This article focuses on how you can take the “Facebook Clone” with phpFox social network script and take it to the next level by customizing it. Our phpFox Neutron script is a great starting point for any type of website, however, you’ll want to put your own unique spin on it in order to compete with other sites out there. The great news is that our script is highly customizable and most things are done right within the AdminCP. Read on for details on how to achieve success with customizations for your social network!

Before we jump right into the nitty-gritty details of how to customize your site, you might want to read our article about Niche websites as it has some tips on it. As we have so many options to customize your site, we’ll go into a few of them here but we do recommend you check our documentation for all of the tutorials there to help you learn how to use the phpFox script.

AdminCP Customization Features

This part of the article does require you to be logged into your AdminCP and it would be good to have the documentation open if you don’t know how to use the settings.

Themes

Our phpFox script has a great Theme Manager that allows you to create and edit your themes. It also allows you to add third party themes from the store, right from the comfort of your AdminCP so you don’t need to leave your site to add them.

Though our default Bootstrap theme looks nice, changing the look of your site is an important way to make it stand out from everything else out there. As you would not want to edit a default theme, we provide all of the tools you need to create a copy of it, or to use other themes you might find in the store.

Our documentation has a lot of info regarding Themes and how to work with them.

Menus

Menus are also easily managed right within AdminCP in our Menu manager. It’s a good idea to arrange your menus how you think your users will find them easier. Most used things first and least used things last or even removed. You might also want to change Menu names to match your niche. Small details like this can really help your site stand out above your competition and make your users feel more comfortable on the site.

Phrases

Phrases are another easy thing to manage in AdminCP, via the Phrase Manager. By changing the default Phrases to match your niche, your site will become much more than a “Facebook clone” and will be a customized experience for your users, further propelling you far above your competition. Use your creativity to make your site unique and focused on the niche you’ve chosen. Pokes, for example, could become Prayers on a religious site or even Honks on a car site. Anything is possible within the Phrase Manager.

Third Party Customizations

Perhaps you have other ideas for your site and they aren’t covered in the default phpFox script or in the store. In this case, you need to seek the assistance of the very talented third-party developers at our Developers area of the store.

Each developer there has a profile and ratings/reviews so you can see what other clients have to say about their work. Each developer there has experience with the phpFox script and are the best choice when seeking customizations for your site. You can see what apps/themes/languages they have and their reviews on those as well. This can help you when choosing someone to use. Perhaps contact a few of them today to get a quote for what you want to be done.

With customizations, you can really skyrocket your site to a whole new realm of possibilities and transform your “Facebook clone” into something amazing!

Disclaimer: For any of the third party developers listed, we’ve not received any compensation for them appearing here, it is just a general listing and not endorsements or official recommendations. It is a courtesy listing only and for informational purposes.

#website #phpFox #socialnetwork #facebookclone

A Niche can be very important in distinguishing your website from the billions of sites already on the world wide web. This article will focus on how to build a Successful Social Website with Niche Markets.

First, let’s define what a Niche is.

Merriam-Webster defines Niche as thus (note that we only took definition 2(a and d) as it applies to this article):

a :  a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted <finally found her niche>

d :  a specialized market

As you can see above, a Niche is basically a focus as opposed to being just a general site with no focus at all. Niches can be anything that you choose to focus on for your site – as item “d” above says – a specialized market.

Many people want to be just like Facebook©. Frequently, our phpFox script is called a “Facebook clone script” because it has so many similar features that allow you to make a site similar to Facebook. Since it wouldn’t be good to copy Facebook, as your users are probably already on it and won’t see a reason to use another site exactly like it, a Niche is what you need.

Now that we know what a Niche is, we can focus on using a Niche for your website. “But, how do I find the best Niche,” you may ask.  It’s a good idea to focus on things you have experience with, that way you can generate content for your niche and provide great information to engage your users.

Business/Professional Expertise

A great Niche can come from your work. Whatever profession you have experience in can also make a great idea for a social network for business professionals. Just look at LinkedIn for one example of a successful Niche type of site. LinkedIn is a “business-oriented social networking service” ~wikipedia. Its focus is on business and business contacts – professional networking. You can make a successful site based on your business experience and expertise.

Hobbies

Hobbies make a compelling social network idea as you get like-minded individuals sharing ideas, tips, etc. One Niche that comes to mind is Etsy, but that’s more for shopping for handmade items. However, since it does have a specific focus (niche), it’s a good example. Pinterest is another one, very popular Niche site for sharing ideas. You may ask how is Pinterest a Niche as it has so many different things in it. It started out focusing on ideas. Sharing ideas. That’s a type of a niche as it is focused on a particular topic that people are interested in. It has grown from that to be for all kinds of sharing, but, it started as a focus.

Perhaps you like painting, pottery, sports, RC cars, etc. There are so many hobbies that you should be able to find a hobby niche and make a great site with it.

Education

School alumni sites would be a good social network Niche site. You can find many popular college sport’s fan sites but there are other Niche sites you could make. Perhaps something for teachers, parents, homework help or tutoring, fraternities, etc.

From the above ideas, you should be able to find a great Niche, something that your site specializes in, that you can use to succeed with your website. Make sure it’s something you are interested in as you’ll want a lot of content to start your site.

Facebook started as a Niche site as one example of how successful a Niche can be. As this Wikipedia article shows, Facebook started as a Niche for college students. We all know how successful it became just from starting with that one focus, college students. As of the last statistics, it has about 1.65 billion users. Not bad for a small Niche start!

Chances are if you have a passion for something, someone else does too. Whether it’s the above-mentioned topics, or fetishes, phobias, causes or politics, etc., you can make a successful social network site from Niche Markets.

How would you do that? Well, the phpFox script has a lot of ways you can customize your site. For a niche, you might want to change the default phrases to match your niche. For example, let’s say you made a niche site for people that like medieval stuff.

• Site name: Medieval Marvels
• Menus: Marketplace changed to Shoppe
• Forum – Tavern
• Feed – Ye Town Crier
• Phrases changed from “you” to “ye”.

You get the idea. You would want to change things in the site to make the user feel that they are “in” that niche when on your site. Make them feel at home and make your site unique so that they keep coming back for more because they can’t get what you have on other sites.

You can make a very successful Niche site by putting a little effort into making it unique, focused, and with content to keep your users coming back. Adding content is critical to a site’s success. Write some blogs, forum topics, post photos, whatever you can do in order to keep users on the site. Once they are there, they tend to naturally want to contribute and so your site will grow from that. When they do contribute, encourage them more by posting comments or “liking” their posts. You’ll find that the more they are encouraged, the more they come back and also, they will invite their friends, family, etc and help grow your site.

As we mentioned above, Facebook started as a small niche focused just on one particular college and grew to a mega-huge success. If you take your passion, expertise, and creativity, you too can have a successful Niche site. It all starts with a dream! Get started on your dream today with phpFox social network script – the best social network platform.

#socialnetwork #facebookclone #website