Tech Dummies: Create a Membership Site on Ning

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For those of us who are technically challenged, Ning provides a great opportunity for you to have a membership area to help you build or cater to a specific niche following. Here's a quick tutorial about it:

What Is Ning?

Ning is a free service that allows users to create a social network on any topic. From fashion to parenting to web design, this is a way people are connecting with others who share similar interests.

In order to create a successful social networking community on Ning, a marketer must first understand the difference between social networking and social marketing.

Social marketing is an attempt to sell something such as a product (eBook) or a service (ghostwriting) whereas social networking is all about people interacting with one another and forming relationships.

These relationships will prove beneficial to you and your business later. For one, you'll gain an inside perspective on your audience's everyday life. You'll quickly be able to differentiate ideas that will and won't appeal to your target audience.

Establishing Your Presence

In order to establish a successful web presence on Ning, you must tie the community into your niche. If your target audience is young mothers, then you wouldn't create a community for middle-aged businessmen seeking a career change or vice versa.

You can establish your Ning community as a helpful resource by creating discussions aimed particularly at beginners. Going back to our previous example, if your Ning community is focused on reaching young mothers, then you might host a discussion on common mistakes every young mother makes and how to avoid those mistakes.

If your audience is more advanced (such as expert web designers) then you could post discussions on favorite programming languages, the best programs to use and job listings.

Open or Closed?

Most Ning communities are open to the public, allowing users to visit the site and "get a feel" for it before deciding to join. Other Ning communities are closed to the public. Non-members may view basic information from your Ning community, but they won't be able to view members of the group or private content.

Your privacy settings are permanent, so carefully consider the pros and cons of an open community before joining Ning. If your information is sensitive (extra content for your paying members) or your community will need to feel safe (such as women escaping abuse), then you may want to choose a closed group.

Finally, remember that as your budding group begins, you must keep it updated regularly by inviting members, uploading media, prompting new discussions and participating in chats.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jared Alberghini
    Hey Tiffany,

    I've also been doing some research on social network software, I've checked out Ning.com, (which seems like a GREAT provider to create your own social network) and a quite a few other services...

    My favorite 'host your own' open source software...

    have you heard of elgg? Elgg.org I just installed it and have been fiddling around with it... I will post my findings here...

    - Jared
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    P.S.

    Join The Future: Telekinetic Marketing

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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaGM
    Hi Tiffany,
    Actually for Ning, you could keep it closed. Meaning, anyone who clicks on your link, zzz.ning.com, would only see the sign in page (or sign up if they want to).

    I have used Ning for my church's music team. I set it up, played with it and have learnt how to enable or disable public viewing.

    God bless!
    Josh
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