profit

Is there anyone out there making any kind of real money using this program. We've had so many glitches and kinks that we've had to hire three people to work on our faith based social website for us.  We can't get mass email to work, our flash main page photos stay on for weeks and then switch to Dolphins default without any warning, several other issues creep up here and there and we're tired of fixing. Two programmers have said that it's a broken program. We just don't know whether to leave and give it up or if there are real success stories out there.

If you are making any real money with this program, can you send us your url so we can maybe see what we are doing wrong?

Anyone?

Any script, software, program in the World has an issue or more that will need a fix.

Every website, even Ebay, PayPal, Facebook etc.. needs to be fixed every once in a while.

Every big website has at least a team of developers working on that full-time.

And your question does not have any sense for me. Sorry but I have to be sincere.

Is the program you are using giving you success?

Or is you ideas and innovations?

You can tke Dolphin, modify it completely , make a wonderful template, and make a big advertisment...but then? what?

I see many people here making Facebook-like webistes, even in the style...Why? I really want to know why?

I do not know if you are making a Facebook-like website.

But for anyone is doing so, my answer is DON'T! YOU ARE JUST WASTING MONEY AND TIME!

Facebook already exists, Facebook has a LOT of money, Facebook is the result of big minds, big marketing, great coders and fortune.

If you have 500 million to spend to make a Facebook-Like website then I can say DO IT. And maybe you will not have any success.

But if you have 100 dollars, well, let it be. 10000000% Sure you will not have any success!

Stop working on unuseful features.

I work on websites that have more than 100 installed modules and a menu with over 100 items!! Do you really think anyone will be interested in that?

Find new ideas, Good design, Make Dolphin REALLY different and then you will maybe have success and money.

Do not plan to compete with Facebook. Guys listen, you will Loose. I am ready to bid $100.000 that you will loose!

Finally, I said that ! =)

Also use Facebook and Twitter and any other big social utility to make your site ranked and known.

Do not think that if you are on Facebook that will be bad.

You are not a Facebook competitor. Facebook even does not know you exist, you are just little things for it.

So instead of saying Facebook is Bad! Use it for your own interests. Even if you get 1 person from Facebook that would be good!

This is what I think.

Success is made by ideas and genuine mind...and ofcourse you need money too..

When you search for our particular faith/singles, we are also #3 on the 1st page of google. However, and we're not trying to be Facebook at all, we'd just like a program that after hundreds of dollars spent trying to get/keep it fixed and running smoothly, it would work!

So, show me some websites that make some money with this program and I'll be satisified.

yobilab

i guess that that was a full term answer of all questions about dolphin

 i'll be pleased to say that there are none cuz if there is one then you wont know it's dolphin as yobilab said if you want sucsess then work for it .... make dolphin somthing really different even the flash apps modify them.

dolphin is not an open source application just for fun it's open source for you to modify it

and yeah .. please dont dream that you will be in the #3 search result in google under the term "soucial network" cuz there is facebook , myspace ,friendster and so on

it's not about installing dolphin it's about taking it as a core for your web site and go ahead with it

and how can you be a world wide known website with a free script ?? this time i will ask you to show me one

Nazzal,

You need to read my post more carefully before responding. I'm not sure why you sent a reply claiming that I posted that when searching " social networking" in google we come up as #3 on page 1.  What I posted was that when people of our faith search for our faith's singles, we pop up as number 3 on the 1st page of Google.  I never wrote that our page rank was #3 for "social (sp) network". Please read more carefully and try not to be so hostile when replying.

I simply want to know if there are profitable/successful sites out there using Dolphin. If so, I'd love to see which ones they are so that we can try to figure out what we need to do.

I personally know of websites with over 10.000 registered members. 

Someone shared those with me a while ago,because another client was asking the very same question you are asking.

But forgive me, I do not remember them now, but I can assure there are some, maybe 2 or 3.

Also why do you think that seeing a successful Dolphin site will help you?

It is not gonna  help you. It is like saying that by taking a look at Facebook you will understand how to have your own successful site too.

My advise.

Take a look to your competitors ( same other sites as yours)

Take a look the the Meta tags they use and the CONTENTS ( a very important word many people forget)

Start a GOOD seo campaign by trying to be in the same place of your competitors.

This will help you a lot, this is how SEO strategies work at the very begin.

Also study the colors of your website.

Are you sure they are not boring, cold or not matching the contents of your site?

Think very well about the structure of your site. Make it as much simple as you can(imagine you r making that site for idiots, it will work)

Few fields on registration form ( no more than 6-7 password and retype password included)

Use a modern style, we are moving to a very thick style. It is elegant and very easy for eyes.

Make something different. There are many sites with your same contents..Have you ever thought, why I am different? Why will I subscribe this site if I was a member? If I was a member will I really understand what this site is about and will this site be useful for what I am looking for? If yes, why?

the above ones are the very basic things to follow..but this is only the begin to build a successful website.

SEO and SEM are the 90% of that! So hire someone for that. It is always very expensive ( I know because I am a SEO too), but trust me, it's worth if your SEO will do a good job for you.

If you can, hire a local SEO, someone who could look into your eyes and really understand your concept and your target, or find someone that could really understand it even if far from you. (NO INDIA PLEASE)

That's all I can say for now.

Also if you want give us your website so that we can share some impressions.

It is important to know what the others think about your site, do not be shiny, it would be stupid.

Yobi

 im sorry if you didnt like my reply but im not claming any thing all im saying is that if you want to get a nice rank on google then you need to have a really good a unique site .. thats it ..

"I simply want to know if there are profitable/successful sites out there using Dolphin. If so, I'd love to see which ones they are so that we can try to figure out what we need to do."

about that why dont you imagine that face book is made by a dolphin scrpit and what have they done to make it look unique ..

im not saying that you need to copy face book i mean that you need to copy the simplicity of facebook that dolphin doesnt has and so on ..

and again sorry for my reply if you didnt like it ;) and good luck ..

also i have to tell you have faith that you will sucsess and you well .. what ever happens just keep working .. what ver happens just keep improving and if you have only 20 members ask them what does the site need to get better .. r what they would love to see in this site ..

the only thing that dolphin has offered to us is saving the coding time and nothing eles ( im not saying that this is a small thing ) but the rest of the job depend on you and how you imagine that your site would be ..

start by taking out all dolphin templates and rebuiled them by your own .. chnage that silly menu ... change every thing that need to be changed ..

and good luck ;)

Dolphin will not make you money, it's your BRAIN that will make you money. It's all in how you market your site, what keywords/longtail keywords you are targeting, there's just too many factors. You could have the BEST dolphin site on the web setup, but if you don't have any traffic to you, you won't earn. I make money with my site, but not enough yet, and that's because my membership base isn't large enough yet. My suggestion is target LONGTAIL keywords, "christian dating" is a keyword term you will probably never dominate, but something like "christians looking for love", or other longtail keywords will be easier to achieve higher listings in the SERP's. Building and maintaining a site is the easy part, getting the people to your site, then using the right programs/affiliate programs to promote is the hard part.

Don't try to take over a niche, try to take over PARTS of a niche

 I totally agree! 100%

Thanks. Currently we have about 200+ members.  We had one programmer look at our site and said the program was "broken" and recommended we move to another program.  Paid another to do some work, but he's moved his business from Dolphin to Ning network and making huge $$$ and told us to do the same.  

We'll keep plugging away here and see what happens in the next few months.

 the answer is yes, there are productive niche sites that are realizing profit.

are they getting rich, most likely not. as for the developer who worked on your site and said it was broken, then i would say that person was the wrong one for the job.

as for the person who left and went to ning, kudos to him, though dolphin is not the problem. there are other environments, that have pros and cons, are they comparable to dolphin, most likely if you compare feature to feature, then dolphin surpasses all that are open source.

it has been mentioned, dolphin should be accepted as a core, a foundation, and if you have spent money and still have a site that is not functioning then you should ask for your money back from the so-called developer you paid.

battery is dying, back in bit to continue my rant.

Looking forward to the rest of the rant.... good stuff!

 The problem with using ANY open source CMS or Social Networking system, the likelihood of making any real kind of money is extremely slim to none. The list of reasons is enormous, but its the fault of Open Source / Piracy.

• Open Source and Piracy is an invitation for hackers to review and alert others of security holes.
• Hackers instantly know your file structure
• Hackers can easily determine the modules you have installed
• Open Source also is a means of unintentional copycats. This means that 75% sites using the same Open Source will be based about the same general content(dating).
• If you are having to use  any Content Management System, not created by yourself, than Support will always come down to someone else, not you, unless you have enough knowledge to fix ALL found errors.
• Uniqueness is a quality, but its innovation that brings people back. You have to be different from EVERYONE you compete with, period. When the time comes that people have seen it twice, its time to move on.
• Optimization, design, and Search Engine qualities are alot more important than what you might realize.
• Optimization is simply the ability to speed up the load time, lessening server workload, but also giving your visitors a fast response time with every click. No one wants to wait, sometimes a 3-5 second wait, can turn into 3-4 minutes.
• Design and layout needs to be simple and easy on the eyes. Although dark colors are generally easy, it is also customary that dark colors are more relaxing and easily makes surfers more tired.
• What you deem as Keywords, might not be keywords to the majority of the people you are trying to market. Think about how people spell it, such as all caps, all lowercase, slang, proper. 
• When create titles to your pages or writing new content, such as a forum post, try using as many of the keywords as you can.
• Find places were advertising through your signature is not restricted. Most sites do not have a policy regarding signature banners or links. You can find these sites throughout different communities while posting on forums. Also add additional details on out side source profiles.

 Money will always be about those ideas that were created. Nothing less, nothing more. You just can't make money doing what someone else already has been doing. Well, you can make some, but the pot of gold has already had to many hands in it.

My worth,

Voice4Vision

@glad2behere

Do you understand what the people say????

I totally agree with YobiLab, nazzal, ron ....

No system in the world can make money for you!!!!

Only YOU can make money with your ideas!!!!

I'am the Admin of a local community in the city Hamburg, Germany.

We have more than 1000 users but only 100 are active. 

Can we make money with this site? YES! Because the active users like the site!

And we have NO advertising on it! The user voluntarily donate money for the operation of the page!

Check again your content and the sense of your page.

Greetz

Rappi