If you visit the homepage of social networking site, Ning, you will notice at the bottom a portion conveniently titled: “Why You’ll Love Ning.” If you click on the View more button, you will be taken to the About page that lays out 6 simple reasons to why you should join. Still, after looking over the reasons that they lay out, is it really enough to compel a user to sign up for an account?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons they say you’ll “love it”

1. So Easy it Works

“In less than 30 seconds, get your Ning Network up and running. Then deliver a compelling social experience to millions of people.”

While 30 seconds is quite fast, ‘up and running’ can be misleading. Facebook takes less than one minute to start, but it takes longer to fill out your information, find your friends, and upload photos. Likewise, if you are looking to create your own ‘network,’ you are looking at more than 30 second to get things going.

2. Member Engagement

“Connect people around your interest or passion. Drive deeper engagement than you’d get on a blog or website, and tap into member data.”

This is definitely a big draw for those looking to create their own network as Ning does provide many different tools as far as customizing one’s page with applications and widgets. As far as member data though, that remains to be seen.

3. Make it your own

“Fully integrate your brand and wield complete visual control. Use your own domain and establish a social identity that amplifies your brand.”

Another big draw for Ning is giving communities a way to have their own domain attached to it. An example of this is Linkin Park, whose site is actually built upon the Ning network.

4. Unique experiences

“Mix and match 15+ features to deliver the social experience right for you. Share your Ning Network with the world or maintain a private circle.”

If some of the Ning networks that you may have seen look vaguely familiar, that is because they share many of the same design aspects of MySpace. Albeit with less advertisements and better content control, Ning does take some elements as far as layout functionality and design go. While there some pros to this, with more and more users moving away from MySpace, Ning needs to do the same.

5. Go viral

“Exponential growth is in our DNA. Automatic Twitter integration, email invitations, and branded media players will hook in new members.”

Remember, this is supposed to be a reason why you will “love” Ning. Twitter integrations, email invitations and branded media players are all common practice on blogs and are easily accomplished through custom widgets and by building a site on a WordPress platform for example. This is nothing new.

6. Profit from passion

“Turn your passion into a business, or drive grassroots funding for your campaign or cause. Run your own ads and earn 100% of the revenue.”

Generating revenue from a Ning network would make me love it, but until I’ve seen it done on more than one occasion and that it can be proven to be consistent, many users will be skeptical of this.

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Although the fore mentioned reasons all make a strong case for one to sign up, that all stands to change as Ning recently announced they would be rolling out a pricing model for networks. No longer can you start your own network for free, but you will have to pay a monthly fee. With so many other social networks available like Facebook and even MySpace, does it really make sense for the average Joe looking to start his own niche group to pay for Ning? Probably not.

So, will we really love the new Ning?

Joseph is the Director of Marketing at Viralogy.com & works in social media & sports consulting. Read more about him at http://JosephAYi.com

Tags: Ning, Pricing, social networks