Ning Phasing out Free Sites - What Are Your Thoughts?

Today, Ning announced a monumental change in it's business plan. This is good news and bad news. For premium networks, it's probably good news; in that, it's what most premium networks thought they were investing in, in the first place. It will make the premium Ning Networks closer to white label, and likely more valuable assets. It is bad news and extremely sad for some free Ning Networks. Here's an excerpt from the announcement by Ning's CEO - Jason Rosenthal:


When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business. This process has brought real clarity to what's working, what's not, and what we need to do now
to make Ning a big success.


My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services
business. Our Premium Ning Networks like Friends or Enemies, Linkin
Park, Shred or Die, Pickens Plan, and tens of thousands of others both
drive 75% of our monthly US traffic, and those Network Creators need and
will pay for many more services and features from us.


So, we are going to change our strategy to
devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture
this big opportunity. We will phase out our free service. Existing
free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for
premium services, or transition off of Ning. We will judge ourselves by
our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale.
And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making
paying Network Creators extremely happy.

Full Story


New Group: Alternative Solutions to Ning


Please offer and discuss possible solutions, for owners of free Ning Networks. And most of all, let's all offer encouragement to our fellow Ning Network Creators.


UPDATE FROM NING CEO: JASON ROSENTHAL:

ORIGINAL STORY HERE - - Ning Update: Rolling Out Full Details May 4th

Hi Everyone,


As many of you know, we made a decision yesterday to focus 100% of the company on enhancing the features and services we offer to paying Ning Creators. The tens of thousands of you who already use our paid
service represent over 75% of our traffic, and we’ve heard repeatedly
from you ways that we can deliver a killer service to help make your
Ning Network more effective. Some examples of things we are working on
that you’ve asked for include new APIs, a new mobile experience and new
advertising and revenue opportunities.


As part of this change, we’ll be phasing out our free service. On May 4, 2010, we will share with you all of the details of our new offering, including features and price points, through a series of blog
posts, emails, and conference calls. We recognize that there are many
active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals
and it's our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will
make sense for all of them. For Ning Creators using our free service who
choose to move to another service, we will off a migration path and
time to make that change. We will still continue to allow free trials
and test networks on the Ning Platform.


We look forward to talking to you further on May 4th.


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Comment by JenSocial on April 15, 2010 at 5:06pm
Ning has not yet announced the details of the "phasing-out". Be sure to read the whole story here.
Comment by letthemusicplay on April 15, 2010 at 5:05pm
I think this is such a bunch of crap i have one site and just put in hours of work on another one! well looks like your going to go out of buisness because im going to start looking for another ning like site that is free and betcha because of what your doing, there will be lots of new ning like sites advertising for free sites why should we pay for something that we don't make any profits on as just fun social sites we have built for fun and friendships?
this sucks so bad, everything revolves around making a quick buck.
Comment by cat Lawford on April 15, 2010 at 5:02pm
Thomas is so right. Where is the information on all this? So many questions remain unanswered - you'd think the basics would be in place before they announce this massive decision with big implications for many of us. Costs? When? Is all this definite or is anything we are saying here likely to make any impression? What are our choices? etc etc (where else can we go and is there any way to preserve all the information and contributions we have accomplished thus far?
Comment by Healthy Food & Fitness Bargains on April 15, 2010 at 4:58pm
Ning.com should scale down the free basic service to offer a few less features, but still keep it free. Then Ning.com should use a few of the basic features that it has taken out to combine with one or two premium features to make a "junior premium package" for $5 or $10 a month. This is much better than kicking people out after having the free networks for so long.
Comment by Guiding Angels Ministries on April 15, 2010 at 4:55pm
Say what? I cant afford to pay for my sites! Are they kidding? OMG I am so disappointed!
Comment by magic realm on April 15, 2010 at 4:54pm
rip off!! and all my time was wasted! very disappointed!!
Comment by Thomas Whitby on April 15, 2010 at 4:52pm
I have a free Ning with over 3500 educators in it. we use it for collaboration on a global level. I was informed of this by a series of tweets from Twitter. I only wish I had someone explaining my options. I could probably make it a premium site and get my own educational Advertisers or corporate sponsors, but I have no one to talk to. I guess I should also ask if Ning will migrate all of our files and info to another platform if I decide on one. Too many questions and no source to nhelp from Ning.
Comment by Patrick Mingey on April 15, 2010 at 4:49pm
I can't believe I just went through the process of setting this site up and marketing it to my friends under the understanding you make profits off of advertising and now your shutting down the free sites. What a pain in the neck! At least I know what your business practices are now. Just another web development company trying to make a buck like the rest of us. I guess I can't blame you but I wish i didnt spend so much time doing the setup.
Comment by SPHP GLOBAL NETWORK on April 15, 2010 at 4:47pm
The long term objective of SPHP GLOBAL NETWORK is to provide FREE services to the marginalized majority of the inhabitants in the 7,107 islands of the Philippine archipelago. The reason why the FREE hosting services offered by NING.COM was availed of, since there are no funds or man-hours for income-generating activities before, at present, and in the foreseeable future. SPHP GLOBAL NETWORK is purely non-profit, pro bono, support system for the marginalized majority of Filipino Citizens, wallowing in starvation and extreme poverty.

Thank you for the notice.

Kindly email when exactly SPHP GLOBAL NETWORK shall automatically be deleted from NING.COM for proper notice to present members.

Thank you for the FREE hosting services that SPHP GLOBAL NETWORK enjoyed under the previous administration.
Comment by Code Whacker on April 15, 2010 at 4:46pm
This is bad news, it could be the downfall of ning however perhaps ning is not making profit because of bad strategy moves in the past. I wonder if this is the correct path for ning to take because even though premium members start to pay the company has lost its trust factor. The sites I have created are not for business just information services. My membership would not wish to pay and I certainly will not pay as I have lost trust in ning.

Its disapointing but life has to move on. I for sure will start building my own software and get out of this lazy rut by using of the shelf web products. I just hope my ning sites stay up long enough for me to do the transition? How long is this phase out going to take place?

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