Blogs

Every day new network creators come to our platform and start their own social website. There are so many of us today that we decided to tell more about our members. And want to share with you a story about Bechy, MathClub Virtual.

Tell us a little about yourself and your community.

I am Colombian, a teacher of mathematics, passionate about virtual environments to teach and learn.

How did you decide to create your network? What is your community for you?

MathClub was initially a face-to-face math club, formed by students of the Educational Institution No 2 in which I work. The club grew and students from other institutions expressed their desire to join. Not being able to gather everyone in a physical space, I decided to create Virtual MathClub in NING. Today we have thousands of members from more than 20 countries. For my MathClub it is my virtual house, and all its members form a great family.

What can’t you imagine your community without?

I can not imagine my community without the FORUMS, I love helping students who have difficulty with math or with some problem that they have not been able to solve, that is why we have several forums of advising.

Do you have interesting stories or people in your community? Tell us about them

The first foreign member of our network was Professor Ali Amgaad of Morocco. I keep a lot of gratitude because it motivated me a lot and gave me ideas for the community. He became my best friend, although I only know him virtually.

With Professor John Jairo Escobar of Ibagué, we developed a project for the learning of Multivariate Calculus which was developed in a GROUP created in Virtual MathClub, this experience was awarded by the RIBIE in the category of educational experiences in higher education.

Thanks to MathClub Virtual I was selected in 2011 to attend the ICT Training for Colombian Teachers in Incheon, South Korea. I have been a speaker at mathematics conferences and educational informatics in countries such as Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina. In 2015 I was invited by UNESCO to the International Conference on ICT and Post-2015 Education, in Qingdao, China.

One of the activities we do in our community is the preparation of eleventh-grade students for State tests through online workshops. Last year this experience received the National Award for Digital Social Mobilization of the ICT Ministry.

Can you give us some tips how to build successful community?

I think we should do everything possible to answer members in the chat, in forums and messages. Send messages to all members informing about the achievements and the new features that are incorporated.

Tell us a little about your experience with NING?

NING has been too important in my professional life, it has taken me further than I ever dreamed. It’s nice to be a teacher, not only of the students who assign me in the institution I work for but of thousands of students who come to MathClub Virtual in search of support in mathematics. And it is also very pleasant to meet and share experiences with professors from different countries.

I want to take this opportunity to say: Thank you NING.

Want to share your story? Write us at hello@ning.com

Hi creators!

Wonder what has happened with our community lately? Read our latest materials:

1. Community Story with Tim Grimes, GoldProspectorsSpace
2. 10 tips to drive more blog traffic from Linkedin
3. New discussions in NING Business Club and Monetization with NING groups 
4. How to choose the best digital marketing channel for your business 

Have something you want to share with us? Post your thoughts in comments!

If you have been on Creators for a while you may remember my post about Survey Earth in a Day back in 2012.  This is a GLOBAL Community event for our Land Surveyor Community.

NING-POWERED PROJECT: Survey Earth in a Day

Well, this year will be our 6th year remeasuring the entire planet as a community, in a single day.

What Is Survey Earth in a Day?

On the day of the solstice June 20, 2017, geospatial professionals around the world and members of Land Surveyors United (a global support network for land surveyors) will be simultaneously recording survey grade GNSS/GPS data from thousands of points around the globe, in order to promote awareness of and a better public understanding of the surveying profession. Measurements made on this day will serve as comparative data from prior events and to expand upon the database of logged points.

This is just an example of what you can do with a Global Community!

THE DREAM OF SPIRITUAL MEDIA IS BECOMING A REALITY

This Chart Shows Visitors Per Month for the Past 24 Months, as of July 8, 2011:

The total number of unique visitors during the past 24 months is 14,045,305

The total number of page impressions during the past 24 months is 17,034,634

SOURCE: eTracker Analytics

WEEKLY PERFORMANCE:

Chosen Timeframe: 07/02/2011 - 07/08/2011

JUNE 2011 PERFORMANCE:

June Visitors: 1,476,267

June Impressions: 1,729,074

JUNE PERFORMANCE:

Chosen Time frame: 06/01/2011 - 06/30/2011

YEARLY PERFORMANCE:

We launched in March of 2009

NOTE: Halfway through 2011 we have already exceeded our entire 2010 traffic volume!

THANK YOU!

Visit Global One TV

MY OWN SPACE 360.COM

I have been running Mos 360 for over 2 years now and have enjoyed every minute of it.

The site is a general social hub for all types of people and all types of interest, I started it on a whim one day at work when I was bored, I had come across this site called NING which I had never heard of before, but it said start your own site free !!!.

I had spent several years on Yahoo 360 which I had enjoyed for a while but had become unhappy with because of trolls and foul mouthed idiots, so I thought I will take the plunge and have a go (I had never done anything on computers other than surf), So I started MY OWN SPACE, this was very rough and ready to start with and may have looked more childlike than adult !!! lol, but it soon became more structured and with the help of my new admin team we have built it into what I think is a pretty damn good and safe place to be.

Today we hit a BIG milestone for us , and that was reaching 1000 members !!!, This is small compared to many sites but it means the world to me and everyone associated with the site.

Getting back to the title of this blog THE REASON I HAVE STAYED WITH NING , This is because without the great tools and easy applications we would never have got to this milestone. Dont get me wrong I have not always agreed with all that Ning has done and have done my share of moaning, but at the end of the day, Ning is head and shoulders above all the opposition and that is why I am happy to pay now.

May MY OWN SPACE 360.COM and Ning long work together.

Pete (Sexy Evertonian)

Creator of Mos 360.

My Modern Met has been running their own ads since 2008. By achieving high growth and traffic to their network, as well as creating high quality content, they’ve been able to secure deals with top tier ad networks and achieve CPMs in the double digits. Recently, these ad networks have brought to them site-specific buys and unique sponsorship opportunities.

Hi, I'm Alice from My Modern Met. I was asked to share my story on how we've managed to make money on our Ning network. Though our story is unique, there are common experiences we as Ning Creators will all face. Particularly if you're going to try and make money through advertising, I'd love to share with you some things we've learned along the way.

There are a whole bunch of ways to make money on your Ning network by advertising which include banner advertising with Google Adsense or ad networks, contextual advertising, affiliate sales (cost-per-click, cost-per-action, cost-per-sale), direct advertising and sponsorships. CPM (or cost per thousand) banner advertising is traffic driven, the more people you have looking at your banner ad, the more money you can make. Cost per thousand means that for every 1,000 impressions (or eyeballs), you get a certain amount of money which can range from a few cents to double digit dollars.

When I first started My Modern Met, we focused our attention on building up the community and providing interesting content. We started as a private, invite-only site and we took off the Google Adsense ads immediately, though looking back we probably could have kept them on. The reason we took them off was because our site was a little too broad, meaning we didn't have such a specific niche that Adsense was working effectively. That being said, even if you're not making a lot of money in the early stages, you want people to get used to seeing advertising on your site and making some money is better than none. We decided that it was better to use up the web real estate with interesting content. We built up our core community through friends and family. After about three months, we opened up My Modern Met to the public. Our content started to spread virally around the web, bringing in tens of thousands of people a day. At that point, we knew we were big enough to approach ad networks.

Through our own research and by talking to people at conferences, we found a bunch of ad networks that would fit with us and found out their criteria for getting accepted. We knew that we had to reach a critical mass of unique visitors and pageviews before we could even approach them. Once we hit those milestones, we reached out to them and were able to secure deals.

We manage our ads through Google Ad Manager. (Here's a good article from Hongkiat on how to set it up if you're looking into managing your ad networks or even your direct buys.)

With time and increased traffic, we were able to partner with more premium ad networks. After two years, we're now in the position where we're receiving site specific buys and sponsorship opportunities.

Here are our top ten tips on how to make money through advertising:

1. Be patient - Don't expect to partner with ad networks until you reach a minimum threshold (number of unique visitors or pageviews).
2. Research ad networks - Find out which ones best fit with your Ning network. There's a wide range of ad networks for particular niches like luxury and tech.
3. Be persistent - If you get denied from an ad network, don't give up. Approach them again after a certain period of time. Legitimacy comes with increased traffic over time.
4. Have high quality content, find your niche - If possible create original content that others would want to link to and spread.
5. Decide on your business model - Banners advertising works well for sites with high traffic, while smaller, more targeted niche sites work well with Google Adsense or affiliate sales.
6. Grow your community - What sets your site apart from blogs is that you have engaged members. Make that one of your selling points when you approach advertisers or ad networks.
7. Build traffic - Don't overlook the power of Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon.
8. Use social media tools like Facebook and Twitter - These will also help you spread content and build up your community.
9. Get to know other Ning Creators - Find out what works for them and see if you can apply it to your network.
10. Get outside your comfort zone - Attend conferences and network. You may want to just sit at your desk and work on your site but getting out there into the real world will help you see if you're headed in the right direction, find new ideas and identify trends. This is invaluable.

I hope this information helps. Good luck to all of you Ning Creators out there and if you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me at alice@mymodernmet.com. Thanks!

This was part of an interview put together by our friends from AIDS.gov at the recent 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta.

Fellow Network Creators,

WaggleForce is a Ning Network that helps members collaborate with each other to create career clubs and get communities back to work. Vote for Waggle Force

Neighbors for Neighbors operate neighborhood-centric community-generate social networks that serve as a soundboard for voice and a springboard for action. Unlike Facebook, Neighbors for Neighbors connect people who live, work ans serve in their neighborhood with the purpose of brining people together offline to do things with and for each other. Vote for Neighbors for Neighbors

The BBC ran a great article about social networks holding local politicians accountable, and it features Harringay Online, a Ning Network by Hugh Flouch.

"The website was used to organise a petition to visit every local street likely to be affected by knock-on traffic.

"The council were just not listening to the community", he said. "By the end of that year we had 500 members. Now we are touching 2,500."

It's great to see Network Creators receiving recognition for their efforts, and the real-world change that comes out of Ning Networks. We hope to read more stories like this!

Thought you would be interested to know that the site I run just won 'Best Healthy Lifestyle Website' in the Hantsweb awards.The awards are for sites in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (UK). What I thought was great was that all the other sites were created by web designers etc but Ning was judged better than them!!http://newforesttransition.ning.com/profiles/blogs/food-challenge-site-wins

Recently I have worried a lot about the network search system on my Ning network.

We have technical problems that may be inherent to all social networks, not just our Ning networks. The technology for searching inside networks that have new information added continuously is not very advanced, and this is general, not just at Ning.

So now I have written a blog post trying to explain -- in simple language -- how the search system works on a Ning network, for the benefit of my members.

See:

http://cooperative.ning.com/profiles/blogs/our-website-search-system

I have also described a couple of alternatives to using the Ning search (which I like very much, when it works).

I would be happy if other Network Creators can adapt my explanation to their own situation. And I would be happy for any advice on how to improve the explanation I have given.

Thanks, Peter

"For me I see how easy it is to get caught up in the exciting side of the business, e.g. the technology, the platform, the shiny, bleeding edge new feature. But from my experience the way to make an impact is absolutely on the strategic planning and organizational development side of things. It’s not sexy and it’s certainly not easy, but ultimately the real impact if you work on the brand side is found through fundamental organizational transformation."

So says Jordan Williams, Manager of Digital Engagement at REI. I completely agree that this is the more difficult and time consuming aspect of community management, whether on a national level or smaller group. :)

One of the great features of Ning, is that creating networks is easy and free, which means you can create test Ning Networks. This is something I always encourage, to provide a place to test out changes to design or format. In terms of planning and organization, the test network can also be used to scope out goals for the main network, brainstorm or discuss issues that come up. An alternative is to have a private Group on the primary Ning Network for this, though that provide a bit less freedom in testing ideas.

I'd argue that representing a major brand like REI brings its own challenges and expectations. However I encourage all to read this interview of a seasoned Community Manager!

We've collected Ning Networks that have inspiring design here in the past. Here's a post on Socialbrite, where LauraO shares some of her favorites. The collection includes Ning Networks focused on commercial efforts, those that are non-profit based, as well as a couple making best use of the Groups feature.

Some will be familiar, but there are definitely a few Ning Networks new to me!

What do you think of those mentioned? Which do you think should be joining as a best-designed Ning Network?