really working D7sites ?

There is many people here theat claims they have working D7 based site with thousands members. Those people dont give pout their site URL but I wandering what sites are they ? DOes somebody know nat least one working and really profitable D7 based site with several thousand of real active members ? Im not talking about that sites with few members or few hundered members with more than half inactive but real BIG site based on D7

99% of them fail. The .9% that succeed fail within a year. The remaining .1% struggle and usually don't amount to much. They certainly aren't getting rich. A few make enough to pay for hosting, most don't. You will have a tough time finding dolphin sites that you can count on one hand that amount to anything mediocre, forget about anything big it is a fictional dream that you would more likely win the lottery than succeed big time with dolphin. You can make a few dollars, but hitting it big is not going to happen.

Yeah.. I think same as you. But than I ask question myself why nobody had any success with dolphin based sites ? I mean I know many veery successfull joomla based sites with thousands of members and big profits but not even one site based on Dolphin. so whats behind ? Is dolphin really that complicated for ordinary people (customers) to use, is it dolphin webmasters incapability to make a business ? or whats the reason that nobody was really successfull with dolphin based site ?

Truer words were never spoken. I pay the server bills with Adsense money from my non-dolphin sites.

About why this is true I have several theories:

1. SEO - Unless you spend a fortune on advertising your site is made or broken by Google.. and Google HATES Dolphin. It has no idea what these sites are supposed to be about. Plus the duplicate content issue with the URLs. If you're on page 15 for your chosen keywords no one is going to find you.

2. Competition - Why would anyone join a new social network with no members? They want to join the site all their friends are members of. How many Facebook clones does the world need? Plus most of the Dolphin sites don't even try to be unique. They even pick rediculous names like "bookfacespace.com".. ok I made that up but there really are Dolphin sites with names similar to that.

Dolphin is a fun dream for people who create sites as a hobby. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Its a big subject with lots of different elements to make the answer!

You could look at it from a different angle.

99% of people have a 'great' idea for a site

.9% will make that site, but then get discouraged at the fact that making it is the easier part, making it work is where the hard work starts...

.1% will get through their struggles and start to see a site that works. 

This applies to Dolphin, Joomla or any other site script...

How much it works though, will depend on who its aimed at, if there is a need for it, if you can support it (financially, time, content and technically), if you have a business plan or if its just left to organically develop, if your site has good income streams, if it has a number of income streams, then a good helping of LUCK and HARD WORK!!!

Some will succeed, most will not.

However, what you do from there is just as important. 

You have to then ask yourself, if you are the kind of person who gives up when faced with difficulties, or if your first idea does not work....

or

if you are the kind of person who will see what some would call a 'failure' and view it as a necessary step in getting to the next idea you have then working that through...

eventually, your ideas get refined, your skill base grows, and you will find the right idea for you that works.

Its not so much about Dolphin, its about the person behind the site that will be the biggest factor in your sites success or not.

The majority of successful entrepreneurs have had more failures than they have successes. 

You have to learn to 'fail forwards' otherwise you don't go anywhere and your ideas become dreams...

In direct answer to your first post though, there are succesful D sites out there, Ive had a number that have produced good money. 

Im just about to launch my biggest project yet which is aimed at a big user base with multiple income streams. 

Its taken 2 years though to get the site and ideas behind it streamlined enough to 'work' the way it needs to though. Its not an overnight thing!

Wishing you every success with your site!

 I've seen only three sites that have done well the two years I've been here.

I won't post because of privacy. One I will post that is listed here, and that I have personally been on at night when the chat rooms are very active, they list 150K members..   www.ustillup.com

If you want to see many Dolphin sites, just use some simple searches,

http://www.google.com/search?q=Profile%20%2B%20%22Info%22%20%2B%20%22Friends%22%20%2B%20%22Ads%22%20%2B%20%22Blog%22%20%20powered%20by%20dolphin&hl=en&noj=1&prmd=imvns&ei=pxV4Tt-eNo6kiQehqoX5DA&start=140&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=548

another

http://www.google.com/search?sa=t&rct=j&q=intext%3A%22about%20us%20privacy%20terms%20faq%20invite%20a%20friend%20contact%20us%20bookmark%22&source=web&cd=94&ved=0CCoQFjADOFo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.duvallocals.info%2Fabout_us.php&ei=lAyxTobZEMuciAeQ4LHqAg&usg=AFQjCNFu7MQ23tLhA61SlefDa4uc6-dKNg

Take a look at these and you might find one that is popular...

i think this is like any other small business, if in fact the site is started as a business. in order to setup a business, you need to have a business plan, and a set of goals. 

many who make this attempt with dolphin, have no plan, no goals, and no financing to achieve either if they had them. 

i am here to say that yes, there are dolphin sites that are profitable, as newton, im not posting those links as a matter of non-disclosure. i know of three sites for one person, he charges a small to medium fee for access to the site, and has >4K members on each site. so you do the math, and if you think that is not sucessful, then please define success? 

All of you need to quit thinking that success is determined by the amount of users.

Mine has a touch over 600 members and is VERY successful.

Most people, most of the time, will not make money with ANY kind of website. For many people though money is not the main indicator of success.

That said, I have been a little surprised that one does not see more high profile sites running Dolphin.

But I am happy to note that I run one that is making me fairly happy. Just over a year old, with almost 4000 members and adding at the rate of 20-30 per day now.

The trick is, I think, to have a business plan and then work the plan. The software, Dolphin, is just a means to an end. I chose D7 because I could see that it'd support my goals better than alternatives. It is a tool and nothing more. IMHO way too many folks get stuck into seeing Dolphin as an end and not a means and it is hard to be effective when that happens.

mscott is correct about the Facebook clones. The trick is to find something that one CAN'T do in Facebook and do it as well as possible. I am not sure but I think that the niche in which I operate is unique on Dolphin and is something of a twist as compared to any platform yet the basis of the business is as common as muck.

You can find a number of large Dolphin site through the search engines; most site operators don't use Unity except for licenses (and in many cases, it's only a development firm working on behalf of a client).

I can easily say that most people who use Dolphin will fail, because there seems to be a lot of people here who have no idea what they want beyond "like Facebook."  I'm sorry, that platform already exists: it's called Facebook, and has been duplicated a hundred times over by others, and they aren't seeing success either (well, the "Facebook of sex" site might be doing well).

It's the niche sites which are more likely to find success, since they're serving an under-served community.  Find something that interests you and dedicate to it (unless that's Facebook).  Be creative, and think outside the box, and finally: success is not measured in terms of how many users on the site, but the level of activity.

I've had to deal with people who wanted to make sites "like Facebook."  I used to humor these people, but really, it's a waste of time, since the site will be in the ground after a month or two.

Finally, I'm not saying Dolphin's the problem.  It's a wonderful platform, but requires vision to be a success.  I've had ideas that crashed and burned, because I was thinking along the lines of those mentioned above (generic, already done to death services).  You shouldn't continue working on generic sites that are finding no success, because you'll only end up wasting more time and money.  It's a hard lesson to learn, and can really hurt.

Tell the owner that the ustillup site have a malware on it. ts off topic put just a note.

It's clean for me, and a scan shows nothing.

We are under construction to our Dolphin website.I read all the posts and i agree with the fact that if you don't have a business plan then you just create something with not much hope.

Also Nathan is right 100% you Can not create a Facebook.It is already created.All you have to do is first of all specify the market field and and the target group you are referring to.

I read somewhere that Google hates Dolphin.Well i am not very sure about that.Maybe it is because most people think that tags and a a facebook like page is enough.This does not mean in any way that you are good at S.E.O or S.M.O and that is why there are experts in different sections.You can not be an expert in everything because you fail.It is easy...You dont know it?Ask the expert.

And by the way there very dolphin sites with success.

I would like to conclude that boonex is a a very strong tool and a very accurate one but in order to help all the developers that using it maybe the boonex company should create some better documents.I think that way the successful website will raise really fast in numbers

I've had a dolphin site for 2 years now, with close to 9000 members.. it's not profitable for me, as I'm only doing it for fun really.. it's getting expensive though, so next year I may start to look to monetizing it.. 

It's an adult site, furriesxtreme.org.. on average I get about 500 members coming to it a day.. so it stays pretty active and pretty busy..