JenSocial: Social Web Directory and Ning Tips

Social Web Directory :: Social Network Directory :: Ning Tips and Ning Support

Ning Will Take a Percentage of Membership Fees - What Are Your Thoughts?

Ning Will Take a Percentage of future Membership Fees - What Are Your Thoughts?

I just found this out from the Ning Creator site. Ning will take a revenue share (percentage) for membership fees. These are fees you will be able to charge your members in the future, if you choose to charge for membership.

Question that was asked on Creators - Original Discussion:
When the new pricing goes into affect, and owners of websites began to charge members a fee, will we have to split the profits with Ning?

Eric's Answer - Original Post: (Eric is the Community Manager of Ning Creators)
Great question! We do plan to take a revenue share on membership fees, partly to cover the costs of processing the payment. We get charged fees by our credit card processor and PayPal. I don't have the final details to share, but I will when I can. Our intention is to provide NCs with as many money-making opportunities as possible, and some of those opportunities will include revenue sharing, which I think genuinely benefits both parties.

Jen's Thoughts:
I can understand Ning charging a percentage, no problem. Especially since they will incur a fee for processing the payments. I mean after all, anything I charge for my Website Design Services or anything else online, I end up paying someone a fee for processing, understandably. It's goodbye to the days of old fashioned Merchant Credit accounts, and "in with the easy-breezy - - umbrella accounts" - - works for me. I do have concerns about this setup, but not enough to matter.

Here's the way I look at this situation overall:
If I own a Social Community that utilizes the Ning platform, I would like to have easy built-in features to monetize my site. To add a membership feature that is not integrated would take a good deal of coding (if even possible), would likely get messy, and could break when the Ning platform implements updates. I would much rather have those features built-in, and share the profits with Ning - - within reason of course.

As a Network Creator, what are your thoughts? Join the Conversation.

0 members favorited this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by RoadHouse Rockers on May 16, 2010 at 1:42am

Quite unsure about this ; sounds like this commercial i saw recently ;its about this kid gathering eggs and the banker sitting and watching and suddenly gets up and pockets some of the eggs, the kid than asks ; why did you take the eggs? and the Executive says because i am watching !

The moral of the ad was that no one should charge to watch if memory serves lol ;-)

Making the platform efficient and providing the right tools to monetize it and charge a fee for the packages fine , but milking every steps of the way?????????????? i don't know how to rationalize that one ?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RoadHouse Rockers on May 16, 2010 at 1:44am

i mean its all about bandwidth and storage charges and use is it not?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 16, 2010 at 1:50am

I think it will probably be an issue of simply charging for the processing fees. And truly, I can totally understand this. NOW, if they decide to take a hefty amount, that I would say it not reasonable. We'll have to wait and see.
Best,
Jen

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RoadHouse Rockers on May 16, 2010 at 5:09pm

Agreed , all normal businesses have structured into their asking price the services charges as well ! It's (at least not in the other thousands of businesses i deal with) , never added to the price after the transaction is done !

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Karen Gerling on May 16, 2010 at 9:33am

I agree with you. Some of the sites that are trying to stay open will begin charging their members in order to pay the monthly fee to remain open. Ning charging on the members fees to pay the monthly fees is greed.
Members who belong ot several Nings will not be able ot pay each one a fee to be a member.
Shouldn't the site owner who is charging it's members be processing the fees???? They can include any fees into the cost of the membership. looks like another way ot get a slice of the pie to me.
I have been in the nings for over 3 years. Like many of my friends, I belong ot over 300 Ning sites. I would not be able ot pay a fee to stay in the sites.
I am sad ot say my site will be closing in July. I have opened 2 others to replace it. Some of my friends have already closed their ning sites.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Fantasyland "Admin." on May 16, 2010 at 1:44am

This makes me angry at their greed. I do not for one moment believe that they did not factor in "the cost of processing payments" when they decided upon their prices.

We have no plans to charge our members. Our community has an an aesthetic point of view, not a monetary one. We are not, nor do we wish to be "a business".

We were going to ask for donations from whomever could afford it. Would ning want a part of this also?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 16, 2010 at 1:48am

Keep in mind, this is just the beginning stages of "reports". Ning has also stated, this feature will not be ready in July. I just thought it was interesting, and wanted to hear your thoughts.

No, they couldn't take any part of your donations, if you are processing the donations yourself, via a PayPal button for example.

Thanks for your input,
Jen

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 16, 2010 at 1:54am

I hear you. I'm only saying I think it would be fair for them to charge a processing fee, not a large percentage. Does that make sense? All companies that process fees from eBay to PayPal, charge a small fee.

Course like I mentioned above, we know very little yet. I just like reporting things to you all, soon as I find out anything. I think I've become a Social Media Reporter of sorts. ;-)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by 12SC Social Community on June 2, 2010 at 6:54pm

I for one WAS in support of the change, however if they are going to nickle and dime me for various services that should probably be included will force me to rethink my decision on the new Ning. Perhaps thay are realizing their loss from other sources and need to rethink their whole plan. May wind up being better to start looking at other options.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 16, 2010 at 2:02am

But what about 1000s and 100s of 1000s of members? Each time a member joins a site that charges a membership fee, Ning would have to pay the processing fee, right? Wouldn't/couldn't that grow into a monster for Ning? In other words, I don't see how a monthly rounded figure could take care of it.

Maybe the answer is that Ning give Network Creators the ability to "process" directly through PayPal. And really, I don't know why that's not possible. It would be no different than inserting any API into the Ning platform - - for the Ning Developer's that is.

But again, don't lose sight of, these are just the beginning reports of what will/may happen when this feature is available.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on May 16, 2010 at 2:04am

No problem. That's why I started the conversation, to hear thoughts from fellow Network Creators. And plus, I think it will help prepare people for what's to come, whether good or bad.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sharon Hightower on May 16, 2010 at 1:58am

This just burns me up. I have no intention of charging my members. I would loose half of them to begin with if I did that. If it comes down to charging members so Ning can get even more from me for a site I already pay for out of my pocket it will be adios for me and I will go to another social networking venue. They have a lot of freakin' nerve expecting us to charge members fees and then take a portion of it. I am too steamed to discuss this. I may even start contemplating a new alternative before they start their PLAN! They will need to make up for all the accounts they loose who are paying something right now but don't want to be obligated to do it. They are shooting themselves in their own foot!