How I built a social network platform for (aspiring) entrepreneurs/startups with no code
Julien Meyers
4 replies
I always thought I needed a technical cofounder to execute my web related business idea.
My goal here is to show that even without any technical skills, one can build very cool websites.
As a non technical guy, I unsurprisingly chose wordpress.
There are are actually several social networking plugin for wordpress:
https://www.peepso.com/
https://www.buddyboss.com/
I think that they would have both worked out for me but I eventually opted for Peepso. I started with the free version and then upgraded (199$) to be able to add useful features to the website:
- A job board,
- A marketplace,
- A built-in messaging app.
Concretely:
- I watched plenty of Youtube tutorials. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPduBmmvz4U
- I checked the videos on peepso Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@PeepSo
- I searched through their documentation. For example, to override the text of some of their pre-built pages.
- I contacted their online support when I was stuck.
The plugin is not perfect and not 100% flexible but I always found some workarounds and after 2 weeks I got an operational website I was happy with. I worked on this early in the morning or late in the evening.
https://ideaness.org/ is a platform where (aspiring) entrepreneurs and startups can:
- Publish and explain their business projects;
- Share their entrepreneurial journey;
- Give updates about what they are working on, their progress and difficulties;
- Connect with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs;
- Look for other motivated persons with a complementary skillset;
- Sell their products/services on our built-in marketplace.
The idea is that it is difficult to start out a business and in many cases one is not surrounded by a supportive entourage. One needs to overcome many obstacles during a project and it can be tough to remain motivated.
I am convinced that many entrepreneurs go through this process and that it would be useful if they could have a platform where they could connect with like-minded individuals.
Replies
Erick Philbert@erick_philbert
Very nice idea Julien, it seems promising.
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Massive kudos to you for taking the no-code route and proving that there are efficient ways to bring an idea to life without a tech background! Your platform sounds like an invaluable resource for budding entrepreneurs. Out of curiosity, how do you plan on driving traffic and encouraging active participation on the platform?
Ideaness
@barryzheng568 Thanks for your nice comment and the relevant questions.
Here is my high level plan for driving traffic with a low marketing budget:
- Writing posts while respecting the rules about self promotion on: the relevant subreddits, cofounderslab, product hunt, quora,...
- Launching on other platforms. Unfortunately I had not prepared enough before launching on product hunt.
- Contacting brick & mortar startup incubators in my region.
- Improving my SEOs.
- Running facebook ads => in last resort.
- Looking for a digital marketer as a cofounder.
So far I got around 1000 unique visitors and 60 registered members.
Here is my high level plan for engaging the users:
- Some kind of gamification where users get points for being active and rewarding the early adopters with a small share of equity.
- A marketplace where early adopters can sell their products/services without commission forever.
- I share my own journey on ideaness.org and ask the members for feedback.
- I ask the current members what they like and what they would like to see in the future.
- I send a weekly mail digest with the highlights.
- Posting valuable content that make the members react.
Let me know if you have other ideas :)
If more people are interested, I share my journey here:
https://ideaness.org/groups/?ide...
Cheers