The Best Way For Internet Marketers To Spend $50

Ning.com lets you create your own social network. You can choose your social networks features (photo, video sharing, forum, gadets etc), its layout and design all for free. For less than $50 you can upgrade to have control of the ads on your network, your own domain name and removal of the Ning promotional links, effectivly giving you total control over your network.

I am going to explain why a Ning network is a great investment and how to market your network effectively for free.

The single big disadvantage with Ning is that the Network must always be hosted with them, so you cannot easily sell your network. However, this forces you to create a long-term profitable network; no dumping it off on someone else if it doesn’t work right away!

Case Study: NetworkAirsoft.com

Below is a case study of a Ning network of my own, which has proved to be a solid investment. I built Network Airsoft to complement an airsoft blog I owned (which I have since sold). Network Airsoft is now profitable all by itself despite it not having a blog to drive traffic to and it is completely self-sustaining. Network Airsoft uses a free Ning theme (like almost all Ning networks do), with a customized header graphic and various upgrades which cost $32.85 per month, with a $10 extra per year for the domain name (total $42). If you are not a graphic designer you may need to pay slightly extra for a logo/header graphic pushing the total up to roughly $50.

How To Make Money From A Ning Network:

These are ways to directly monetize the traffic of your network. If you are using the network to promote a blog or other Websites of yours then your network will be doubly effective.

• Using adsense on a social network gives a terrible click through ratio and very low earnings per click due to the low quality score. Network Airsoft yielded 3 cents from 1 click after thousands of impressions. Adsense is not the way to monetize a Ning network!
• Using CPM ads has potential but requires lots of tweaking and experimentation. I used AdBrite for this, which yielded better results than Adsense, but not enough. You may fare better if your Ning network is in a more mainstream niche.
• Adding an e-commerce or affiliate store is a good option. In the first month of adding an ebay affiliate store I had over 40 bids. Unfortunately airsoft products are quite cheap and so the commissions are small, but if you were to build a Ning network based around a more expensive hobby a lot of money could be made.
• Building an email list. As explained in Yaro Starak’s conversion blogging video, email lists can be very profitable and can be set up with aweber. There is no reason for them not to work well on a Ning network also.
• Finding a sponsor to buy banner ads privately is in my opinion the best way to monetize the network. I’ve done this on Network Airsoft and it brings in by far the most money and it has other benefits. For example mentioning on the site that you have a sponsor, makes your network much more professional, it is a form of social proof. The ultimate move is to persuade your sponsor to give away a relevant item to your members in a contest where members have to promote the site in some way, e.g. by creating a promotional video for your network on Youtube mentioning your sponsor and your network. Everybody wins!

How To Find A Sponsor For Your Ning Network

Remember that niche social networks are new and exciting, advertisers are interested. It is far easier to find a sponsor for a fast growing Ning network than for a blog. A simple way to find a sponsor is to do some quick research and email other more popular sites in your niche. I sent about 20 emails and 2 of them showed interest, with one following up with the sponsorship. Be polite in your email, but aggressive enough with the facts about your network to excite their curiosity.

Marketing Your Ning Network

Marketing a Ning network is a little different to marketing a blog, but just as much fun. It is much less about SEO and so more emphasis is on the social element. Here are some methods, all free of course:

• Facebook marketing. Using a Facebook account to drive traffic is easy. A method I have had success with is adding friends from relevant groups and pages (I’ve made 2000 friends that way). Every time I update my status I am displaying a message or even a link to 2000 people in their news feed. Facebook has sent 100s of highly targeted visitors that way and what is great is the high conversion ratio into network members. On Facebook (as I’m sure you know) your friends can check out your profile and even contact you, so you can answer questions and say hello to your future members, which knocks down any barriers they may have preventing them from joining your ning network
• Promoting your network in forums drives traffic. I have found that because Ning networks are so new and ‘cutting edge’ you can actually create a whole thread about your new network without it being seen as spam because the forum members are actually exited to see a social network about their hobby. This is especially true if your social network is the first in its niche.
• Emailing news blogs in your niche. This one is just common sense but can yield powerful results. Any relevant blog with a readership is a target for your pitch compelling them to blog about your new social network . News blogs (or any blog for that matter) are looking for stories, but be sure to find out the bloggers name to address them personally in the email because this is more polite and always generates much better results.
• The search engines will send you traffic all by themselves. Unlike with a blog where where every post can count and getting the keywords in the title is important (and all the other SEO factors), with a ning network your members are creating the content and they don’t think about keywords. Also most of the links gained are from forums from your own members virally spreading the word for you, so you have no control over the anchor text. Even with a lots of links it takes Google some time to fully index a Ning network, don’t expect traffic from Google for at least 1 month, but after the first couple of months has gone by Google traffic will consistently increase in proportion to the amount of content on your network.

Viral Widgets

Ning lets you create a mini Facebook application for your network, such as a slideshow that displays the latest photos your members have uploaded. These applications are viral and can dramatically increase traffic to your network. These require zero programming knowledge and can be set up very quickly.

Your ning network also comes with a variety of widgets for your members to display on their Myspace pages or blogs of their own. For an example see the widget below:

Visit Network Airsoft

Summary

Many of the monetization methods are the similar to with a blog. The big difference is that Ning networks create self-sustaining passive income. Once your network reaches a certain number of pages in Google and a certain number of members promoting it virally it will continue to grow all by itself. All you have to do is monetize and moderate it, with the occasional contest or other promotional event to push it forward faster. Members of your network may volunteer to moderate it, which is good news for you!

To be taken seriously by your members and sponsors and also for the sake of branding, the upgraded version of Ning with your own domain name and no Ning ads really is necessary.

Can you think of a better way Internet Marketers can spend $50?

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