Life abroad

It all started with the fact that I started thinking about where I would go to live. I wanted to move somewhere close to a warm climate, in one of the European countries, where you can move without being a millionaire. I began to study, read ... and then I realized that I lack a site where I could find information about any country, talk with people who already live there and those who are planning to move. Of course, there is not one forum and blog in each country - but such a site that would unite all Russian-speaking
Emigrants - I did not find this. And what I found did not completely satisfy my needs.

That is why I decided that you need to make such a site. About this site and will go on.
')

A brief outline of the article. You should read this article if you want to find out:

1. About the project
2. A few words about the "design" and a little about the technical stuffing.
3. About where and how I advertise and what resources were the most effective.
4. About monetization
5. The story about where I am moving and why it is there.
6. We are looking for moderators.

about the project

I'll start with the name of the site. For about two weeks, my friends and I came up with a name. The first thing they decided - the site should be in the zone. Com. It is prestigious, promising, etc. And all the popular social networks in this area. Even the beloved / hated (underline the necessary) contact on vk.com gets over. But it turned out that there is a problem with the choice of name. After all, as you know, this is the oldest and most popular zone. Most
delicious titles were taken. Began to think about what should be in the title. We thought that the site is about people and about countries. From here people and accordingly countries have taken. And they combined these two words.

It turned out - peopleandcountries.com - and fortunately - this domain was free. Hurray, move on :)

The site I wanted to do with a social focus. So that people can find each other in any country, including the district and the city. That there were photos, blogs, ratings, personal messages, groups and other things of social orientation. That is what I began to create.

A few words about the "design" and a little about the technical stuffing.

All this was a long time ago. Last year. 12/11/2010 - the date of registration of the domain. After this 3-4 month, I checked various engines. Initially, the social engine 4 social networking engine was delivered. Month 2 was tested, set up. I understood that for this engine initially huge resources are needed. On an ordinary VPS, I only slowed down when there were 10 people online! The engine, of course, is good ... but such voracity upset me. Because the project is a start-up (i.e. money is not enough, but I want to do it)
from this engine. Although time was spent significantly. But it would be worse if we decided to start on it.

At that time I was very depressed and disappointed - so much time was wasted. But ... then Habr came to the rescue! I came across an article about social networking engines. It was there that I learned about the Chinese (!) "Discuz!" Engine. I found the Russian localization , read about the license of the engine (you can use, if you do not remove the copyright, and if you remove - the wild value), I realized that it suits me.

Tested ... and began to dig again. Fortunately, this turned out to be what I needed. Well, of course, I finished what I could, I made integration with Facebook (there was a kind Chinese fellow, who
made a module that I translated and integrated into my site). By the way, during this time I began to understand a little Chinese and Chinese :) Which is also useful.

The “design” was also made by me (not by the designer) “on the knee”. But all this is secondary. It is important that it work, not be too scary and repulsive, I decided. After all, the most important thing is the demand for a resource. That the topic was interesting, so that people would come in, register, communicate, etc. After all, when means appear - it is always possible to improve the project - this is how I reasoned and reason to the present. And I think this is the right thought for a startup. The main thing - to run, check
performance ideas. And then - to improve.

So, the site is running. Now you need to attract an audience. The hardest part was at the beginning. Here I made a few mistakes, which I promptly fixed. The mistake was that I wanted "all at once" - i.e. develop immediately in all countries. I rushed about this for about a month - there were no results. After that, I decided to focus on Bulgaria and the Czech Republic .

About where and how I advertise and what resources were the most effective.

I tried a lot of different tools: advertising on twitter, facebook, vkontakte, directadvert, advertising from bloggers, Yandex - direct, Google - AdWords, SEO, on specialized websites for directions. Checking returns through www.google.com/analytics , metrika.yandex.ru and liveinternet.ru.

Briefly write on each.

Twitter microblog advertising is effective, but very short-lived.
Facebook turned out to be one of the leaders in terms of efficiency, the cost also turned out to be very attractive - qualitatively and not expensive.
Advertising VKontakte - the quality of traffic is lower than from Facebook, the price is more expensive. Apparently due to the fact that the audience is younger than the one that is needed for my project. On average from 25 years.
Directadvert is an interesting option. Something like contextual advertising, but it looks like news on sites. More expensive than social networks, but a good conversion is obtained, recorded.
Advertising with bloggers is effective. Short-term effect - a large number of transitions at once. And over time, it gradually falls, but it does not reach zero. Bonus - SEO effect.
Yandex is a big traffic, low price, but low percentage of conversion from visitors to registered users. Compensated by low price.
Google is the most unexpected failure. Low traffic, expensive conversion is close to zero. Maybe I cooked it wrong, but the results are not pleased.
SEO - for new projects - is tight. But this is a promising channel. Therefore, work is underway and a small effect is already there.

To summarize , in terms of price / quality for our project, the most effective was (to my surprise) Facebook. The second is direct from Yandex. The third is advertising with bloggers. All the others are about the same. The worst are AdWords from Google. Perhaps this information is useful to you :)

Pro monetization

What are we going to do when the site runs at full capacity? Where to get the money and so on. This question, as a rule, is always of interest to habr-people, so I decided to tell about it.
We will sell ads for each individual country. Services of companies for legal support for relocation, companies selling real estate, a specialized business aimed at Russian-speaking audiences, tourist firms, hotels, avia-auto-zhd-carriers and other business aimed at this industry. In general, there is someone to take the money;) And, not least, these companies are already accustomed to the Internet.

The story about where I am moving and why it is there :)

Perhaps the reader will be interested - where I decided to move. I'll tell you about it. I am moving to live in Bulgaria . From the east it is washed by the Black Sea. It borders with Greece and Turkey in the south, with Serbia and Macedonia - in the west and with Romania - in the north.

Why Bulgaria? Because:

1. Sea
2. Next to Russia
3. Real estate is cheaper than 2 times in comparison with Russia
4. Prices for cars are lower times ... sometimes 4 (!!!) than in Russia
5. Prices in general. For products - below. For rental apartments - below. Prices are generally lower for almost everything. It seems apart from gasoline and cigarettes :)
6. Language. People over 35 mostly know Russian, says the forum about Bulgaria . Learning Bulgarian is easier, because there is Cyrillic, just like us. Many words are alike.
7. Making it legal to live in Bulgaria is easier than in most European countries.

But about moving to Bulgaria, I think, I will write in detail separately. I think this information will always be interesting and relevant.

We are looking for moderators.

If you live in one of the foreign countries, if you are interested in being a moderator on our project, if you are an adult and intelligent person, you are welcome! There are many countries for which we are still developing. For example, in the USA, France, Turkey - and so on. Each may have their own reasons to be a moderator.

If you have any wishes, questions, suggestions, I wait in the comments.
If you have found some kind of mistake - waiting for you in PM :)