Ning's Big Announcement May 4, 2010 - Details and What Are Your Thoughts?

Ning Update: Introducing Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini

Please share your thoughts on today's big announcement.



Visit us in the Chat room, upper right next to Breaking News.

Article was originally posted by Eric Suesz on May 4, 2010 at 8:03am on Ning Creators Site

Our CEO, Jason Rosenthal, just posted a blog post about our upcoming plans and pricing. I thought I would reprint it here
for Creators. 

I’m excited to introduce three new versions of the Ning Service that we will roll out in July. When we announced two weeks ago that we were going to refocus on paying Ning Networks and phase out our free service, we knew there would be many questions about what the new Ning would look like. Our goal with these offerings — as explained below — is to enhance the experience Network Creators have on Ning, and by extension, the experiences your members have as well. 

What will we be rolling out in July? We’ll start with many of the things Network Creators have been asking for and extend the service from there. The end of Ning promotional links, leading to a more customized, branded experience for you and your members. An ad free experience and the option to run your own ads — if you like. Easy content export and back-up. The end of Ning ID and ability to add Facebook and Twitter sign-in. API access for a more integrated experience. The ability to charge for membership and accept donations. We’ve listened to your more frequent and pressing requests and combined them with our current premium services into three new product offerings — Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini.

For full comparison of the three plans, click here.

Our pricing plans offer incredible value relative to our current Premium Services. For example, your Ning Network currently has the option to Use Your Own Domain, Remove Create Links, and Run Your Own Ads. You can take advantage of all of these services for about $55/month right now.
With the Ning Plus, you’ll be able to have them all for $19.95/month. We will also offer current Network Creators a one-time annual pricing discount that provides even greater value.

We also recognize that many small non-profit, family or other small group Ning Networks have limited budgets, and we value what you’ve created on Ning. For $2.95/month or $19.95/year, Ning Mini provides a powerful set of features to continue to grow and engage with your members — ad-free or with your own ads.

We’ve also heard from many Network Creators who use Ning in the classroom as an integral part of their curriculum. I am particularly excited to announce that a major education company will be sponsoring Ning Mini Networks for educators in primary and secondary education. Ning will remain free for K-12 educators and their students. We’ll have details on this program soon!

We will roll out Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning mini in July. Current Network Creators will have 30 days following the roll-out to decide which plan best fits their needs. For Ning Creators using our free
service who choose to move to another service, we will offer a simple way to export all of your content.

We know there’s a lot of questions, including how to choose a plan, when you can sign up and what happens if you don’t choose an option. That’s why we’ve created a place with all the details about this new offering, including details, a timeline and FAQs (also available in Spanish, here). I look forward to your feedback, both in the comments below and on Creators."

Announcement

In July, we will roll-out three new pricing plans and begin phasing out our free service. Many of you chose the Ning Platform to build your communities because it’s the easiest to use, has the most
reliable performance and easily scales to hundreds of thousands of members. Our shift to a paid service model will enable us to focus to a greater degree on enhancing the features, performance and services we offer to our paying Network Creators. You’ll immediately see greater control over your network branding, design and member experience. All three plans
offer an incredible value relative to our current premium services offerings.


Ning MiniThe simplest and fastest way to set up a social network for your classroom, community group, small nonprofit or family Ning PlusThe tools and features you need to build and grow a branded social network with high engagement – an incredible value at a great price Ning ProThe ideal solution for building a comprehensive social experience, including additional features, integration, support and bandwidth
$2.95/month
or $19.95/year* (save 44%)
$19.95/month
or $199.95/year* (save 16%)
$49.95/month
or $499.95/year* (save 17%)
Up to 150 members Unlimited members Unlimited members

Full control over your branding and member experience Full control over your branding and member experience
Features include blogs, photos, forum and video embeds Full feature set including events, groups, chat, pages and Ning Apps Full feature set plus video and music uploads and branded players
Simple customization options Advanced customization options including CSS, Javascript and the Language Editor Advanced customization options, plus the API access upgrade when launched
Includes run your own ads Includes run your own ads, use your own domain and remove Ning links Includes run your own ads, use your own domain, remove Ning links and add storage and bandwidth
Community-based support Help Center support Premium support

* One-time annual pricing


For full comparison of the three plans, click here.


Features You’ve Been Asking For

For Ning Pro and Ning Plus customers, we are excited to deliver a number of new features that give you greater control:

  • Replace the Ning ID with your custom network ID
  • Remove all Ning branding
  • Up to 25 text boxes and 25 RSS feeds on your home page
  • Text boxes in the header and footer
  • Member statistics
  • Controls to hide invite, share, Facebook or Twitter links, turn off private messaging and strengthen member verification

Even better? Once we launch these new packages, we’ll begin to add the features and options that are most important to you, including API access; sign-in with Facebook, Twitter or your own authentication
system (a.k.a. single sign-in); and a way to charge members for joining
your Ning Network.



Your Content and Data

When we launch the new pricing plans in July, we will add an automated content export option to the manage page of each Ning Network. You will have 30 days after the launch to choose one of the three new
plans or export your content.


Timeline


  • May 4: Announce new suite of premium offerings
  • July: Launch new packages and notify all Network Creators via email and announcement banner.
  • Launch + 30 days: Grace period for existing Ning Networks to purchase one of the pricing plans.


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Replies to This Discussion

"(...) Sharing Content is the jest of API (...)"

Certainly you speak in gist (wide and wicked grin)!

Jaap Verduijn.
Thank you!
I saw this so I guess it will be an upgrade option,

"Ning Pro customers will also have the option in the near future to upgrade to get API access and HD video"

But in the package for the Pro Plan it has a check mark that says API access is included in that price.......lol, who Knows?
This is totally crazy! I just installed a full social networking website with my own hosting at a fraction of the cost that Ning charges. $19.95 per month is a joke.

This FREE software is Open-source, independent, downloadable, scalable, customizable, full-featured, free software for building social networks, dating sites and web-communities. It comes pre-Loaded with video chat, recorder, video player, forums, groups, events, video messenger, mailbox, desktop app, video sharing, photo sharing, iPhone app, articles, blogs, Unlimited members, and it even comes with a store complete with a shopping cart. I control the ads, it includes run your own ads, use your own domain. I have Advanced customization options including CSS, Javascript and the Language Editor, and Premium support.

All this for FREE! I only had to pay for hosting which is only $4.00 a month and the installation was free! It was up and running in less than an hour. Check it out
http://www.boonex.com/dolphin/

I don’t have to worry about Ning later charging me more money or shutting my site down for what ever reason.

Also did I mention about a Ning Member Import Script that allows me to import all my Ning members.
Ning wants me to pay 199.95/year and I just paid $76.00 total for 2 years of hosting my own network and the installation was free! IT IS INCREDIBLE! The designs are awesome!

Ning Administrators have lost their minds.
Wow!
Let us know when your site is ready. I would love to see it. Dolphin has one slick interface.
Best,
Jen
I sure will, It should be ready in a couple of days, I'm designing some new banners for it. thanks
Looking forward to seeing it. Maybe leave a message on my profile page, in case I miss it here?
Thanks in advance,
Jen
I'd love to see your site when it's ready. I did try dolphin a few weeks ago. But I had a lot of trouble getting it to run. :-( I ended up going with jomsocial, since I was already using joomla anyway. It's worked great for me.
yeah, i saw that on the creators site. i commented on xp's comment about replies being deleted, and mine was deleted. lol it could be they're simply trying to keep the discussion focused on the subject matter, since people do tend to wander. i know eric has said as much before.
hahahaha! i noticed. i don't think i've ever seen that many replies to a discussion on any ning network, not even the old creators site. oh well. there will be other discussions on the topic there i'm sure. if they get deleted, then we can say with certainty something's up.
Even after paying there won't be videos & music on your network unless you opt for Ning pro. This is not fair! There are artists who make videos & musicians who upload music on my network. What should they do now?
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

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