Making Money from Your Ning Network

To find out How I Make Money using my Ning Networks, download a copy of my eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘.

For additional insight you can also read this article: We Love Capitalism, Tips OnMaking Money on Your Ning Network.

This post is a part of my blog series / eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘. You can read most of the Chapters of this eGuide on the SistaSense blog. To get the complete guide, with tips not featured on the blog, download your own copy here.

Creating a Ning Network with Active Members

As I’ve said before, it is really easy to setup your own ning network. It’s relatively easy to find members to join. And with time and dedication, any network can grow in size. The hard part for many ning creators is creating a viral network: a social media community that members use daily, inviting new friends, and creating new content on an hourly basis. I consider my business network to be headed in that direction, as many of my members are very active contributors to the network. I’ve found that the following strategies have helped me encourage users to really get involved and build a thriving community:

• Be Your Networks #1 Fan
I find that writing positive promotional posts about my networks encourages others to both join and interact. When you write articles about how quickly your network is growing, featuring new members, interesting articles, new groups, etc. – people get excited and motivated to see what it is all about.

• Be the Member you want Your Members to Be
I always tell people never to expect others to do what you would not do yourself. Rather than wait for your members to start discussions or join groups, you start the trend and others will lead by example. I regularly write posts, ask questions, create articles, and encourage others to do the same.

• Be a Good Teacher
Some members are born to interact while others haven’t a clue where to begin. I regularly post discussions about how to best use my networks, make friends, etc. These are my teaching posts. They always help give the larger community a better sense of what the group is all about and how they can get involved.

For my complete listing of tips to create active members on your network, download a copy of my eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘.

This post is a part of my blog series / eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘. You can read most of the Chapters of this eGuide on the SistaSense blog. To get the complete guide, with tips not featured on the blog, download your own copy here.

Creating a Ning Network that People Love

One of the best parts about working on my networks thus far has been receiving positive emails from members telling me how amazing it is to find a space like this. They are so excided to have discovered spaces they never knew could exist, but now can’t seem to live without. I believe there are several reasons why people love my networks. There are certain basic things that I think network creators should and should not do. They are:

• Create a space that best reflects who you are, what you like, or what you are really good at. Trying to capitalize on a network in a niche you are clueless about is not going to work. Many people are looking for real spaces, with real people, and real information. The only people you will attract in a space filled with too many ads and spam are more advertisers and spammers soley interested in using your space as a free place to self-promote rather than co-create. Having a genuine interest in the themes of my networks has helped me feel like interacting with members is more for pleasure than profit. I can easily comment on members’ stories and create discussions that turn into hot topics, because I know what my members are looking for. Using yourself as a point of reference can help you create content on your network that you think would engage the readers in your community.

• Create a space that taps into an un-targeted niche. Quiet as it’s kept; there aren’t many REAL spaces for black moms online or black women entrepreneurs, so by creating a space for them (and myself) I am able to take advantage of being an originator in an untapped market. Why be like everyone else trying to create the next big thing since MySpace? I personally think it’s better to create niche specific spaces as a way to attract genuine, loyal followers making my own success story rather than hiding in the shadows of someone else’s.

• One of my BBWO members once described my business network as a grownup MySpace. She loved the fact that a large percentage of the member population fit the theme of the site, which meant she didn’t have to search hard to find like-minded individuals worth working with. I believe that by promoting my networks to a specific target audience, and by approving every member I can maintain the type of vibe in the community that members are desperately looking for. Members on BBWO often tell me how happy they are to finally have access to businesses and people they could have never found by searching online. Moreover, many have mentioned that they have joined similar groups on ning or other sites, but as they’ve stated, find themselves coming back to BBWO because of the unique member base and content.

• I have found that monitoring member discussions and posts has also helped to maintain the quality of each network. Though I do not believe in censoring members, I have learned the hard way that if you let any and everybody say, or post what ever they want you will quickly find your network attracting the sort of viewers only interesting in posting spam, nude pictures, or anything that doesn’t necessarily reflect what your network is all about. At some point you might have to ‘Police Your Network’ and that’s okay. To ensure that the community always feels involved when I have to police a situation I always post a notice in the forum and open it up for discussion so members clearly understand the guidelines and don’t feel apprehensive about posting their thoughts.

• Creating networks full of information gives them added appeal. Incorporating content from my other websites, blogs, and eBooks has helped me create central spaces for viewers to find what they are looking for. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t create a network and expect your members to create all the content for you. On the contrary, most people join a network because they are looking for something, so if you have nothing there for them to read or do, they won’t do anything. I regularly:
- Write articles
- Start discussions
- Feature my active members as a way to encourage others to participate
- Send out weekly email broadcasts to the group
- Setup community activities providing incentives or prizes to participants.
- It’s not hard to get people to join your network, the hard part is regularly encouraging them to logon, contribute, and stay active.

• Creating a unique design and adding wonderful features to your network helps to create a positive buzz. Members are always telling me how much they love the latest feature while others ask how they could create something similar on their own networks. Utilizing some of the features I previously mentioned can help you create a network that stands out and gets noticed. To my pleasant surprise my business network was featured on the ning blog. Being noticed out of all the hundreds of networks on Ning is a huge achievement for me and I believe it is in large part due to the network practices I have detailed here.

This post is a part of my blog series / eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘. You can read most of the Chapters of this eGuide on the SistaSense blog. To get the complete guide, with tips not featured on the blog, download your own copy here.

How to Promote Your Ning Network

Practically every week I get emails from ning network creators wanting to know how to create a network with hundreds of members like mine. Though I didn’t do it over night, I can honestly say that if you are driven enough and your network is appealing enough to your target audience, you can create a large and thriving network. The reality is my networks all started with only one member, me. The key to turning the one into one thousand, is mapping out a marketing strategy that works best for you.
Having little to no money allotted for advertising, I chose to build my networks one click at a time with lots of late night web sessions and countless forum posts. Some of my most effective marketing strategies include:

• Making the Most of my Main Websites and Blogs: Having several websites and blogs with regular web viewers, I decided to advertise my new networks on my old spaces. This is the best way to market your network for free.

• If you have a mailing list, send them an email featuring your new network.

• Create banners for your networks and feature them on your other sites.

• You should also write interesting articles about your new network and post them on your blog or in your favorite community forums (with themes similar to that of your network).

• Take Advantage of Popular Social Communities like MySpace: Creating a MySpace page was a great way to find and attract the type of people I wanted to join my networks. Now I know my space can seem like a chaotic and overwhelming space if you do not know how to use it as a marketing tool. Using some of the strategies I detailed in my Sista Sense blog post ‘Making More Friends on MySpace, I was able to create a MySpace page with over 5,000 friends. I then used that friend circle like a mailing list; regularly writing blog posts and sending out bulletins about my networks and latest web projects. Similar to my strategy for approving members, I found that carefully adding and approving MySpace friend requests allowed me to create a pool of friends that were more likely to read my posts and join my groups. Avoid simply adding any and everyone to your friends circle in an effort to increase your click count. Focus on building a circle of friends who will more than likely care about what you have to say and the things that you are promoting.

For my complete listing of tips on How to promote your Ning Network, download a copy of my eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘.

This post is a part of my blog series / eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘. You can read most of the Chapters of this eGuide on the SistaSense blog. To get the complete guide, with tips not featured on the blog, download your own copy here.