Internet Home Business Success – Making Money With Ning

Wikipedia describes Ning as “An online platform for people to create their own social networks”. It goes on to say that “Ning competes with social sites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo by appealing to people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data. The central feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases”. Ning reports 7.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors so it comprises a massive community and one that can be accessed by the savvy business person. If you have a small business producing a niche product, Ning may just be the tool you need to propel yourself into the ranks of those who have achieved home business success using the Internet.

If you have a particular passion for an activity loved by many people then Ning will suit you. For instance if you are a passionate fly fisherman and you have developed your own line of flies to sell to other fishermen. Assume that to date you have only sold a few flies to local friends and club members. This is where Ning comes in. There are thousands of passionate fly fishermen around America, all of whom are looking for the next fantastic fly. You can create a social network of fellow fly fishermen. This will allow you to do the following:

1     Advertise your products on the network. This will cost you $19.95 per month but this is negligible compared with the new exposure you will get.

2     You can charge membership fees. If you are providing regular high quality information relating to your sport then fellow enthusiasts will willingly join. I understand that Ning has no easy facility for the charging and collection of membership fees but they are working on it. In the meantime you would need to set up a PayPal scheme which will entail some manual work for you to monitor payments each month. Not good but hopefully a solution is in the pipeline.

3     You can join an affiliate program and provide links on your network. You will advertise products relating to your sport (vehicles, boats, clothing, fishing equipment etc) and get paid for all the referrals originating from your site.

4     Sell your products directly to your members.

5     Sell advertising space to suppliers in the industry. If you have hundreds of members, suppliers will place a high value on such a concentrated community of potential customers.

If you have the type of business that could exploit the options outlined above then you need to sign up with Ning immediately. This could be just what you need to become one of those who can lay claim to have achieved home business success using the Internet.