Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by magicalmirror on April 18, 2010 at 2:34am

Hi All,

Thanks Jen for starting this thread and all your assistance in the past. I just wanna say a big huge thank you to you.

I kind of feel this is a good thing for me personally, because I have over 700 forum members and many really don't even visit the forum although directed to FREE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Material of all kinds. What I keep finding out is when something is for free noone respects you - it is just the way it is!

This will sort out whether or not I pay or not, how many people are really interested. I don't want bump on the logs in my forum either. I want active people, but I cannot push them to change their lives nor be active. It takes alot of discipline and acceptance to accept a change.

What do I mean by this. In Personal Development sometimes the more we grow - we grow out of old things, old habits and it does get uncomfortable. Sometimes when people are growing - they end up moving, losing jobs, leaving jobs, going into a new job, leaving their partnerships, getting sick even, having fights, leaving who they thought were friends behind. It gets uncomfortable even if someone says oooh now everything is great, well it does get better, but people, places, things, times and events fall away. It always happens. It is a fact. A person who is growing or developing themselves sees others suddenly negative and they leave them to be with people where they feel more uplifted. It often leaves a hole inside them sometimes without any friends. I hope I make sense, yet by making these moves (leaving jobs, or even losing jobs -. it normally is because the job didn't fit them to begin with), it wasn't their passion and so now it is a time to find their passion and live out their passion, it is the best that can happen because each individual will be happier living out their dreams and passions and YES it is possible.

So what does this have to do with the change with ning sites - this is change!! Do we move to another site? Do we pay? Who are we paying for? Do we ourselves desire money from our forum members? Are we willing to ask our forum members? What are we ourselves comfortable with? Do we believe in ourselves to have enough money to dish out for a paying site like ning? Is ning worth it to us personally? What is our purpose? Where are we going? What is our goal? Do we believe in our goals? Do we have a goal?

It weeds out the forum members that are also taking up space, doing nothing, wasting my time and their time as well.

If I leave ning, will all my members come with me ? If I stay on Ning - I will desire active members and not members that are taking up a parking space. What does that mean for me. It means people that are active in the forum. I can't force them to be active.

It means people who are ready to move forward and learn about how they can relax easily, change their lives for the better, learn about their own individual power and become more empowered. It means to take their lives in their hands and it is all about Personal Development/Spiritual Development. It also is about Setting Goals and achieving them. For me it also means "I will charge for my services as well" no if, buts and ands about it.

It gets me thinking, it gets me moving.

The choices are really: Stay on ning - pay and charge as well for my Life Coaching Sessions & Classes.

or Leave ning!!

Whether I stay or leave, there will be some forum members leaving and that is a good thing. Definitely a good thing.

Like the CEO of ning is decision-making time. Goal Setting time. It is time for movement in every way and I think it is a good thing.

The only thing I will miss, is that - I do have an Animal Communication site and although I wasn't there often, some of us did try to help homeless animals worldwide and right now that will have to fall away and I am sad about that, but I can do that on one site.

It will cause me to transfer alot recordings I uploaded on some other of my ning sites and move them over. That I will have to do as well which is alot of work.

Here is my ning site: http://creatingabundanceandlove.ning.com

we will just move forward now.

Thanks Jen,

Barbara

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Permalink Reply by Keys to the Temple of Magick on April 18, 2010 at 3:41am

Extremely well stated! Thank you I agree, we will get rid of the dead wood. ~A~

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on April 18, 2010 at 10:23am

magicalmirror, my pleasure. Good points, especially the "...when something is for free, no one respects you - it is just the way it is!". I've experienced that one first hand, many times. Good luck on whatever you decide.
:-)

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Permalink Reply by The Human Touch on April 18, 2010 at 4:14am

I have 3 free networks (The Human Touch, Collinsville High School, and Northwest Classen High School) and was working on 3 free networks (not open yet) with a partner... And I had every intention of moving all three of my networks to premium, and at least 2 of the partnered sites to premium... However, that was a plan for LATER. Now there isn't time, because there isn't money... And there isn't yet enough demand to make this reasonable. I had just spend nearly 24 hours a day for the 3 days previous to the announcement repurposing The Human Touch and adding new things... I had planned GREAT things for it... And then the announcement. Well, I tried to move my network onto another site... But because of the way I have used GROUPS as the main theme for my site, I'm finding that almost IMPOSSIBLE to do. Ugh. Anyhow right now I'm debating keeping The Human Touch and adding the other two as groups... And seeing if my partner agrees we should combine our three groups as well or what. I did contact my members of MY networks through Twitter & Facebook, as well as a broadcast message.

Here is what I wrote:
Ning has JUST announced they are planning to remove all free networks. I'm not sure what this means for us at the moment, but I will keep you updated as I find more out.
*****Later***** It appears that it will be 2 weeks before any Ning Creators have any information.
*****Later***** I'm thinking about trying to keep ONE network on Ning (combining Collinsville High School, Northwest Classen High School, and The Human Touch into one)... I've already found a way to do it, provided Ning doesn't take certain features away...

If I were to do this, it would then become a network for everyone, everywhere, with smaller location and interest groups, as well as groups for nonprofits and businesses, profiles for both personal and business/nonprofit/organizations, and of course photos, videos, music, events, blogs, friends, email, etc. However, to do this, I'd need to implement a system of charging members. I had planned on a 5-tier system from free-$20/mo (in increments of $5)... I am looking at even doing some sort of an affiliate program (but that might take a while, depending on how many members sign up, although it would be cumulative from the time I first charge a premium fee.) How many of you would be interested in any paid option if you were able to advertise and sell items both locally and globally?

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Permalink Reply by The Human Touch on April 18, 2010 at 5:03am

I should also note that I have been searching for a replacement home, but have not found anything suitable:(

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Permalink Reply by shadowradio on April 18, 2010 at 4:25am

well me and a few other free ning owners have talked we are joining our networks and leaving ning but theres so many free networks if you joined together you could pull thru this however new networks will be harder to create i just hit 500 members working my site alone for the past 6 months only to get this news how can ning do this to us really do they not care that alot of us our here cause we had nothing my network just started generating some decent money and not only that but our members are mad this is how we all found each other was thru our networks and our other ning partners who will all lose their sites nowi vote that everyone sign the petition and repost the link everywhere http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ning4free/sign that is if we still have a voice in this

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Permalink Reply by Interdependent Project on April 18, 2010 at 5:07am

We are contacting other ning networks that have content related to our own networks themes - sustainable living - and trying to encourage them to monetize their networks in creative ways or merging them. We are fortunate to have our own partner program going on so that we can even help them get started but we wanted to let other networks know that there are some great affiliate programs offered by businesses that you can sign up for and then run your own ads that are relevant to your community and earn enough commissions on the sales to cover your premium services and maybe a little more to pay for your admin time. A great place to search is ClickBank. Many businesses now offer affiliate programs and provide simple html banners for sites and blogs.

You can also place a simple 'Chip'In' widget on your site and tell your members that they should help support the network if they value it with a dollar a month - if you have hundreds of members then they can all take turns - just set the goal on the widget every month to the cost of the premium services.

This can be a good opportunity also for networks to sponsor other networks - we are going to be sponsoring 2 networks that are based out of Africa because we know they will not be able to even monetize their sites and it is a good way to build connections and relationships. Let's all work together and ride the waves of change with grace and style - let's declare Interdependence!

Good luck and we hope this may have sparked some ideas or inspiration!

In Sustainable Solidarity
Dandarius
Founders of the Interdependent Project
http://www.interdependentproject.ning.com

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Permalink Reply by shadowradio on April 18, 2010 at 6:04am

hey i hate to be a mad poster over on this discussion but i have recieved word that wackwall the ever growing company has plans for ning migration now why i think this is good os all covered in their article they posted informing networks why they should be our new place to reside i think my most favorite aspect is that if they ever stopped offering free service they allow networks to pull their whole site and host independently on ones own server also they will be hosting many features ning has and more read the whole story at http://blog.wackwall.com/2010/04/ning-throws-out-free-users-who-cou...

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Permalink Reply by DoPeace on April 18, 2010 at 1:27pm

Wackwall looks like a pretty good option, especially if they develop a utility to migrate Ning networks. The only downside I noticed on first glance is that they don't seem to support the concept of "Groups".

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Permalink Reply by PiercingMetal on April 18, 2010 at 6:36am

Given the fact that I have a blog and main site for my music journalist stuff and we have a "presence" on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in addition to those to drum up more attention, I would likely just let my NING presence fall by the wayside. I never really played with it enough to make it something terrible to lose so if they move to a pay per use program I will just no longer use them. Good luck to all who wish to keep their stuff in place and are impacted by this decision.

Ken Pierce, Editor In Chief
PiercingMetal.com

The Blog: http://www.piercingmetal.com/wordpress
The Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/piercingmetal
The Site: http://www.piercingmetal.com

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Permalink Reply by Yvonne Mason,Author on April 18, 2010 at 7:26am

The site that I have http://reviewabook.ning.com has hundreds of independant authors and readers. This site is bascilly our bookstore. We have editors, reviewers, and book designers from all over the world which help our authors succeed. We are linked to several other ning sites which we network with to give our authors the largest exposure in the world. This is the only way we can sell our work. We are not in stores because we are indies. Taking this site and creating a pay site does our authors an injustice. They have worked hard and struggle to sell their books as it is. The biggest reason we went with Ning was it was so easy for most authors to work with. Believe or not but most of them are not compter savy. Because we are linked with several ning sites we get over 2,000 hits per day. That is alot of hits in the literary world. It is a shame that the new CEO had decided to take this route. However, because I am committed to helping my indiea authors suceed, I will stay for the time being even though it will cost me personally out of pocket. I have sites all over the internet and they are also linked to my ning site.
I think this is a shame.

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Permalink Reply by Mothers Of Autistic Kids on April 18, 2010 at 7:47am

We need free sites. I have an Autistic son and I created a Ning site called Mothers Of Autistic Kids for other mothers to get together. Mothers of special needs kids need to be able to talk with other mothers for support. One of my members started a site for the other family members. If these get shut down...where will everyone go for support? Keep it free! PLEASE!

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