After some research and experimentation, the choice to use Drupal for a medium-size website community was made based on favorable results in the following key areas:

• support/growth/stability – Drupal is a popular and well-supported product with a passionate community of active development, and also has been integrated into the KickApps social media platform.
• SEO (search engine optimization) – the software has had solid support for urls that search engines love
• themes – while currently perhaps not as extendable and tricked-out as Joomla, the Drupal themes that are available are numerous, and suit the purpose of social networking websites
  • multiple ways to structure pages, allowing for monetization via text ads, banners, and widgets/gadgets
• reputation – Over 2000 websites, including community and international organizations, politicians, and some media sites, are relying on the CMS platform, and it has been recognized by an award or two.
• Modules aplenty – there are new modules each day being released (or updated), and this month a package of modules called Drigg was released to allow similar functionality to Digg.
• cost – free, and getting cheaper!

The steps that would be taken for developing a SNS would include:

1. Setting up both a test domain and the real (production) domain, and installing drupal
2. Configuring the website to have the functions desired, while also thinking about:
   • Types of users (free/paid, regular/moderators/super-moderators) – the platform offers powerful access control to create roles and specify what each role will be able to do – and not do – within the features that are enabled.
   • Features to launch with, and features to roll out later. This would be either due to features that would not work at launch, or features that work at launch but are strategically rolled out in phases to allow for more publicity and announcements.
   • Looking at features coming up in upcoming releases of the software (as of this writing, Drupal version 6 is available in near-final form, and includes in the core package some features that currently are add-on modules).
   • Finding or designing a theme that allows the vision for the site to be implemented.
3. Having some test members sign up (on either the test or real site) and work out the issues, and finalize the terms and conditions for members.
4. Set a launch date in the future, and work out a plan to get momentum for that date.  An alternate strategy is to simply soft-launch when everything is working.
5. Pre- or post-launch, set up profiles on the major social networking and bookmarking websites, with information and links to your site.  Also set up an external blog (either your own domain or using a free site such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com), and publish informative articles and blog posts.
6. Market your website using traditional PR methods, and new social media methods.  Find out where the people are who would be looking for the community you are building, and engage in conversations with them.
7. Determine how you will stay up to date with the latest modules and Drupal core updates.  Having a test domain may come in handy to try out new features and upgrades.
8. Continue to listen to the community on your website, including via polls and surveys, as to what they like and don’t like.  Be prepared to adjust your website as the community grows and becomes better-defined.

Here are some key links to continue your info-gathering on Drupal:

• The Drupal page on Social Networking Sites
• Some other ideas for Drupal modules to include for your SNS
• Netsquared article – Drupal for Nonprofits, or, How to Build Social Networks for Change, which includes a section titled “When to Use Drupal — and When Not to Use it”.
• The folks at Lullabot have information and also a podcast that heavily features Drupal tips and techniques (current Drupal-based site operators might want to listen to #46 “New Features in Drupal 6“)
• An article – “How to Set-Up An Interactive Social Network Site That Draws Hundreds Of Daily Unique Visitors“

Post your comments with any additional information on Drupal, or on building SNS’s and growing them.

Here are some links to assist with blogs and monetization. In the video the service Aweber is mentioned, and it is one of (or perhaps the) largest list management companies for small businesses/marketers. Aweber allows you to set up multiple lists, and separately put in your blog’s RSS feed to send every post automatically to your list. Aweber allows you to pick the template look used to send the blog-to-email-list emails, or other emails.

Picking keywords might help if you are looking to tweak your posts to attract targeted traffic, or to have advertising relative to high-paying keywords be displayed. The Wordtracker service has a free trial to try their service.

A popular blogging platform, Wordpress, has both software and blog-hosting services. You can get the software, themes, modules, and other items at WordPress.org, and you can get a free blog which may rank well in search engines at WordPress.com. Speaking of Wordpress, the next video shows many tips of using Wordpress blogs, and driving traffic to your business:

Most bloggers who are trying to monetize their blogs will already be aware of the information in these videos, but as with all tips & techniques, seeing the information can provide new ideas, or provide motivation to do more in your own efforts.

The third video is titled “Make Money Blogging”, and discusses benefits of blogging in that the customer controls the syndication (versus email marketing and other push marketing). It also discusses getting started (hosting), driving traffic, advertising, getting content (current events are one that always has worked for content), and to bring your personality to your blog.

Side note – if you do not have a domain name, the website PCNames has gained popularity for domain name brainstorming with it’s effective web 2.0 interface. With recent controversy about major registrars who may be reserving names that it’s customers search for, as of the time of this writing, PCNames states that it does not store the names that are searched for using it’s interface.

To continue your information-gathering on this subject, future related posts on this website will be tagged with Blogging or Monetization (or other emerging terms).