Creating a Chat Platform: 10 Tips for Developing a Professional Chat Portal

Everyone is familiar with online chat portals such as Discord or Slack. A chat portal allows users to communicate with each other while typically offering additional features. Modern platforms, for example, also allow users to create their own server and chat rooms and assign access permissions. In addition, voice chat is often enabled and you have a multitude of settings available. Chat portals are primarily used by gaming communities, but also by teams and groups in companies, etc. If you are planning to create your own chat platform, you will find seven expert tips in this article to help you succeed with your project.

The Essentials at a Glance

Which Online Platform Would You Like to Create?

Examples of Well-Known Chat Portals

What Exactly Is a Chat Platform?

A few years ago, the ICQ platform or the IRC network was all the rage when it came to chatting with large groups, but the trend has since changed. Chat platforms have replaced these options. The market leader and probably best-known provider for casual chat today is the Discord platform. It is free and offers users the ability to create their own servers, user groups, etc. This has led to Discord being used by a wide variety of communities and users. YouTubers, MMO and gaming communities, guilds, etc. are represented here. 

An alternative to Discord is the Slack platform. It is comparable to Discord but is primarily used in the business sector. Slack offers a free plan with very basic features. However, if you really want to use Slack and integrate it into your own infrastructure, you cannot avoid a paid plan. The problem with such portals is that they are very inflexible. You have to accept the functions and possibilities that the platform provides. 

Nevertheless, it is a lucrative and booming business. For this reason, there are continually new projects in both the private and business sectors that attempt to break into the market. The purpose of chat platforms is clear: they are meant to enable users to chat. In addition to text chat, they usually also offer the option of voice and video communication. Furthermore, many chat portals also allow users to share their screens and, for example, live stream events.

Messenger is the classic example of a chat portal.

Tips for the Successful Development of a Chat Platform

There are many reasons to create your own chat platform. Some of these you have already encountered in this article. You have also learned that this endeavor is a very complex and demanding project. Thorough planning and preparation, as well as sufficient capital, are important factors. In this section, we present our expert tips designed to help you succeed with the development and planning of your online platform on the Internet.

1. What Type of Chat Portal Do You Need?

There is a wide variety of different online portals. They differ in their features as well as in their complexity. Moreover, there are differences in how the platforms are structured. Many simple portals can be found, for example, as plugins for popular CMSs like WordPress or Drupal, while more complex systems usually have to be custom developed.  

The first decision you must make when creating an online platform is regarding the type of platform. Should it be a basic platform with simple features? Or do you perhaps need a platform that is a bit more sophisticated? For professional and paid portals, you usually cannot avoid a complex platform, as ready-made solutions and plugins are typically insufficient in terms of features and flexibility.

You must therefore consider in advance what goals you want to achieve with your portal and which functions the platform should or must fulfill. The decision you make here will also have a lasting impact on the costs. 

The more complex and extensive the online portal, the higher the effort and, accordingly, the greater the required capital. If you plan thoroughly from the outset, you can save money right from the beginning of your platform’s development.

Before you continue with the development of a job platform, you need to be clear about what type of platform you want to create and where it will be used. In many cases, a simple or medium-level platform is sufficient. Only in truly special cases is it necessary to have a complex auction platform developed from scratch.

2. Financing Your Chat Portal

The next important step you need to address, which is directly related to the point mentioned above, is the financing of your online platform. The development of your portal is costly and requires expenditures that you must cover for its development, typically without the platform generating any income. Financing is therefore an important factor to consider. 

Essentially, there are two possibilities. Do you have the necessary capital to have a platform of this kind developed and are you willing to pay the resulting costs out of your own pocket? Then you can, of course, get started immediately and begin with the development of the platform, with nothing standing in the way of the project launch. 

In most cases, however, you will not have sufficient capital, but only a partial amount available. In this case, you must look for other ways of financing. One option is banks and credit institutions, which generally grant loans to companies without any problems. An alternative, in particular, is crowdfunding.  

This means you present your project on a crowdfunding platform such as Patreon or Kickstarter and have interested parties finance the development in the form of pledges. For this option to work, you need some of your own capital and must create a prototype of your platform. Additionally, you need to attract potential investors with information, videos, and marketing, convincing them to support you financially. In return, the backers receive something from you. This could be a free membership or a free listing on your platform, or something else. Here, your creativity is required. Essentially, anything that can excite customers or investors is possible. 

Keep in mind that particularly sophisticated chat platforms with video chat, screen sharing, etc. require many resources, especially bandwidth. Additionally, there may be an increased need for storage space if you allow users to upload and share documents and videos on the platform. These factors significantly affect the costs and must be taken into account when financing.

3. It’s Time – The Starting Signal for Your Chat Portal

Once you have developed a concept for your online portal and secured the financing, the starting signal can be given. Now it’s time to get down to business and the development of your job platform begins. It is important to work with a professional agency like Shopboostr. We have accompanied the development of various online platforms, online shops, and other applications several times and have been experts in the field for years. However, for the development of your online platform to be successful, you must consider a few things. The most important of these points are: 

• An excellent idea: Why should anyone invest in your project?
• A strong development team that will program the platform.
• A team for community management and community building.
• A well-written whitepaper that details your project.
• Professional marketing on specialized portals and in social media.
• A strong management team.
• A professional agency that implements your ideas and concepts.

Discord is a chat portal with a specific focus on gamer communities.

4. Your Idea and Its Implementation – The Chat Platform Becomes Reality

For your project to be successful, it needs an idea. This means you must solve a problem or offer a service that is interesting to customers and convinces investors to invest in your project. Moreover, you must consider that there are now many competing platforms of this kind on the market. These have been in operation for a longer time and offer a wide range of services and features. In many cases, numerous ideas already exist. Your idea is almost certainly already represented, so you must make it clear to investors why they should invest in your platform rather than a competitor’s project, or why they should choose you. 

It is best to ask yourself whether you would invest in your own project and why, or whether you would opt for your own platform or choose another one and why. Look at the problems faced by other projects, especially those with a similar or identical offering to yours. Then consider how you want to solve these problems and outperform the competition. You will then be on the right track. The field is highly competitive, and there are many competitors.

In some cases, it may be necessary or sensible to specialize in a particular area. For example, you could focus on a specific demographic or professional group, such as public service employees, students, etc. This would give you a significant edge compared to the numerous general platforms. Additionally, it could allow you to become an expert in the industry.

5. Start Small with Programming

Developing a complete online platform is very complex and extensive. This is especially true if you want to have an advanced online portal custom-built. In this case, you cannot use a CMS or existing software and adapt it for your needs. This means that sometimes very high costs arise. This is also because many CMSs are open-source and can therefore be used for free – you only pay for the individual customization. In the case of an advanced platform, however, everything must be created from scratch. Programming therefore consumes a large portion of the budget.

We therefore recommend that you start small. Develop a prototype and the basic structure (MVA) – everything you need to promote your project and attract investors. Once you have achieved this goal, you can use the prototype to secure additional capital, with which you can continually expand the prototype. Avoid trying to perfect everything from the very beginning. In the worst-case scenario, you may end up without capital and without investors because you do not have a prototype that you can use for fundraising and marketing.

6. Assemble a Team of Professional Programmers

For the programming of your online platform, you need an experienced team of professional programmers. The implementation of your portal and its underlying technology are complex areas. Accordingly, you require various developers who not only master different programming languages, but ideally are also familiar with the respective industry or community. 

Just as the project team and advisors must convince investors, your programmers also need to persuade them. The best ideas mean nothing if you lack the ability to bring them to fruition. Experts and investors in the field are well-versed in this area and will particularly pay attention to whether your idea can indeed be implemented by you. For this very reason, a prototype can be particularly useful. With it, the programmers can demonstrate their expertise in practice.

7. Assemble a Team of Partners and Experts

Before your platform can go live, you need to assemble a professional team. You will need administrators to handle new members, registrations, and, if applicable, certificates, etc. You also need IT personnel who maintain the platform and handle security as well as technical issues. Additionally, you may need community managers, etc. But most importantly, you must have a competent network of experts. This includes, for example, companies that advertise on your site, advertising partners for financing, payment providers such as Stripe or PayPal that enable your visitors to pay directly through the website, API and bot developers who automate your chat, etc.

The Most Well-Known Chat Portals

There are already a multitude of online portals in various sectors on the market. They usually already have a diverse customer base, as well as partners and collaborations. Therefore, it can be difficult to gain a foothold with a new, private platform. Convincing arguments and features that competing platforms do not offer, as well as a specialization in specific areas, are useful strategies to overcome this challenge. 

Analyzing these platforms and their projects or offerings gives you insight into the competition and what projects already exist. Additionally, you gain insight into various online portals, their structure, and their features. With many platforms, you have the opportunity to register for free or try out the paid features during a trial period. We recommend taking advantage of this offer. This is the best way to learn about the offerings and possibilities of the competition.

Slack is a well-known business chat platform.

Simple, Complex, or Advanced? What Makes Sense?

When developing an online platform, as you have already learned, you have various options. You need to decide on a concept or model. Is a simple or a complex platform sufficient? Or does it need to be an advanced platform? And which platform makes sense? 

We cannot give you a one-size-fits-all answer to this question in this article. It depends on the project, its features, and your individual plan. In most cases, in our opinion and based on our experience, a simple or complex platform is sufficient. These already come with many features and cover all the important options. A custom, individually developed platform is required only in the rarest cases – namely, when the existing simple and advanced solutions cannot provide the required features, nor can those features be added later.  

We recommend that you seek expert advice for this decision right away. Shopboostr is your expert for auction platforms, online shops, and other online platforms. Our team is happy to provide individual and non-binding advice, and if desired, we are also ready to accompany you with your project. Simple, straightforward, and from the start.

Conclusion and Summary

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