MyCigarFriends - Social Networking Site

[KevinG]

Here's my new social networking site for the premium cigar market. I decided to build on my strengths in this area. (More on the old site later.)

http://www.mycigarfriends.com/

It still needs some development work to make it more user friendly.

I have Aria Giovanni doing promos and cigar instructional videos for me. I'm assuming if you're on this forum, you should know who she is, but just in case ... she is a former Penthouse Pet and well known adult model.

What's really cool is that she smokes cigars in real life, so she is not just a "paid poser".

You can see her welcome video beckoning you to join and there is a link below that for her first instructional video, "How to Cut a Cigar". We just filmed "How to Light a Cigar", but I still have to get the editing done.

What is cool is that I have proven that I am not cannibalizing my other cigar site's business. This site is still very new. I haven't done much SEO and haven't bought any traffic. Currently, the main source of traffic is from banner ads on my other cigar site. Both sites have free sign ups to be part of the community. The membership base has very little crossover. So, people are landing on Cigar Review, and not signing up, but they click through on the banner to MyCigarFriends and they DO sign up.

That means I am gaining a new additional audience that I was losing before.

Here is what is important about having social networking in your marketing mix. (This is some of what I presented on the Internext Marketing Panel a few weeks ago.)

Everyone gets fixated on MySpace and Facebook.

I am not talking about having a profile on MySpace. I fucking hate MySpace. Niche Community Sites are the Key to Making Money

Facebook and MySpace are social networks in name only. Social networking is really about identifying with a community that is built around a specific topic.

The problem with the social networking destinations like Facebook and MySpace is that they're not about anything - they're about Facebook and MySpace.

Instead, smaller sites with a narrow focus gain visitors that have a strong interest in a particular field of content.

Any site can include social networking features such as profile pages, blogs and the ability to upload and share photos or videos. But those features aren't enough to build a community - Community Sites Need a Common Bond to Make Money.

Next week I will be starting development on a fetish social networking site for a client, http://www.marquisamerica.com/.

For anyone that needs a site like this, I am available for hire.

[DannyCox]

I agree with the niche based Social Network sites. I have a few, all non-Adult, that do very well. I have advertisers approaching me to purchase ad space on the sites, and as these are all larger international companies, they pay well. I just bought a small ad in a related print magazine to get the word out, and the advertisers followed!

I just never link to them on anything to do with Adult. I run them under a totally different company and on different name servers than my adult stuff. I learned a number of years ago with one of my travel networks never to tell a single soul about them. I shared once with a "friend" who ended up spreading the word, and as word spread in my travel community, the site died.

[jdog]

Well I'm glad to hear that niche sites work better, as I thought they did. I'm currently working on a non-Adult one too based around Manga. But it's more of a social networking/service site. Just a lot of data entry that I have a few people working on and hoping to have beta launch later this year, early next year.

Scoped out any competition prior to doing and there's a single other manga site that closely resembles what I'm doing but it does not include the services that I'm going to launch with it and what I'm going to expand out too. So good news to hear from both of you.

By the way Kevin, really like the site and if I was more into cigars I might join. But I only have a cigar a year maybe and that's usually when somebody else has them and tells me to try one because they have good tasting ones. Other than that, I don't know anything about them. But it looks great!

[RawAlex]

Kevin, great idea, but I think the cigar thing is about 5 years past it's best before date. You might be better on "my football friends" or "my nascar friends", something that has a slightly wider appeal and some long term stick to it factor.

Niche social sites certainly do have a place.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Kevin, great idea, but I think the cigar thing is about 5 years past it's best before date.

Are you fucking kidding me?

You must not be aware of my established site that happens to have the same level of traffic as Cigar Aficionado that makes an average of $5 - $6,000 a month?

http://www.cigar-review.com/ is a professional online magazine as opposed to the many part-time hobbyists with blogs. We have staff writers with their own columns, and professional photographers. We have a rotating panel of cigar reviewers that do blind reviews each month. You can see an example of how we publish our reviews here:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=734&Itemid=2

Gary J. Arzt, formerly of Cigar Snob Magazine has moved his monthly column to Cigar Review.

Cigar Review has an events calendar and ranks #3 for 'cigar events' in Google. We attend events and report on them. You can see coverage of an Alec Bradley event here:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=689&Itemid=2

We have beginner articles, a database of cigar friendly restaurants, exclusive recipes written by an executive chef, "Cigar Babe" photo galleries, and very active forums.

We have a monthly restaurant review:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=710&Itemid=2

We have a new wine column written by the guy in charge of wine education for Robert Mondavi Winery. You can see one of his articles here:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...=707&Itemid=39

We publish breaking news that includes commentary from known industry personalities, such as news on SCHIPS and CRA:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=736&Itemid=2
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=697&Itemid=2

We also do in-person interviews (not over the phone or on email) with company presidents.

Camacho:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...d=740&Itemid=2
Graycliff:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...=645&Itemid=39
Perdomo:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...=626&Itemid=39
Gurkha:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...=593&Itemid=39
EO Brands:
http://www.cigar-review.com/index.ph...=550&Itemid=39

Yeah, I guess I should pack it in and start a football or nascar site, neither of which I follow, know anything about, or give a shit about. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[RawAlex]

Kevin, 5 to 8 years ago, everyone and their dog was smoking cigars. Cigar bars were opening all over the place, heck even porn companies were having their "cigars and booze" parties at conventions. Seriously, everyone and their dog was all over it.

The tide has changed. You are still on a large target market, but it is one that is in decline. Anti-smoking laws in many places have made cigar bars impossible to own (no smoking in public buildings, we have that up here), and the number of actual smokers of anything (including weed, remarkably) has been going down over the last 10 years pretty dramatically.

Like I said, you are on a big market, but you are also on a declining market (stats don't lie). Good luck with your project, you seem to be doing very well with it.

[KevinG]

Alex,

Perhaps you are not aware that I am a quoted industry expert?

Perhaps you should read this article and get better educated on a topic that you seem to just be making assumptions about based on your limited personal experience. I was quoted in the article, on other aspects of the industry, but there are also figures given on national cigar sales and imports that prove you wrong.

This is an article from May 2008.

There's smoke and fire in booming cigar business

[DannyCox]

Cigar smoking was a bandwagon fad for a while, but there still remains many long time purists who were there before, during and after the fad times. These are the people that truly enjoy cigars and weren't affected by the fad. A proper cigar social network could do very well, especially if there is a lot of proper discussion going on.

Well done niche social networks will have a large discussion component about them. Without those discussions, the network just won't last. That is the "content" that brings people back day after day, regardless of the type of niche you are dealing in.

[RawAlex]

Kevin, when most of us quote something, we put it in quotes or credit a source. I read your post, and I see you saying "this" and "that". Sorry I cannot read your mind. As for the content, let's just say that $5-6K a month to support that big of a staff is a losing battle last time I looked, unless they are all doing it for free. Now, if that was the net profit after everyone gets paid a living wage, well... then you might have something to talk about.

As for the article you point to, let me post this important quote:

However, the numbers do not lie: The cigar industry is smokin', according to the Cigar Association of America.

John McCain also thinks the economy is going strong, and the Iraqi information minister would like to talk about some millitary actions.

As Danny said, a social community (regardless of niche) works when there is something in common to talk about. The question would be is there enough activity, variety, and discussable content in the cigar world to justify a social network on it? Would people update their page after every smoke? Would there be an active buy / sell area? Is there a reason why they would want to be part of THIS community (as opposed to a wider "live the good life" community or "Stuff Men Like" community)?

You may want to ask Serge about the profitablity of chatting about wine (last post on that board was more than 10 days ago). That would seem to be about an equally active group, no?

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

You may want to ask Serge about the profitablity of chatting about wine (last post on that board was more than 10 days ago). That would seem to be about an equally active group, no?

So I guess the wine industry is going out of business too based on what you see on Serge's site?

It all depends on who is running the site and how adept they are at marketing. It also comes down to the quality of your content, SEO and many other things.

I don't know if Serge is trying to make money with his site, or if he even cares.

I haven't really counted, but the forums on my site get about 25 - 50 post a day - every day.

Cigar Review also just started a wine column which happens to be written by the guy in charge of wine education for Robert Mondavi Winery. We just have the first two articles up with the third one coming next week.

Wine Tasting Basics

Wine Aromas and Flavors

Is there a reason why they would want to be part of THIS community (as opposed to a wider "live the good life" community or "Stuff Men Like" community)?

That goes against what I have learned and proven in online business. The more narrow your niche, the better chance of success. However, you suggest broadening it and making it more general. Genius! Pure genius!

Oh, and yes, everybody gets paid and I make the previously stated profit on just that one site.

Sorry, but I don't even know what you do, nor what your credentials are in online business in general, and certainly not in the mainstream area of cigars and wine.

[RawAlex]

Kevin, been around this since, well, forever (in porn terms), since the days of xpics, HC, and CE. Seen most of it come and go, both in porn and mainstream.

You didn't address the most important point I brought up: If a site makes 5k-6k a month, and has a staff of 5 plus outside writers, where is the profit, unless the staff work for free?

The point of slightly opening the focus is to avoid the subject burnout. There are only so many cigars to review, so many producers to look at, etc, before people run out of things to say (and a chat board turns into "we already answered that, check this thread" as opposed to a true discussion).

Even by your own comment, cigar reviews is adding a wine section. You better get that stopped right away, you are losing focus! Narrow down some more, maybe you should start "cigar labels lovers", and you could really narrow it down to people who collect the labels only.

[KevinG]

Whatever, you've been around since day 1, big deal. I still have no clue what YOUR knowledge, skills and experience add up to except talking about shit you know nothing about.

You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.

I was at the IPCPR (do you even know what that is?) - the biggest cigar industry trade show in the world, right after my SEO presentation at XBiz in Vegas, two months ago.

So many new cigars are coming out that if you smoked a different every day for the whole year, you couldn't smoke them all.

It's really none of your business who gets paid what and how much I make.

Wine and cigars have always gone together.

Do you have a site that you conceived of, with your own original content that makes money and has over 100 number 1 rankings in Google?

[RawAlex]

Kevin, none of my business how much people make? You brought it up. The point isn't how much you make personally, but anyone (did you ever read burn rate?) have proven that if you are willing to lose an ass load of money, you too can have a popular site.

So 6k a month to run a site with a staff of (appears to be) 5 plus a number of (likely well paid) outside writers isn't exactly what I consider success.

But hey, whatever. Keep going.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Kevin, none of my business how much people make? You brought it up. The point isn't how much you make personally, but anyone (did you ever read burn rate?) have proven that if you are willing to lose an ass load of money, you too can have a popular site.

So 6k a month to run a site with a staff of (appears to be) 5 plus a number of (likely well paid) outside writers isn't exactly what I consider success.

But hey, whatever. Keep going.

You are obviously making massively incorrect assumptions about my cost structure and sales level.

[RawAlex]

Correct me if I am wrong. I can only go by what you post. You posted 5k-6k of income (similar traffic levels to this site) , and at least 5 on staff plus contributors that can't be working for free.

So, hey, enlighten me.