JenSocial: Social Web Directory and Ning Tips

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How do we select ‘Featured Communities’? UPDATE! SEE CONTEST IN NEW GROUP!

UPDATE:
WOO HOO! We have a solution for How To Select 'Featured Members'.
1. Subscription Services Offered on your Profile Pages
2. Flat Fee of $99.95 for (lifetime of Directory) 'Featured Membership' - truly an awesome deal.
3. THE LATEST AND GREATEST: FEATURED MEMBER CONTEST! SEE THE FOLLOWING GROUP FOR DETAILS:
http://theningdirectory.ning.com/group/FeaturedMembersContest
Contest Starts November 4, 2008!

Thanks to all of your creative ideas, we can close this Discussion. Thank you for everything! Be sure and check out the new Contest!

I sent this email out to all members. If you missed it, here it is. Please make your suggestions, by replying to this Discussion, below.

Hi Everyone,
I need your Creative Ideas! I receive a lot of emails about whether or not a Community/Member is featured. As Network Creators, I'm sure all of you can relate. It's tough to keep this up, and fairly.

So, here's why I'm writing. I’m asking for your creative minds, to throw out ideas for how a Community gets ‘Featured‘. If we come up with something that brings more traffic and page views, that will help everyone. The only idea I’ve come up with is this: You place the Directory Logo (I will provide) and link on your site, send me an email, and you are featured. Is this what we should do? Or, do you have other ideas you would like to bring to the table? All ideas welcomed! The decision will be yours.

Please post your ideas in the Help Group at: http://theningdirectory.ning.com/group/helpsupport_eachother_ning_s...

I have created a Discussion called: How do we select ‘Featured Communities’?

Here’s Where We Are on ‘Featured’ Communities:
1. Tonight, all were removed temporarily, except Staff and subscribers.
2. We now offer ‘Guaranteed Placement‘, 2 subscription plans offered. Please see your Profile Pages for details. You may be interested in a Guarantee.
3. All Staff Members of the Directory are Featured, in exchange for helping out with the site.

As we gain subscribers for ‘Guaranteed Placement‘, they of course, will always come first.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts! How do we select ‘Featured’ Communities, aside from subscribers?

Best to you,
Jen
=========================UPDATE=======================

To-Date: Featuring any Network based on Banner Exchange will:
(1) Dilute the purpose of 'Featured', and
(2) In cases of low traffic, could actually hurt the Directory.

Let's brainstorm some more? Thank you for all your suggestions.
Thanks,
Jen

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on October 30, 2008 at 1:29pm

WWJDTUBE - - These suggestions are great, except the time involved. And that's my biggest obstacle, not enough hours in a day. Thank you for such wonderful ideas. But, I can't see how it's possible. Let me know your thoughts...

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on October 30, 2008 at 1:35pm

Adlandpro,
Interesting...I like the "People's Choice" comment. I like anything where the 'People' choose. But, as in any selection or contest, how do you start? For example, a poll would be great, but how to monitor and make that work? There would have to be a custom field (no problem) to fill in nominated site, but - - seems that would really be tough. I like this though.

How can we conduct a Contest or Poll, where it doesn't require a lot of Staff time? We (Directory Team) are all focused on getting more hits to the site, and promoting all sites. This takes constant work and attention. Plus, just answering emails and discussions takes anywhere from 2-4+ hours a day, for me. No complaints, just reality.

Permalink Reply by Character of the King on October 30, 2008 at 2:01pm

The biggest issue I can see with Featuring sites by the number of "anything" they get is that the small sites (like mine - and many others I'm sure) wouldn't stand a chance against sites with hundreds and sometimes thousands of members. By sheer volume the larger sites would consistently be Featured.

I do like your idea of categorizing though. Jen already does something like this with The List. After looking through The List however I noticed only 8 categories had more than 10 entries. Perhaps you could Feature those categories in The List that have more than 10 entries? It would encourage people to, 1) Get their network added to The List, 2) Rewards those who do add their network (regardless of size), 3) For those with fewer than 10 entries who might complain of exclusion it would encourage them to invite others of their category to add their network, and 4) It might encourage people to invite more NC"s to the Directory. I know there exists the possibility of abuse with NC's adding their networks to several different categories or adding their network more than once to a category but I'm sure (and I'm asking here) there could be filters applied to prevent the same network name from being added more than once?

God bless,

Russ

WWJDTUBE said:

Just a couple of ideas...

1. Feature sites by number of hits daily, monthly, etc.

2. Using an arrangement of site categories, have a number of featured sites by category, based on number of hits, number of members, most blogs, etc. (Example: 10 Social Networking Sites by whatever criteria decided on, 10 Christian Sites using criteria decided on, 10 Business Sites using criteria)

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on October 30, 2008 at 2:20pm

GREAT IDEA ON THE LIST! I was off to do this. Guess what? I am tired. You can't feature Categories! You wouldn't believe how disappointed I am. I think it's simply a wonderful idea. BUT, can't do it. Maybe we can pay a coder, to do this for us in the future. I'm an old programmer, but could not make this happen in a reasonable amount of time, if ever. LOL Maybe this would be a great thing to add to Ning's Wish List - - the ability to feature Categories in Forums. That's basically what THE LIST is - - a souped up Forum.

On filtering out duplicates, not really a way to do that without some fairly serious coding. We could pay for this coding in the future. But, we do ask Networks to limit their listings to 2, per network. When they don't, and I see this, I simply delete the extras.

I have something up my sleeve for the future, on yet, even another way to categorize your networks.

On the topic at hand, yes you are correct. Smaller networks wouldn't stand a chance. I still like this idea of Adlandpro - - "People's Choice", just gotta figure out how it can be done without tons of man hours which I don‘t have.

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on October 30, 2008 at 3:21pm

Hey Suzie,
On your ideas about the Leaderboard, I was trying to keep the other things out, for sake of our visitors. But, you may be on to something. This may be the way to go, still thinking...
Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Pet Lovers Paradise on October 31, 2008 at 7:21am

For the sake of time, and since you already have the code, I think this might be the simplest way to tackle this --- plus it has the added value of increasing activity on the site as folks would need to place comments, etc., to go up in the leaderboard ranks.

Directory of Ning Networks - NC's: Add your Network! said:

Hey Suzie,
On your ideas about the Leaderboard, I was trying to keep the other things out, for sake of our visitors. But, you may be on to something. This may be the way to go, still thinking...
Thanks!

Permalink Reply by JenSocial on November 4, 2008 at 1:27am

WOO HOO! We have a solution for How To Select 'Featured Members'.
1. Subscription Services Offered on your Profile Pages
2. Flat Fee of $99.95 for (lifetime of Directory) 'Featured Membership' - truly an awesome deal.
3. THE LATEST AND GREATEST: FEATURED MEMBER CONTEST! SEE THE FOLLOWING GROUP FOR DETAILS:
http://theningdirectory.ning.com/group/FeaturedMembersContest
Contest Starts November 4, 2008!