I have profiled Ning here at JMMO as a social network platform where people can possibly make money from. And, I have written about how people might charge membership fees using Ning. And, I have mentioned Ning again when I wrote about making money from membership sites.
Obviously, I have been a fan of Ning, long before it became a popular tool for many people who want to create their own social networks – without the usual technical knowledge needed. Now, Ning hosts a few thousand social networks – from educational and non-profit groups to techie and literary groups.
The latest buzz, however, is that Ning will be slowly phasing out their free option beginning the 4th of May 2010. This has created a lot of ill feelings, especially from people who have been working hard on building their Ning sites and who aren’t prepared to shell out the money for the premium fees.
One of the biggest question posted as a challenge to Ning folks is: Is it right for a company to just take away their free services just like that? Especially since they have been running ads on those free sites.
What do you think? How do you feel about this kind of deal?
Have you ever used Ning before – either just as a member or as a creator? What do you have to say about Ning’s move?
Have to agree with you Shai, this is pretty crumby. They’ve probably noticed a spike in usage over the last few months, so now figure they should get a share of the money-pie. I agree, many groups have gone to a lot of effort to improve asthetics to draw in large crowds, all without a budget. So charging for group creations and their membership will only cause a downward spike in people utilising their service. I guess people like to learn from experience, not knowledged predecessors. Let’s hope they listen to people like yourself and forget this folly.
Ning Removing its free services? “Not cool” My high school friends build our own social network site on ning and if this would happen this would suck.
I love ning. But i don’t know if we can avail premium services.lol
I am also a member of Ning to different sites, a college social networking site and pregnancy networking site. It would be sad if they remove the free option.