Fortune 500

fortune

This is just like those discussions where everybody introduces themselves except in this case you are letting us know your path to $500 a year or $50 dollars a month. How did you raise the money to become a Ning Pro. Did you do it through Ads, Cafe Press, Donations, Selling Stuff, Membership Fees, etc.

This discussion allows you to introduce yourself through your success at becoming a Ning Pro and may help others to get there to. Feel free to include the URL to your Network. We look forward to hearing how you accomplished this.

Tags: pro

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Permalink Reply by Tim on September 7, 2010 at 11:26am

I think my main network got there through sheer hard work and staying online. Amazingly, it survived a move to another platform, and managed to come back to Ning and continue to flourish. It has always covered its costs using Adsense. I still spend too many hours working on my network(s) for the financial return, but these are the basic things I've always done:-

Use featuring to make members feel good about themselves and their content (and bring longer term members back into view)
Personally message all new members (helps you remember their avatar)
Enforce the rules
Have fresh stuff every day
Invite lots of people you're sure will like it
Broadcast message to members once a week

NC for HirePermalink Reply by Garfield Creator on September 7, 2010 at 1:22pm

I am happy to see a lot of the things you say validated by my experience. It's like working too hard = working the right amount of time to work on a network.

> I need to try the personally message all new members. When i have done this it works.
> Enforce rules it a curious one because I think that is most likely based on a set of guidelines? Did you create them yourself or adapt already existing ones?
> Do you have a routine set up to handle the other stuff? Fresh, invite, & Broadcast. :-)

Permalink Reply by Tim on September 9, 2010 at 6:54am

My network has a range of guidelines/rules or whatever you wish to call them, which are available in an FAQ/Support forum. Most of them are pretty much specific to my network.

The point about enforcement is that if you let members bend the rules, whether it be in terms of their avatar, or not posting stuff that's relevant (or in the wrong place), you soon up with a network which loses its look and feel.

I don't really have a routine other than get up and sit in front of the computer with a mug of tea (lol), but I try and send a Broadcast message every Friday before the evening in the USA, and I try to make sure there are new members joining every day.

Permalink Reply by Jens on September 8, 2010 at 2:44pm

I send to the german group of members a personal message that I can't maintain my network longer if I can't pay for a NING plan. 40 of them donated that I can run it now until Dec 2012 on Pro.

NC for HirePermalink Reply by Garfield Creator on September 8, 2010 at 3:02pm

OMG, that is awesome. No strategy on that one just the facts and that is awesome they responded the way they did. It restores my faith in the community spirit. They obviously appreciated the value of the network as a resource to respond in the way they did.

Thank you for sharing this. Who knew it could be so simple.

Permalink Reply by Jens on September 9, 2010 at 12:01am

Hey Garfield CrEatOr ... I reflected or meditated upon this few weeks. Then I found out: okay, my network is free - it shall be free in future. But i would shut down my network if the members do not honour the value of it.
Because 33% of my network are Germans and they don't like my English broadcast messages written in English - I created an own email list which allows to greet the recipient with their name .... Hey N.N. - so these are additional facts for how I could reach my members.

By the way I had a strategy. I decided for my own that I would shut down my network if not enough members will not donate a (small) donation.

NC for HirePermalink Reply by Jen on September 8, 2010 at 2:50pm

Nice discussion idea - - love the Fortune 500 icon.

NC for HirePermalink Reply by Garfield Creator on September 8, 2010 at 3:05pm

Thank you, Jen.

Permalink Reply by Bruce Vickers on December 10, 2010 at 7:30am

When I heard Ning was going Premium only... I kind of panicked. One member came out and proposed to sponsor the cost of it with the condition of being an exclusive and only sponsor with no other adds... That was really lucky!

Permalink Reply by Scott on March 17, 2011 at 1:31pm

My networkis a small niche: hypnosis. I started with no money or mailing list. Now I have 8,000 members, and I think a lot of it has to do with my advertising policy.

I have discussed my Advertising Policy on the NC site before, but I will sum it up here:

- only active members of the community can post an ad on my site (2 pieces of content a month)

- the people who want to advertise to my member then have to join my site

- this makes my site more valuable to more people

- I get more members because of this

- then I get to raise advertising rates.

I now charge $150 a month per ad (right column, 200 pixels high) and have 3-5 ads going at any given time. That means I can get the money in a single month to pay for the year.

I also have a group where people can post ads for free to promote a product or a class, but they can't do any promotion in the blog or forum sections.

This has worked really well for me in terms of attracting thought leaders in my industry.

my 2 cents,

Scott

Permalink Reply by Adrianne George on March 21, 2011 at 4:10am

I run a social network for black women living in Europe.

I surveyed my members asking if we should stay on Ning or move. I also asked would they be willing to pay $1, 1 euro or 1 GBP to say on Ning. The consensus was that we stay and members contributed as little as $1 and as much as 250 euros. So we're financially viable for a while.

I also started a Business Level membership to those who wanted to advertise on the site. I did that at the same time I removed purely advertisng posts, etc, and invited those posters to take a Business Level membership. They are encourages to create special offers for members that I will send to the network. They can use their blog to sell themselves, and they can start a group based on the industry.

So far I have had many inquiries but only one taker. I will put more thought into how to fine-tune the Business Level membership and how to promote it outside of the network.

NC for HirePermalink Reply by Garfield Creator on March 21, 2011 at 4:19am

Awww sorry to here. Your network sounds like it has value and it is a shame you didn't get a better response. I think you need to have something they would be willing to pay for or pay for not to lose. You need to find an angle and just tell them this is how it is sounds like. For some reason your request did not connect with them.