It’s expensive and A LOT of work. You’ll have to compete against the likes of Facebook…ouch. And there’s a good chance that the whole operation might fail…and there goes all your money fer nothin’. I suppose that’s enough pessimism for one day…
The first step is observing. Look at the popular social networking sites. Find common traits of them all and then find their “niche traits.” Learn from them. Discover what attracts people to them and discover the unique traits of that social site that keeps ‘em comin’ back. You will need an original, creative theme and main idea for your own social networking site.
Then, buy a good manual or two on the subject. The free advise pages on the internet are good for general information, but if you want a lasting site, more indepth and professional info will be needed. Ya can’t find that kind of information for free.
Then, once you have done your research and decided on your ninche, go to ning.com and test run the idea. If your site is successful on Ning, you will then want to move your own domain if you want to expand and establish a worthy reputation. Running a professional social site on Ning is like a law firm (or any business) attempting to have it’s website on Angelfire. If you want credibility, you have get your own domain and domain name.