SocialGO Blog

HotRodFriends.com is a network dedicated to hot rod and custom car enthusiasts and is hosted on the SocialGO platform. Members meet at the site to share their latest photos, videos, and news relating to the world of these machines.

The smooth, clean design of the site is right on brand with the content - amazing what a simple platform and a little custom CSS can do! Members utilize the forums to talk about anything from their favorite car to car parts for buy or trade. The Photos page allows members to easily upload and share photos with one another, neatly and vibrantly organizing them onto one simple page.

Using the Groups feature, HotRodFriends has created places for members to connect with each other around their favorite cars. Each group is dedicated to an individual car and can be public or private; if the group is private, members will need to receive an invite or request to join. The group functions like a mini-site within the main site and has its own chat wall, photos section, and full forum with possibilities for endless threads and discussions. You can even send group-wide messages so only those in the group receive them.

HotRodFriends.com is the online place to visit for any hot rod fanatic - the neat design, colorful and numerous photos, and knowledgeable community are only a few of the elements that will make it a success.

Jason Fox had a clear goal when creating Harlem Space - he wanted a space to present the latest in entertainment news and also events geared toward teenagers and twenty-somethings in the New York City area. Jason found SocialGO a fitting platform as he “wanted it to be a social network so that viewers could interact with the content I was providing.”

“The set up was easy, and it offered a lot of freedom as far as creativity”, said Jason. The site is colorful, captivating, and on brand with Jason’s vision - lots of pictures and videos are available for viewing in the site’s Photos and Videos tabs, and the Video Roll widget, exclusive to SocialGO networks, presents Harlem Space’s extensive video collection in a new and exciting way - it keeps the site content ‘fresh’ by randomly displaying unique videos from the site’s video collection. Each presentation is different, and members love the way they are constantly presented with fresh material to view. (You can watch a preview video of this widget, courtesy of our friends at Widget Laboratory, by clicking here).

With a number of social networking platforms on the market Jason chose to use SocialGO as he found the platform beautifully laid out and simple to use. He tells us, “I prefer SocialGO to other networking sites because the design is more intuitive, and I’m looking forward to the new and upcoming features.”

Harlem Space is an outstanding example of vibrant, fresh design and smart branding. With social networking a significant part of today’s culture, it is an effective, immediate, and affordable instrument to reach your target audience.

An interesting article from TechCrunch appeared recently on the value of today’s social networks. This value is determined from something more than unique visitors and page views, but also the average internet advertising spend per person in the country they live in. The greater the advertising spend, the more value the social network can get out of the user. According to the article, that means that, for now, users in a handful of specific countries are worth far more in terms of revenue potential than those in the rest of the world.

Have a look and see if this applies to your SocialGO network and target demographic. Don’t forget you can check out part one of our recent workshop on Affiliate Marketing by clicking this link - there are some great pointers on how to make money by advertising on your network!

Here is the full text by Michael Arrington…

A year ago we modeled out the true value of various social networks based on the idea that users in high-value online advertising markets like Japan, the UK and the U.S. were worth more (financially speaking) than those in lower value online advertising markets. Facebook had recently become the largest worldwide social network in terms of users, but based on our model MySpace was still by far the most valuable social network.

We’ve now remodeled social network valuations based on current user numbers and Facebook’s most recent $10 billion valuation. The results are dramatically different.

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The Theme Store is now live in your http://my.socialgo.com/ Admin Center

Watch this short video…..

We are delighted to announce the opening of our SocialGO Theme Store! Our new Theme Store allows you to add great new third party themes to your network. These themes are a way of completely changing the visual look and feel of your network - instantly. They’re great if you want something distinct and professional.

To find the new Theme Store, log-in to your network Admin Center at http://my.socialgo.com and click on the Theme Store tab, located next to the Widget Store tab at the top of your network.

You can then browse the themes and even preview what one will look like on your network by clicking on the Preview Theme button. You will need to be logged into your social network before the preview will work.

The current range has been created for SocialGO by Ezra from ProSocialGO.com.

If you want to use a theme, please make sure you have a Premium SocialGO account. Get the Premium plan free for one month by registering today at http://signup.socialgo.com/

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SocialGO are excited to announce the launch of the SocialGO Affiliate Program, an easy way to earn money from your network based on a simple referral basis. For each person who signs up for a paid SocialGO network through your site, you will earn 50% from the first paid month and 5% for every month thereafter. Yes, it really is this simple - there literally is no limit as to how much money you can earn from this!

All you have to do to start making money is cut and paste some HTML advertising code to a prominent location in your network, or even your own website, and as soon as people start clicking on your ad and creating a network, you’ll start to make money! To see how to do this, read this tutorial

To register for the program, head over to http://affiliate.socialgo.com and enter your details. You will then receive an email with your user name and password; simply log in, copy the banner code, and paste it into your website - you are now ready to race!

If you have any queries in regards to the program, please write us at support@socialgo.com.

This is an amazing and direct opportunity to earn money from your site, so be sure to take advantage and get signed-up today!

ROK ICT! was designed to help the city of Wichita’s local artists, musicians, actors, and dancers connect with each other and promote themselves to the public. It was also designed as a movement to foster a sense of pride and to generate activity throughout the city’s arts community by showcasing the talent of local creative professionals and the vibrant lifestyle of their community.

Jared Brickman, owner and executive director of ROCK ICT!, says he wanted a social network ‘because we are a community orientated business, and we wanted a platform through which anybody in the community could participate in the exchange.’

Citing SocialGO as having been the perfect choice for this, Jared tells us about the simplicity of which he was able to create the site, ‘I was able to build my SocialGO network to fit my appearance and functionality needs within a few hours of development time.’

An important and much-needed aspect of their network, and one that is included with any SocialGO plan, is the ability to utilize the publicly editable events calendar. By going to the Events tab of the network, members can create and notify their community of an upcoming event - they have the ability to include details such as the date, location, and time, to include photos, and to engage in discussion on the event’s ‘Wall’. Members can inform others if they plan to attend the event and get an idea of who else might or will be attending through the ‘Attendees’ and ‘Might Attend’ listings.

‘My favorite part of using SocialGO is how organized and streamlined the administration tools are. The interface is not overdone, and it is easy to use!’, says Jared. The administration tools Jared speaks of can be found in your network’s Admin Center. Recently added is the Admin Center Toolbar - this is a standard feature for all SocialGO networks, and a video illustrating it can be found here.

With a fantastic design, a member base bursting with creativity, and a genuine ardor and devotion for their local arts scene, ROK ICT! will perpetually continue to be the headquarters for creative Wichitans.

You control your network through the SocialGO Admin Centre which can always be found at http://my.socialgo.com, or by clicking on the Admin Centre link in the sidebar to the left, or by clicking on the Admin Centre tool bar located at the top of your screen.

Inside your Admin Centre you have a range of configuration options, allowing you to get things just right before you start inviting your contacts to join.

To get started there are some key areas you may want to look at in the Admin Centre:

Read More…

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Global Mountain Biker is a social network designed to house those who have a passion and purpose for mountain biking. Over a thousand bikers from around the world assemble at globalmountainbiker.com to easily share photos, videos, and stories of their rides through diverse terrain - from the wildest nature reserves of South Africa to your local city’s park trail, there is little landscape these riders have not blazed through.

Craig Dutton, owner of the network and professional photo journalist whose work has appeared in such magazines as Runner’s World and Men’s Health, felt uniting enthusiasts with a SocialGO social network was logical as ‘It’s like a forum on steroids. A social network is the ideal way to bring people together and to get them communicating.’

For those seeking additional and more specific customization, members can quickly and easily create individual groups using SocialGO’s ‘Groups’ feature - this allows them to localize the social networking aspect to a particular area of mountain biking; this ranges anywhere from a specific trail to those who prefer to bike downhill. The ability to build discussion through the group’s own blogs and forums is also advantageous as it gives more depth to the site and encourages more interaction.

On the topic of easy customization, Craig says, ‘I set up Global Mountain Biker in a couple of hours. The platform was easy to understand, and the tools provided were very helpful. The whole SocialGO concept is amazing and enables average people to set up any social network they want.’

With mountain biking a sport and hobby enjoyed the world over, coupled with a rising consciousness among people to get and stay fit, and with a uniquely customizable and interactive network, Global Mountain Biker has secured its place in the sea of sites devoted to sport.

SocialGO is pleased to announce the release of the much-anticipated Widget Store.

Watch the following demonstration video (6 mins)

The team has been busy developing the new SocialGO Widget Store which is now available in your network admin center. The Store allows you to browse and add a variety of free and paid widgets to Premium SocialGO networks. Each widget adds additional native functionality instantly like video chat, games, visitor maps and more!

Because widgets are integrated at the platform level, rather than through Open-Social, they become true “white-label” features of a site. Their integrated nature improves the user experiance to bring value and uniqueness to each site compared with typical external widget offerings which look disjointed and out of place and typically inconsistant with a network’s overall look and feel.

Check out WidgetLaboratory, our first official third-party widget supplier for more info on their existing and upcoming widgets.

The Widget Store works with SocialGO’s advanced Layout Manager, which we launched last month. The Layout Manager allows you to drag and drop any element of your network and now allows you to place and configure your selected widgets.

The Widget Store will continue to increase the range of modules that can be dragged into your network and is the latest step in creating a flexible, rich platform for building social websites in minutes.

Every widget is different, ranging from the professional to the silly, but all always designed to increase the engagement of your network. The widget store will be playing a central role in the future development of SocialGO as the widgets grow and improve and you guys give us feedback on what widgets you would like to be developed.

We would also like to invite you to an online workshop this Thursday, 14th May, where we will introduce the Widget Store. Please visit the ‘Workshops’ tab on the SocialGO Owners’ Network to learn more and answer any questions you may have.

If you want to receive further updates from us please follow SocialGO on Twitter!

Got any questions? Just drop us an email - support@socialgo.com