6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Ning membership site vs DIY?

by adamfdotnet
5 replies
Hi all,

What is the general feeling of the IMers here on creating membership sites. Do you always go on your own or have you used sites like Ning?

There seem to be some good pros and cons:

Ning
Pro: all setup and ready to go, can monetize, feature rich, trusted support, little back end work needed, less expensive
Con: all data exists on their servers, still work to make the site look like your website, company could go away and take all your business with

DIY
Pro: all control of site in your hands, huge possibility of customization, customer data in your hands
Con: lots of back end work (finding plugins, troubleshooting, etc...), less technical support

I am leaning towards DIY, but Ning has some serious benefits... especially the part where I just login, set it up and let it run (with a hell of a lot of features).

Thoughts?

-Adam
#diy #membership #ning #site
  • Profile picture of the author adamfdotnet
    I have to say, it doesn't seem exactly clear how much you can monetize your Ning site. Anyone have experience with building one that they have generated revenue with?

    -Adam
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4852332].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AdwordsMogul
    Are you talking about a membership site, or a social networking site?

    For membership, I tend to be DIY because I find most solutions to complex to do what I want.

    Depending on what you're looking for, DIY for social networking isn't as hard as people make it to be - but it does involve a lot of coding.
    Signature
    "Those who can - DO IT. Those who can't, say it's impossible."
    Jean Paul a.k.a AdwordsMogul
    PHPDevelopers.net - Top of the range PHP developers

    ⇉ Easy Link Saver - Are you tired of the pain of constantly searching for your affiliate links? ( Chrome extension - FREE )
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4852347].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author adamfdotnet
    I guess for me a social networking site is an extended/more advanced version of a membership site.

    I guess DIY makes sense starting small with very basic features, then moving to something like Ning if things get bigger.

    Nothing worse than a lame social networking site. :-)

    -Adam
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4852408].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ebusinesstutor
    I created a Ning web site for our nonprofit Nanaimo Astronomy Society back when it was free.

    Then they went to a paid model where we would pay $24.95 per month. We kept it because it really is a lovely system and moving to a new one would be difficult.

    But when they finally came up with the long awaited module where we could finally sell a paid membership, they wanted another $25 per month for it. So this made it very expensive for a non profit group. I find Ning works on the wrong features first and charges extra for features that should be part of the package.

    Overall, it is a nice system, but I think if I were to start from scratch, I would use BuddyPress and do it in Wordpress so I have more control.
    Signature

    Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
    Internet Mentorship
    Internet Marketing Speaker
    Internet Marketing Help Blog

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4853678].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Henshaw
      Personally, I've never used Ning, so I can't comment.

      You do though seem a little vague or confused about what your business focus is:-

      I guess for me a social networking site is an extended/more advanced version of a membership site.
      They are COMPLETELY different.

      Personally I think that you need to do a little more research into exactly what you want to focus on. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I'd hate to see you go down one path, when another might be the one that you should have followed.

      Just my thoughts,
      Jeff.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4853753].message }}

Trending Topics