Ning has come out of its beta and delivered on its promise to allow anyone and everyone to create their own social networking site. Since the relaunch, Ning requires zero programming experience, and the new streamlined social application building process allows you to have your own social network up and running within minutes. I just tried making a social network and the whole process took me less than 5 minutes from signing up on the site to having the url live.
The first step after naming and describing the new application is drag and drop desired modules- such as text boxes, RSS feeds photos, forums, blogs and videos – into the application in the area you want them. Adding the “members†module, for example, shows a list of the networks most popular members within that module.
Even though you don’t need to have any programming experience, those of you that do, can further customize the site to suit your needs. Furthermore, while the site is completely free for basic use, there are upgrades available for a cost.
According to CEO Gina Bianchini, growth for the site has been both steady and strong.
Nearly 30,000 applications have been created to date, up from less than 5,000 a year ago. Page views have been spiking, reaching 20 million per month, 20x traffic a year ago. Unique visitors have reached nearly 5 million per month as well, 10x a year ago.
Team Arrington has a much more in-depth look at Ning.
Originally posted on February 27, 2007 @ 12:29 pm