What is the average cost to have a social networking website design for us, like Facebook/MySpace?

Lemons: What is the average cost to have a social networking website design for us, like Facebook/MySpace?
We are looking to start a business for a social networking website, similar to Facebook/Myspace. We want to get an idea of how much it would cost to get the website design, hosting, and any other costs associated with running an online company. Thank you.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Christopher L
Not only would the website design be expensive, as it will take alot of scripting and coding to make a social networking site, such as codes to upload pictures, comments etc. Also hosting would be very expensive as you have to have alot of web space, almost unlimited traffic etc.

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Answer by jrpatel
not a whole lot,,,
$ 100-120 for hosting service per year
free-$ 250 for ‘Facebook/Myspace’ script, depending on what you website you want to look like, one time fee
$ $ $ $ -lot of money for advertising…your biggest expense
trust me that’s about it.

Answer by Xiongky
Other than hosting, you can do the rest for free. There are many tutorials that can teach you how to do those things. It would take a lot of time and effort, but if you’re willing to put in that time and effort, you can save money. Otherwise, you can pay people to do it for you. Advertising can be expensive, but you could probably easily make up the cost by advertising other businesses on your website. If it ever got very popular, to the level of Myspace/Facebook, you could charge a lot of money for advertising space.

Answer by The Web Man
For a professional facebook or myspace website written from scratch, you’d be talking about £250,000+.

I don’t think your going to get a unique “free download” script for that sort of thing.

Answer by Rasmah.com
if you talking about spical system for you like facebook it will cost you 30,000$ , with designed but without hosting.

Answer by katy
you have to have your own server and …no, go to sitepoint and pick one already done.You will see the price and all they have. Sitepoint.com |Marketplace
 
 

Answer by TK
you would have to be running many servers. the network has to be safe so you also need scurity. it would pay of in the long run so i think its worth paying the money.
or you cam always get it free here on this link its the same thing like myspace and face book

https://www.ning.com/
you should thank me i just saved you lots of $ $ $ $ $

Answer by Cal
I have a similar site to Myspace but with alot less features (which I will add as I get more members). I used Dolphin, which is a free program, but you have to pay for each extra feature, so all in all, the whole program with all the features would cost around $ 1,000. I don’t know how much someone would charge to install it though. Im not a designer but I would charge $ 50-$ 300 for no design to basic designing.The site itself is free if you don’t mind having a Dolphin ad at the bottom of the screen, without all the cool features like mp3 uploads, video uploads etc. The basic free site has member profiles, picture upload, classified section, I believe Instant Messenger (may be an extra though, I havent tried to set it up yet). You can worry about servers once you get the members and transfer over. If you are starting out small then that doesnt matter now. Nobody is just going to instantly have the amount of members Myspace and Facebook has right off the bat.