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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 Simply An Inspired Life on June 21, 2011 at 7:17pm

I experimented with Ning when it was free, but never paid for the service. I think the features are great, but I wouldn't trust anything important to Ning. There is no reasonable way to migrate one's content off Ning. If Ning goes out of business, or the price increases get too ridiculous, one would be really stuck. The feature level of open software like BuddyPress from WordPress doesn't match Ning yet, but at least one can never get stuck going that route.

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Permalink Reply by SQR.fm on June 21, 2011 at 7:22pm

Im ok with the increase. :)

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Permalink Reply by Writer Chick on June 21, 2011 at 8:00pm

This is my post from the Creator's Forum:

I wondered if I was just whining because I felt like it, so I decided to analyze the "Rearview Mirror" and look honestly at what has benefited my network and what hasn't:

1. Beta Features page - okay it's there and nice to look at, but I can't use it for anything to benefit my members

2. Twitter Sign In - got it, but I have no way of knowing if it's being used because I have no data to argue with. I've not had anyone message me about how great it is that they can sign in now with Twitter. *shrugs*)

3. International Currency Support - I'm in the United States, so nothing of use there.

4. Like Button - I have it, but it isn't taking off on my network. I've tried to get it going by setting the example and "liking" things, but no one else seems excited about it.

5. Themes and Customizations Overhaul - I haven't moved to the Design Studio because frankly, I'm not looking forward to dealing with the fallout of my members screaming when their old profile page designs get zapped. Plus, my site is custom code and I LIKE IT THE WAY IT IS...okay?

6. Daily Email Digests - I don't read the ones I get from Ning, so I wonder how many people actually read the ones from my network. Again, no way of knowing because I have no data to support an argument one way or the other.

7. Account Detail Improvements- I've looked at it one time, just to see what it was. That's it.

8. Anti Spam - I have zero spammers, always have. I protect my network like it's my child by screening every single applicant. Not sure the Spam watchlist is going to benefit me as I don't have any spammers for the thing to detect!

9. Improvements to Groups - pages are nice, but I haven't been able to find a meaningful way to use them.

10. Paid Access - Of no use to me, with a network full of teenagers with no access to credit cards

11. Activity Feed - This may the be one thing in all this that may help my network. I'm looking forward to testing it.

Also, on my Network Dashboard, the Ning Api is LOCKED (only Pro) and the Mobile App is locked (again for Pro), I can't use the File Manager (Pro).

A revamped chat may make up for a lot of this, but I'm withholding judgment until I actually see and use it.

So...look in MY rear view mirror and tell me why I should be happy about this increase?

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Permalink Reply by shadowradio on June 21, 2011 at 8:34pm

honestly i havent signed into a ning network in about a year! But i still read my updates from Jen Social this site was my best friend when i ran a ning network. Now to the point I switched to a company called wall.fm at the time it was known as wackwall and some people came with me others said they were lacking well i can promise you this now days wall.fm is such a better solution for many reasons one being that they have long offered the option of charging for membership and it comes with premium packages no extra charges but their best feature of all has to be the feature of true ownership at anytime you can take your network and complete site to your own servers! and get away from paying outrageous prices just saying if you think things are getting pricey wall.fm may be your solution and i believe it is time for a second look at what many missed out on being that i joined when they were in beta and never have to pay for my site i now urge you once more to give it a go

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Permalink Reply by Enjoy Custom on June 21, 2011 at 8:40pm

You're right, I agree
Wall.fm is becoming the best platform :)>-

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Permalink Reply by Tips by Alex/JenSocial on June 21, 2011 at 10:19pm

I play around with Wall.fm for a whole. It's very good!! It doesn't have the fancy Design Studio but still markable. The plans of Wall.fm are 0/$25/$30 and NING's are $24.95/$59.95 per month. For small web sites with no incoming, Wall.fm's free plan is good enough. Wall.fm already has Newsfeed in the main page. Just not that interactive yet. Anyone know their roadmap?

Is that one of the reason NING increase the PLUS price? And if they increase the PLUS price, they have to increase the PRO price. :(

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Permalink Reply by Art Lab on June 21, 2011 at 8:58pm

My network is Knowledge and education-oriented and non profit and I don't charge members of my network for anything. I am not going to take money from anyone to spread the knowledge. I didn't even try ads to generate money. Mine is annual subscription.

Ning's features that have been announced in the last few months are all superficial ones and don't help education and knowledge oriented networks like mine much. To be frank members of my network don't use them at all! They just come , read the articles we post and leave!

I don't understand how Ning can club profit- oriented and knowledge-oriented networks together and ask the creators to pay increased prices. There should be separate prices for different types of networks. It should be proportional to the income a network generates. If the networks don't generate any money, increased prices will definitely hurt the creators of these networks!

Can Ning announce special features that help education - oriented networks?! Or is it interested only in money -spinning methods?

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Permalink Reply by Mike on June 21, 2011 at 9:01pm

Run a donation campaign. If you have a few hundred members or more, it doesn't take many or large donations to meet the yearly subscription costs for the Plus subscription. This is what I did last year and intend to do again in July to fund my network. Worked out pretty well. Just keep donations voluntary and anonymous.

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Permalink Reply by Writer Chick on June 22, 2011 at 8:10am

Most of my members are teens and getting donations from a group of people who are perpetually broke or have no access to credit cards can be difficult.