highest bidder for that
search term. The way Google’s Cost Per Click(CPC) prices are set is
based on what competitors are willing to pay for any certain keyword
or phrase. A company chooses the maximum amount they are willing to
pay for a click through for a word or phrase such as “internet
personals”. If the company choses to pay a maximum of 27 cents for
each click through and the nearest competitor for that word or phrase
is only willing to pay 18 cents, Google will automatically lower the
click through price to one penny more (19 cents) so a sponsor will
never pay more than they need to.
With some intitial time put in finding the optimal keywords and
phrases you can expect to get click-throughs at rates as low as $.01
(or $1,000 per 100,000 click throughs), although popular ones can be
substantially higher. It is recommended to get as many $.01 - $.10
cent keywords as possible. For example, the keyphrase “adult
personals” was punched in by 113,799 people in September. To be in #1
position for this keyphrase costs $1.48. This is a very high price to
pay for a click through and was paid by Match.com… a prime example of
unnecessary corporate waste. On the other hand, the keyphrase “excite
adult personal slide show” was punched in by 6010 people. The cost to
be #1 for this keyphrase is only $.01. So logically, taking the
initial time to setup 20 keywords with that kind of popularity and
cost would get you the same amount of people clicking through to the
site at 1/148th of the cost. A substantial difference.
Other companies offer different ways to drive to traffic to your site
such as Digital Media who guarantees 100,000 targeted click-throughs
for $689 (This comes out to $.014 CPC, an excellent price).
The following projected prices assume the average CPC rate paid will
be 2 cents.
Projected Initial Cost: $20,000 for the first 1,000,000 visitors.
Projected Ongoing Investment: $20,000 for each 1,000,000 visitors.
Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Outside of paying for ‘sponsored links, the only way to get
click-throughs through search engines is to gain a high rank in them,
preferably in the top 10. This is can be done internally but it is
recommend to outsource the services to a company that guarantees to
place certain keywords in the top 20 results of the more popular
search engines. Doorway pages as mentioned earlier will play a large
part in this strategy.
Cost-Per-Impression Web Banner Advertising
With cost-per-impression advertising where you are paying so much
money every time the banner ad is shown. The average rate is $500 for
100,000 page views. At a 1% click through this comes out to $.02 a
click, but this is not guaranteed. This kind of advertising is not
highly recommended until other avenues have been thoroughly worked
through.
Print Advertising
Not recommended except perhaps in magazine like Yahoo Internet Life.
Press Releases
When the site is initially launched there should be a press release.
This should be outsourced to a professional company such as
http://www.ereleases.com.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a popular way for companies to advertise on
other sites. The concept is simple: Other companies agree to put your
advertisement on their site. If someone click on the link, they are
either paid on a Cost-Per-Click(CPC) basis (usually $.01 - $.02 per
click) or they get a percentage if someone purchases a membership at
the site. Note that CPC sites are more popular among webmasters
seeking affiliate programs than percentage-of-sales programs. A great
example of a highly successful affiliate program is Nerve Personals
which you can find on such popular and high profile sites such as
Salon and The Onion. This is a highly developed affiliate program that
is well integrated into each site it is on. They also have a specific
target audience.
There are 2 ways of setting up an affiliate program. The first and
simplest is to outsource it to a company like Linkshare
(http://www.linkshare.com). The main benefit is that this is a
turn-key solution. It is relatively simple to set up and they are a
very popular source for companies looking for affiliate programs for
their site. You don’t have to worry about marketing your affiliate
program to webmasters as Linkshare takes care of that. Webmasters are
also more likely to trust the click through statistics from a third
party like Linkshare than from a company that is running their own
affiliate program. All customer service including the monthly sending
out of checks, disputes, etc is taken care of by Linkshare. The
downside is that you have to pay for the Linkshare services.
The other option is to build your own affiliate program which takes
time and effort to put together and maintain. It is recommended to go
with a company such as Linkshare.
Phase 7: Day to Day Operations
• Daily testing of the site should be routine during the first 6
months.
• Keeping the database clean and working well is crucial. It should be
continually monitored closely. An estimate 40 hours a month will be
needed for maintenance.
• Visitor Logs should be recorded and analyzed regularly. The results
can be compared to the current marketing campaign to find out what is
working best.
• Affiliate Program (and other marketing) Statistics should be
recorded and analyzed regularly and changes/adjustments made.
• Marketing will always be needed.
Customer service
• 24/7 Customer support should be available via email. Emails should
be promptly answered. Good customer service is very important.
• 9-5 phone support should also be available to paying customers.
• Some new member will need help writing their profiles. This can be a
free service at first and could be eventually offered as a ‘premium’
service.
• Each photo submitted should be automatically submitted to an image
optimizer, cropped, resized and optimized for the web.
• Each ad submitted should be checked for spelling and grammar and
inappropriate language. . Filters can be set in place to weed out a
lot of the profiles that have inappropriate language. An automated
email system could notify the creators of these profiles that their
profile has been rejected. Well written profiles are very important.
• Ads without photographs should prompt an email to the user asking
them to mail a photo if necessary. Photographs are very important and
the site should offer an inexpensive or free scanning service for
those who wish to send in photos by postal mail.
Add-Ons
Sub Sites Based on Interest/Fetishes
The main site should be broad enough to try to appeal to everyone.
After it is completed it would be relatively easy to make smaller
sub-sites based on individual interests/fetishes. These can either
have their own domain like
www.planetvegetariansingles.com)
or have a subdomain such as
vegetarian.planetsingles.com
Either way, they can be housed on the same server with no additional
hardware expense.
Doing this has several advantages. One is that subsites are more
likely to develop ‘stickiness’ (return visitors) because all the
visitors there immediately have something in common. For example, if
someone is determined to find a vegetarian mate they would have a hard
time at a regular singles site where eating preference is often not
even on the questionnaire profile. But if they go to
www.planetvegetariansingles.com, 100% of the people on there are
presumed to be vegetarians. Also, there is more of a sense of
community on these smaller sites. Things like message boards will be
much more likely to be used.
The important thing about these sub-sites is that they are graphically
designed and written to appeal to the particular subset of people it
is targeted for. The front end should be different for each one. As
an example, for a swingers site you don’t want a picture of a couple
walking on the beach holding hands. These sites can use the same
backend of the large main site. Also, their look can be modeled on the
main site as well with different photos, colors etc. based on which
sub-site it is substantially lowering the cost of development.
Of course one of the best things about sub-sites is that you can do
highly targeted advertising for them. There are very specific web
sites and other media that cater to people with these interests. These
people will be much more likely to be interested in a web site that
caters to their sub-culture.
Every time someone joins the site as a member they will automatically
be joining the main site as well (unless they specifically ask
otherwise by unchecking the box). Also, users from the main site, will
be asked if they would like to join any of the sub-sites that are
operational. If yes, they can be asked additional short questionnaires
specific to that site and they will be listed there as well for free.
Membership in any of the sites (sub or main) should automatically mean
membership in all of the sites. This will be a great incentive for
people to join.
Some ideas for sub-sites:
Younger Women and Older Men (and vice versa)
Swingers
African American
Asian American
Hispanic
Asian Brides
Russian/East European Brides
Latin Brides
Polyamorous
BDSM
Herpes/HIV/SIDS
Indian
Regional
Pagan
Catholic
Jewish
Christian
College Students
Seniors
Vegetarian
Matching/Compatibility by Horoscope
Professionals
Millionaires Club (see http://www.millionairesclub123.com for example
of this)
Athletic/Active
Handicapped
Projected Man Hours for each one: .
Front End Design: 80 hours
Writing/Editing: 60 hours
Creating Advertisements – 20 hours
Back End Work - 20 hours
Total: 180 hours
Other Expenses
Stock Photography - $200
Foreign ‘Sister Sites’:
This would entail porting the entire site over to a server and
translating and redesigning the front end to appeal to that country’s
singles. The site could still be operated remotely by the main sites
engineers, but there would probably need to be established a foreign
office for customer service for the site. This could be a virtual
office, but the important thing is that the customer service personnel
speak and write the language fluently. A specialty company such as
Global Reach could be used for foreign marketing.
Basically, the entire front end design needs to be done over. The
entire site should be translated by someone living in that country.
Costs will vary, with some countries being very inexpensive and others
like many European countries that cost the same as here.
Projected Man Hours:
Front End Redesign: 80 hours
Translating/Writing/Editing: 60 hours
Creating Advertisements – 20 hours
Back End Work - 20 hours
Total: 180 hours
Other Expenses:
Stock Photography - $400
Development and Cost Analysis on a Per-Month Basis
These are based on recommendations. Costs may vary depending on
hardware/software used and other choices. It should also be understood
that the growth projected here is shear guesswork. Figures like that
are impossible to project accurately. Because the projected members
directly impact the projected revenue, these numbers can in particular
be debated. Man hours are also a guess, but are more likely to be
accurate. Still, there can be many unexpected complications that arise
in a project of this size and time consuming problems are very common
when developing web based applications. These are all educated
guesses.
Man Hours have been listed here instead of salaries as costs may vary
depending on other incentives (percentage sharing, etc). Also note
that the amount of money spent on marketing is open ended. With an
effective marketing campaign, the more money spent, the more visitors
to the site and ultimately the more paying members. Count on spending
at least $10,000 a month in addition to marketing man hours and in
this case, more is always better.
Month 1 – High level design
• Researching, thinking, writing and blueprinting
• Strategic partnerships are sought out
Number of Profiles: 0
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 200 man hours (1 person f/t)
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 2 – High Level Design and Developmental Groundwork
• High-level design finishes up
• Server space is procured
• Developmental groundwork begins
• An initial ‘opening soon’ page goes up with the purpose of
collecting profiles.
• Customer service is procured and trained
• Marketing begins
Number of Profiles: 0
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours high level design and groundwork (1 person
f/t)
50 hours marketing (1 person p/t)
50 hours customer service (1 person p/t)
$25 server rental
$4,000 (If using MS SQL Server) $400 (If using MySQL)
$2300 Artwork/Stock Photography
$10,000 Contest Prizes (optional)
$3,000 Marketing
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 3 – Front End and Back End Development
• Web Templates are designed and sent to programming team
• Database is developed
• Programming the site begins
Number of Profiles: 10,000
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 400 hours programming
150 hours front end development (1 person f/t)
50 hours marketing (1 person p/t)
50 hours customer service (1 person p/t)
$150 server cost
$3,000 Marketing
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 4 - Front End and Back End Development
• Site text is written and edited
• Database is finished and put online
• Programming the site continues
• Site testing and revision
Number of Profiles: 20,000
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 400 hours programming
150 hours front end development (1
person f/t)
150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
50 hours customer service (1 person
p/t)
$150 server cost
$3,000 Marketing
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 5 - Front End and Back End Development
• Finish up basic back end development
• Site testing and revision
Number of Profiles: 40,000
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 200 hours testing and revising site
150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
150 hours customer service (1 person
f/t)
$150 server cost
$5,000 Marketing
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 6 - Testing and Site Launch
• Testing is finished up
• Marketing is increased
• Site is launched
• Site is monitored very closely for errors and problems
• Logs are recorded and analyzed
• Customer service is monitored closely
Number of Profiles: 60,000
Number of Members: 0
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (1 person
f/t – 1 person p/t)
100 hours tech work fixing problems
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
$10,000 marketing
$3000 load testing
Monthly Income: n/a
Month 7
• Another server is added at the 100,000 member mark
• Customer service continues to be periodically spot checked from now
on
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 100,000
Number of Members: 100
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (1 person
f/t – 1 person p/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
$4,000 software ($400 if using MySQL)
$10,000 marketing
Monthly Income: $2,000 (based on $20/member)
Month 8
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 150,000
Number of Members: 200
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (1 person
f/t – 1 person p/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
$10,000 marketing
Monthly Income: $4,000
Month 9
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 200,000
Number of Members: 400
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (1 person
f/t – 1 person p/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
Monthly Income: $8,000
Month 10
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 300,000
Number of Members: 700
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (2 people
f/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
Monthly Income: $14,000
Month 11
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 400,000
Number of Members: 1,000
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (2 people
f/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
Monthly Income: $20,000
Month 12
• Marketing and day to day operations continue.
• Site functionality ‘add-ons’ can also be considered.
Number of Profiles: 500,000
Number of Members: 1500
Monthly Expenses: 150 hours marketing (1 person f/t)
200 hours customer service (2 people
f/t)
40 hours database maintenance (1 person p/t)
$300 server cost
Monthly Income: $30,000
