Welcome to the Directory of Ning Networks! I thought I would take a minute and introduce myself to other members here. I am so glad we've been brought together this way and look forward to sharing ideas, learning from one another and, above all, making it easier for folks to find us and ultimately sharing our networks! I'm sure you are, too, and would love it if you would pass on this site information to other Network Creators. The more communities, the more visibility for all of us.
Take care and I hope you have a wonderful day,
Suzie
Directory of Ning Networks Staff Member
/Suzie/Owner: Pet Lovers Paradise

PS - Just a tip: To help get your Network more attention, when Community Seekers are searching through the Communities - - it is recommended that you change your Member Name to your Network Name, and your Member Photo to your Network Logo. If your personal name and photo, are representing your Network, then that's great! Also, don't forget to add your Ning Networks to THE LIST. You can add multiple Ning Networks under one member account. Be sure to close Discussion/Listing, if you don't want commenting.

Don't forget that there's also a Group on Ning Network Creators. Please join this group so that we can get noticed by Network Creators who don't know about us yet. This will help in Search Engine Optimization, and we will have even more links coming to the Ning Directory and to your Ning Networks. Here's where to join: http://networkcreators.ning.com/group/ningdirectory

Welcome to the ND Network and thank you for adding your Network to our Directory!

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976


Build your own Blingee


Changing Lives,
Directory of Ning Networks Staff Member /
legalasone.ning.com
Legal As One Motivational Network
Gerald Simmons

Theresa,
This is the answer to an interview question with Ning, when another one of my Networks was featured.

Any advice for aspiring Network Creators? How do you suggest Network Creators spread the word about their network? Well, first and foremost, you must be committed and willing to work many long hours to make your community a success. You must be willing to spend the time and money to “get on the map”, before you can truly monetize your site. After you accomplish this, the next step (and plan as you grow), is to offer real advertising on your site. You can work with affiliate programs and exchange banner programs, until that day comes. Unless, you have an overnight success with a most unique idea.

In order to get “on the map” without spending thousands of dollars on a daily basis, you gotta do your homework. Join other Social Communities like MySpace, Squidoo (the best for putting you on the map), Mashable.com, create a blog on blogger.com, create widgets for other sites to install and utilize on their sites. Make sure you create a widget that is truly usable and an asset to other sites. Do place your community name and link on the widget. Make this subtle. We use widgetbox.com. Play an active role in other Social Networks, and not your competitor’s sites. This is bad mojo. There are plenty of Social Communities that are not theme related, where you can become an active member. When you create a Squidoo lens, or a blog somewhere else, make darn sure that you are not just advertising your site. This too will get you blacklisted in a hurry. Offer real content, good content to your readers. While, at the same time, spreading the word about your network. Work long and hard on choosing the perfect keywords for your site. Watch the stats, research what keywords your competitors are using, especially the successful ones. Use SEO tools like www.seobook.com Rank Checker, and www.engineseeker.com. These will help you keep track of where you are ranking in the search engines for your keywords. Work on getting a good Alexa ranking, and Google page rank. Do not spam other sites. It is not acceptable, and not necessary. Create press releases and distribute across the Internet. There are many free Press Release sites available, like www.1888pressrelease.com. Do this on an on-going basis. Submit your site to Digg, and Social Community awareness and voting sites like www.killerstartups.com. Join exchange link programs, submit your site to directories, search engines, etc… I could go on and on. Commit a portion of your budget to paid-for advertising (CPC/PPC Pay per click, and banner ads on sites with related content). Like I said, you must be committed, if you want your Social Network to be a success and a real business. If you are only in it as a hobby, then that is another story - - and a good thing too.

PetBrags is not there yet, and it will take continuous hard work to make it a real success. Our hard work is paying off though. We are indexed 67,700 times on Yahoo.com, 6000+ on Google (which was not easy), 45,000 on MSN Live and are in the top ten for several keywords on these major search engines. Work on acquiring a decent Alexa ranking and Google page rank. These ranking will be important when you are ready to sell advertising on your site. Keep in mind, if you want to sell advertising on your site, you must have enough hits per day to attract advertisers.