DEPRESSING!

[Armani Rouse]

EVERY NING SITE I VISIT LOOKS THE SAME...I THINK IM DONE CREATORS :(

[Josh Hall]

Complete crap. Yours might look bad but don't generalize.

[doone]

Here is one that is interesting and different, it even has a very good looking dashboard!

http://wellkunnected.com/

[Damien Hannah]

Personally, I think Well Kunnected looks great.

Would you like my opinion?

For myself, when I consider what should be on my network, I have to consider, "what is my target? What kind of members am I looking for, what will my network provide, what is relevant?"

These answers are sortable for me as I am focused on photographers, and their passion. So having music on my network is pointless, and creates useless clutter. People HATE clutter!

When I visit your network, first thing I notice is it's different. Very cool layout up top, however, the homepage takes a very long time to load. You WILL loose traffic and members because of this. You have a TON of links and information on your homepage. The dashboard is very cool, and so are the jquery tabs, but does so much need to be directly on the landing page? I would suggest that you consider moving some of those options to other pages, clean up the homepage and make it more informative as to what your site is for, what member/audience you'd like to attract, and keep it very, very simple.

Even if you had a landing/splash page, that had your mission statement, logo, featured content, and a signup/sign in option, or just a "enter well kunnected" button, this would gather enough intrigue about well kunnected, that your visitors will wait for the slow load time, because they now have a "vision" of what they are waiting for. Without a fast, provoking and informative entrance, a large percentage of people won't bother with your network, as they are impatient and expect gold from sand.

You're doing well Armani, as an obsessive network owner who does nothing else, I can tell that you work just as hard, and are just as passionate. Keep at it, and don't give up. You must keep in mind, you are taking a "wide open" approach with your network. You are offering a network for anybody, so you have a TON of things in your network. This will be the major challenge for you, how to organize and be neat and presentable, while still offering hundreds of options to thousands of member types.

Another thing, in Addendum, we all get help and tips here from Creators, these forums are a godsend, and the people who help are gods. I think we all sometimes take for granted how much free information and enhancements are given here, and when you post a request, you can have a few options as answers in under 24 hours. It's actually quite impressive, however, they are very public tips, so everyone ends up using them! This is why you feel all the networks look the same. I don't agree, but I do notice that a lot of networks are similar in many ways. This is my observation... some take tips, and copy and paste... then ask over and over for little tweaks. They get their tweaks, but only what is given. Some take tips, and mess around with them, learn it, and sometimes change it or better it. These people are the ones with unique networks.

I don't mean to be offensive to anyone, for the record. Not everyone is capable of learning the entire HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, languages, not everyone wants to. But those that do, will be able to take their networks to new hieghts, and be totally unique in appearance and function, even though you're on the same template and platform as everyone else.

In my Ning experience, I've been through a lot. Ups, downs, anger, happiness. Once I realized that I was actually quite spoiled, and my network has basically been handed to me on a silver platter, (do you know the algorhythms?) I settled down, and just realized that this is great, look what I've accomplished in one year! I'm not complaining anymore. I am so grateful for what I have, and for what the amazing Ning Creators, and Ning team, has given me.

Step back from your network for a day or two, don't even sit at the computer. Take a break and come back to it, you'll find that the monotony and stale feelings your having, will have faded, and you will experience a new found power.

Best of luck to you Armani, these are only my personal opinions, not facts. I hope I have helped inspire or cheer you up.

Take care.

Damien,

CEO - Addictapic.com

[Armani Rouse]

:D smiling lol thanks Damien! And I apologize for my late response I literally just read this lol I've been busy doing precisely what this reply says lol it's funny that I just saw this but I welcome you to Well Kunnected 2.6 check it out! And thanks for your reply..it came as sheer wisdom, cheers to you and Addictapic brother!

[Troy Marquis]

your site and everyother ning site does not apply to the same audience therefore i don't see the issue