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Ning Announces Price Increase - June 21, 2011

Ning Plus and Pro Pricing Increase

Just announced by Ning's CEO Jason Rosenthal, effective after July 20, 2011, Ning's Pro and Plus Subscription Plans will increase. You will have the opportunity to purchase your plans on an Annual basis to maintain the current pricing.
The new pricing will be:

According to Jason, Ning has added all kinds of new features in the past year, with major investments for an improved platform, better platform performance - - making Ning subscriptions more valuable.

He mentions the following features that have been implemented this past year:

Ning Design Studio, Social Sign-in, Leaderboards, Like Buttons and Ning Everywhere.

He then talks about the "up and coming" "Paid Access", which will enable Ning Network Creators to charge for membership for a Network or Special Content. Ning Network Creators may take issue or be confused with the mention of the "Paid Access" module in this announcement. There's an additional monthly fee to activate the new module when it's available: $19.95. It's not included in the "more valuable subscription" features.

Mr. Rosenthal completes the announcement with comments about the upcoming Activity Feed that will offer better member engagement.

My immediate thoughts are:

The new Activity Feed rocks, no doubt about it. Ning Members can add Status Updates from the home page, comment on other member's Status Updates, make comments on Photos, Videos, etc...play videos inline, and more.
The other new Features are great too. There's no denying it.
The platform has hit an all time high on uptime, instead of downtime, at about 99% uptime according to Ning.

But here are the questions:

How will Ning Network Creators react?
Is Ning soon to be the platform of choice for the larger player? Is it becoming too cost prohibitive for smaller business?
What do you think?

To be fair, I'll tell you all what I feel about the increase, in a little more detail:

I feel it's a bit too sudden for some NCs. And I feel the "paid access" should be included. Aside from those I'm okay with it - - especially if we continue to receive a stronger and better product. But, would I be okay with yearly increases? Absolutely not.

Ning provides a phone number for anyone who has questions about this upcoming change. Jason encourages you to give them a ring at 888-278-4386 if you are located in the U.S. or Canada, or 650-713-3158 if you are located outside of these countries.

Join the Conversation...

See original announcement on Creators

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by SQR.fm on June 27, 2011 at 12:13pm

Garfield is a Gem like Jen!

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Permalink Reply by Garfield Creator on June 27, 2011 at 8:42pm

@SQR.fm Thank you for your kind words.

I just have to share this. This is a quote from Joe in the paid access discussion on Creators. Just Brilliant.

"what i cannot understand is how 1 application (in this case Paid Access) you tag it a price that is almost equivalent to the price of the what we pay to host the network per month (PLUS)

it is very ironic

Its like buying a house and then a piece of furniture costs the same as the house"

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Permalink Reply by Predestined by God on June 27, 2011 at 8:44pm

BooYah! Ouch ... Well said!

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Permalink Reply by Awakened Journey on June 28, 2011 at 6:14am

well said. perhaps small sites or sites under 1000 members should get a break. doubt NING would even consider it though. tsk. tsk.

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Permalink Reply by GapArt on June 28, 2011 at 8:35am

An alternative to Paid Access is to charge people for membership per se, or to ask new members to make a donation. If you set up an alternative Home Page (using File Manager) you can incorporate a donation or subscription widget such as PayPal. This can be voluntary or compulsory depending on your network. If you'd like more information on this concept please message me.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Norris on June 28, 2011 at 8:39am

yep! as soon as ning went from free to a pay service, i simply asked people to donate via my paypal donate button. I had more than the 199.95 I needed in 2 WEEKS. one member donated 200 bucks alone. I have only come 30.00 out of my own pocket in 2 years, and that was to make the first donation when I asked for them last year.