I’ve been evaluating “Ning” (http://www.ning.com/ platform launched by Google using Open Social API) for a social media site I want to build and found some good and not so good issues with it. Is it right for your business?
Incidentally, and quite by coincidence, I was walking with my wife and 6mo old son in Palo Alto (California, USA) this past weekend and saw this beautiful building with a nice courtyard, etc. and I said, wow what a nice, rich-looking building – and then, I saw in small letters on one of the doors, “ning’
Nothing wrong with being rich – don’t get me wrong. But at who’s expense…? These guys are savvy business people and the platform is clearly meant for the non-savvy; they take all the rev. from ad sales, build domain authority by having all the social networks on their domain (90%) or, have their page ‘point’ to your domain (which they host and control at an additional cost but the content is still on their domain.), then they still have their links on your site – even if you pay extra, etc. etc….
Ning thought about their business model well and while they’re winning, it doesn’t leave enough room for others to win. I say use ning for fun but drop ning for business – it doesn’t give a new business the start-up chance it needs!
I read forum posts from the site and there a few others that are not pleased with the platform and vocal about it also – citing many of the issues I’ve mentioned here.
I am looking into other platforms that truly allow you to run your own business, host your own domain, put your own ads and links to whoever you want to so you can it out and earn revenue from day one!
Good Luck! & Feel free to keep in touch!
Lawrence Touitou brings you the Best SEO, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the Top SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.
Tags: internal linking, SEO for social media, SEO search engine optimization