How to build a premium social community with Social Engine 4, AVChat 3, HDFVR and Zuzubooth

I know it’s been a while since the last post and I’m not trying to find excuses. This article comes after a long period of developing on Social Engine and these days I just found out it fits like a charm for one of my projects.

I will try to help you build from scratch a Premium Social Community in just a few hours.

1. What you need

Social Engine 4

Is one of the most advanced social network platforms that helps you build so easy your own social network. It also includes billing support (You do want to make money with your website, don’t you? :) ).The base price is $250 (without additional plugins which you might be interested in) and you can purchase it by clicking the image on the left.

AVChat 3 + AVChat 3 Social Engine Module

AVChat 3 is AVChat Software’s flagship video chat software. It supports rooms, emoticons, admins, YouTube videos, and much more. Its price starts at $130/one time fee (1 Year Free Support & Updates Included – Buy AVChat 3 Lite now). AVChat 3 Social Engine Module is a native Sociale Engine 4  Module for AVChat 3. It will help us install AVChat 3, set up different chat settings and personalised user-level permissions in Social Engine. It costs $49 and you can buy it here.

HDFVR + HDFVR Video Profiles Plugin

HDFVR is an HD Video Recoder for websites that helps you record videos with your webcam and save it on your website. Its price start at $195 / one time fee (1 Year Free Support & Updates Included). Buy HDFVR SD Version here.

HDFVR Video Profiles Plugin for Social Engine 4 is a plugin that helps you record your own Social Engine Video Profile and costs $49/ one time fee (1 Year Free Support & Updates Included).  Buy HDFVR Video Profiles Plugin for Social Engine 4 here.

Zuzubooth

ZuzuBooth is a snapshot taker that will make your website a fun place to hang out, your members will create more content and you’ll see a rise in discussions over the new content between your members.

Zuzubooth comes also as a plugin for Social Engine 4, it installs as any other SE4 Plugin and it’s very easy to use.

It costs $39 and you can buy it from here: http://zuzubooth.com/socialengine

Total Cost

Product	Price
Social Engine	$250
Albums Plugin for Social Engine	$40
AVChat 3	$130
AVChat 3 Module for Social Engine 4	$49
HDFVR	$195
HDFVR Video Profiles Plugin for Social Engine 4	$49
Zuzubooth for Social Engine 4	$39
TOTAL	$752

I know there are cheaper alternatives, but if you want to offer premium quality and save alot of time (and development costs), it does worth.

2. How to install everything

Each product has it’s own installation guide, thus below you will the links to each installation guide:

• Social Engine 4: http://www.socialengine.net/support/documentation/article?q=125&question=Installing-SocialEngine
• Social Engine 4 Albums Module: http://www.socialengine.net/support/documentation/article?q=180&question=Admin-Panel—Manage–Packages–Plugins
• AVChat 3 (Only Step 1 from the installation instructions is necessary here): http://avchat.net/support/documentation/avchat3-installation
• AVChat 3 Module for Social Engine 4: http://avchat.net/support/documentation/socialengine
• HDFVR + HDFVR Video Profiles Plugin: http://hdfvr.com/documentationse4
• Zuzubooth for Social Engine 4: http://zuzubooth.com/socialengine#1

With all the above information, proceed to installation and configuration, and once you finish, move to the next step.

3. Setup Member Levels

By default Social Engine 4 comes with 5 Member Levels:

• Public: It represents unregistered users who browse your website without being logged in. This level cannot be deleted.
• Default Level: Most of your website users will belong to this member level.
• Moderators: You can select users from the Default Level or any “Normal” Member Level you created and grant them moderator permissions by adding them to this member level.
• Admins: This member level has access to the admin panel. It can be deleted.
• Super Admins: represents the member level with the highest privileges. By default, your admin account is assigned to this Member Level. This level cannot be deleted.

3.1 Create a new member level

To create a new member level, follow these steps:

• Login as admin and go to Admin >> Manage >> Member Levels
• Once the page is loaded, you will see a link Add Member Level. Click it!
• A new page will open with the Create Member Level Form. Fill it following the displayed instructions and save the new Member Level. (See the image below).
  

More about Member Levels and guidelines you can find here: http://www.socialengine.net/support/documentation/article?q=155&question=Admin-Panel—Manage–Member-Levels&aff=mihaif

4. Setup billing

Starting with version 4.1, Social Engine introduced Billing Support with two payment gateways: 2Checkout and Paypal.

4.1 Setup a Payment Gateway

• Login as admin and go to Billing >> Gateways and edit the Gateway you want to use.
• Follow the instructions displayed, fill the form and save changes (See the image below).

More about Social Engine 4 Gateways here: http://www.socialengine.net/support/documentation/article?q=176&question=Admin-Panel—Billing–Gateways&aff=mihaif

4.2 Setup a Subscription Plan

To setup a subscription plan, please follow these steps:

• Login as admin,  go to Billing >> Plans and click on Add Plan
• Fill the form and save the subscription plan. Please see the screenshot below.

In the image above, I created a $9,99 Monthly Subscription Plan, but you can create one (or many) to better fit your needs.

More about Subscription Plans, you can find here: http://www.socialengine.net/support/documentation/article?q=177&question=Admin-Panel—Billing–Plans&aff=mihaif

Let’s see what we have by now: All the modules are installed and running. We have a payment gateway set, a payment plan and a new user role for paid users. What we need now is to make you website even more attractive so that users stay and pay for your website.

5. Configure AVChat 3 for Default & Premium Members

The first thing you might be interested in, is how to make your users pay for a Premium Membership. From my experience, people in chat want the most the chat can give and exclusive access.

Here is a small list with some useful tips:

• Create a passworded room where only Premium Members can enter, chat and broadcast audio & video. (Use the Drop in room setting from Manage >> Member Level AVChat 3 Settings to automatically drop users from the Premium Level into it). Make sure that this room is visible for the Default Level, but not accessible.
• Limit Free Video Time for Default Level (let’s say to one hour – this will also reduce the bandwidth usage and optimize the server costs) and offer Unlimited Free Video Time for Premium Members.
• Allow only Premium Members to Upload Files to Chat
• Allow only Premium Members to Create Rooms
• Allow Premium Members to view more webcams from other members than the Default Members.
• Allow only Premium Members to send Private Messages.

6. Allow Users to Record their Own Video Profile

As you probably know by now HDFVR and HDFVR Video Profiles adds a cool feature to your website. Studying our current clients, I saw that the adoption rate is above 80%, which is incredible.

As soon as your users will start using it, a video profile will become a “MUST HAVE”.

It is very easy to use. Once installed two link will appear on your website: Record a Video Profile and View (my) Video Profile.

Take a look, try it and see how your users will react.

7. Allow Users to Take Snapshots with Zuzubooth

Another awesome feature is to offer the possibility for your users to change their profile picture on-the-fly. With Zuzubooth you can allow them to take a snapshot directly from your website and Save it as profile picture or add it to the Zuzubooth album. Adding a snapshot to the Zuzubooth album is possible only if you have the Social Engine Albums Module installed.

Zuzubooth can generate more content, your members will stay longer on your website and you can increase your members loyalty.

8. Conclusion

I tried to explain here the basics of building a premium social network. Building a website from scratch using the software above should not take more than a few hours.  How does it sound to you? :)

If you have any questions or you just want to leave some feedback, just drop me an email to mihai@avchathq.com or use the contact form.