Ning Update: Rolling Out Full Details May 4th

[Jason Rosenthal]

Hi Everyone,

As many of you know, we made a decision yesterday to focus 100% of the company on enhancing the features and services we offer to paying Ning Creators. The tens of thousands of you who already use our paid
service represent over 75% of our traffic, and we’ve heard repeatedly
from you ways that we can deliver a killer service to help make your
Ning Network more effective. Some examples of things we are working on
that you’ve asked for include new APIs, a new mobile experience and new
advertising and revenue opportunities.

As part of this change, we’ll be phasing out our free service.  On May 4, 2010, we will share with you all of the details of our new offering, including features and price points, through a series of blog
posts, emails, and conference calls. We recognize that there are many
active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals
and it's our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will
make sense for all of them. For Ning Creators using our free service who
choose to move to another service, we will offer a migration path and
time to make that change. We will still continue to allow free trials
and test networks on the Ning Platform.

We look forward to talking to you further on May 4th.

[celina[D]]

Ok, I looked up who wrote it , that was John McDonald
But doen't have time now to look up the actual quote as it is very busy in my network right now LOL

[Ashtoreth]

Badan, I agree wiht what you say. There may be a lot of inactive networks that can well be deleted. It would have been a smarter move by Ning to simply delete inactive networks and insert a clause that networks in disuse will be deleted after x number of months.

There are so many other free services that offer similar services, but they do not feel the need to charge as a mandate. Why? Advertising. All the money from the banner, side adverts, etc. go to Ning. By keeping a network here all we are doing is bringing more people in and generating more revenue. i think the whole move is a bad business strategy, and I suspect that it is not going to bode that well for the business future of Ning.

[Jane Lucienne]

Ashtoreth, I agree with you ... and there is more to be said along these lines, but this is a good start.

I have a super-programmer friend who is an independent contractor -- they fly him all over the place including out of the country and he makes the Big Bucks. Here is what he had to say to me about this (2 comments from him):

---- comment #1

Their software is specific to their webserver, doesn't look like it can be hosted elsewhere.

As for using one of your "spare" domain names? Why not? Its not being used for anything else.

This looks like someone looked at Facebook (and the rest) and decided which features were good, which were bad, which were missing etc. and built something based upon that.

Its owned (or at least run) by Marc Andreessen, who was the technical guy at Netscape.
IMHO he was better at talking than the technical stuff. He made some bad mistakes, and has had a series of new companies (and failures) ever since.

Most of his enterprises end up getting sold off ... he always seems to leave with more money than he put in, so I suppose he has something going for him :-)

----- comment #2


There are a ton of people thinking that they can do better than Facebook (which on the face of it looks pretty easy to do) and make money.

The problem is, its not easy to make money from these sites. They require a LOT of resources and people to run, there isn't much you can charge for if you don't want people to walk away, and there is limited revenue from ads if you don't want to either accept the borderline illegal ads that Facebook has - too much advertising and people walk away.

Social websites are the current "hot thing" - because they attract huge numbers of people there is a temptation to think that their must be a way to make huge profits.

I don't think that you can. I expect most of these to disappear.

-----

[Charity]

I agree completely! Everyone listen up... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Charity]

AND I think Ning should just keep all of its existing free networks and make all new networks after May 4th paid. Less hassle, more HAPPY USERS!!!
I also agree COMPLETELY with Ashtoreth's comment above this one...

[Reverend Regina Louise Doherty]

http://christiansunifided.ning.com/

I am a minister, and I have a small non-profit Church Network (Christian Unity), and Its a real shame because I Love it here, but times are hard and I can't even afford 4.95 a month. There are only 21 people on my Network they are from all over the world, and they count on me. Now I don't know what to do, and where to go. I have so much work up there that I will loose like my Services from Last April till now, and all the work of getting the Bible up there. I'm so sad. ) : Blessings Reverend Regina

[Ashtoreth]

Dear Reverend,

I'm a Wiccan High priestess and I am also in the same place as you right now. It's a small but very close-knit group that would not have liked to get dispersed, and neither am I willing to pay the fee, for it would be quite a stretch to pay for what is already available for free elsewhere. A suggestion: To save your information, use an offline browser (I used one called Website downloader for Windows; you can get it for free on www.download.com). It downloads all the contents of your website and saves it on your computer.
Then, move on to any of the numerous free service providers out there.

I wish you luck and light
Ashtoreth.

[Eric Suesz]

There are alternatives here that Creators are talking about, although you may want to wait to hear the full story.

[Dave Walkerden]

Gee, I didn't read every post on this discussion but it's pretty negative. I have been paying for my premium NING service since January and I buy almost everything they've got. The upshot is that I have a popular website with 14,400+ members and Google ad revenue that easily covers the cost of the premium upgrades. I run a couple of paid ad spots and we're now looking to take further advantage of our brand and we're developing our own products to sell to our membership. I have other non-NING websites that cost me more per month with far fewer features.

[Jesse]

Mr. Rosenthal;

The problem is not with your decision to start charging everyone for Ning networks. The problem is the disdain you have shown for existing networks.

You should have grandfathered-in the existing networks, and simply quit offering free ones to new subscribers. The existing networks were the ones that helped spread the word about Ning and draw others (including paying customers) to your site. I understand your need to address monetary issues within Ning, but you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I am sad to say that last week I taught a class full of academic, public, and school librarians how to use Ning. They were all very excited about it. If I had known this was coming, I would have directed them to another community-building company.

This is the second time that Ning has done something like this. The first time was when any network deemed as "adult" in nature (regardless of the actual content of it) was suddenly kicked off. That should have been a red flag to everyone, but most people didn't care, because it didn't affect them ("When they came for the BLANK, I did nothing, for I was not a BLANK").

Now you are are suddenly charging people who built their networks - and brought traffic to your site - and kicking them off it they don't comply. What's next? If I build a site and pay for "premium service," are you going to suddenly decide next year to double or triple the price, introduce more intrusive ads, or cut out a whole category of communities (like Ning did to the "adult" ones)? Your actions do not inspire a lot of faith - why should we trust anything you promise now?

Do the right thing - stick to your promise, and just come up with new terms for new users.

[Luanne Contla]

I do agree with you. May 5th will be 6 months for me and it has been great. Moving will be a hassle but maybe i can build my own web page now??
I hope current creators can stay at a discounted rate at least if not the free for existing.
Luanne

[Luanne Contla]

Nothing is ever for free. For the small "Joe's" here at ning.com, $5 a month is affordable when you dont sell anything and its a fan base and for writers and fan fiction.
I hope your rates are affordable. Good luck with that, i know its tough but Thanks for the CEO release.
Not everyone will agree of course but thanks for the heads up and a chance to migrate if we want.
Luanne