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Everybody is developing on Facebook while I secretly develope for ning.

12 points by Monti ↗ HN
Hello everyone, I am a huge fan of this site, I make a habit of visiting 2-3 times a day. I respect each and everyone of you, Some times when I read your posts I feel your joys and pains as we all in the same boat here.

I am the founder of 2 sites, one launched 6 months ago (made many many mistake) and I am getting ready to launch my new baby in a month or so.

ok, thats just an introduction.

the reason I am here is to simply share the fact that I have started a side project to develop for the ning platform, I only know one other company that is developing exclusively for Ning (not saying there isnt more). anyway, the reason I am posting this is to see if anybody else is secretly hacking away on apps for ning??

Just a quick note, We are developing apps that the network creator can install on their whole networks, so its really more than a user "widget" if you will. Thanks

14 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 35.7 ms ] thread
Monti
Good lord, I cant spell to save my life!
Prrometheus
I stopped being able to spell after a few years using spell-checkers. Since Firefox started incorporating one, it has become even worse.

In second grade I won a school-wide spelling bee. Today I can't even fire off a proper angry comment on a message board without a spell-checker.

gruseom
There's also the so-called Cupertino effect in which spellcheckers suggest words that are similar but completely wrong, e.g. "worker bees commanded by Queen Elizabeth", or "the third yesterday of January". Basically, one form of sloppiness or illiteracy replaced by another :)
andr
That would make a great PostSecret card.
patrickg-zill
How do you get paid for someone using your ning app?
jamiequint
the same way you get paid for someone using your facebook app
swombat
You mean, you don't...
Monti
lol! Actually with ning you can sell your app since Network creators would love to add new and enhanced features on their networks, and willing to pay to get it.

there are 1000 networks being created everyday (based on what ning says) I would assume at least 900 are useless and would never come to anything, 75 would be small 7K+ users, 20 will be a good size 25K+, 5 will be 50K+. all these numbers are completely pulled out of my ass so please don't hold me to them it just to show you that there is a big potential there, at least I think there.

I own a network on ning(for fun) that has 2500 members and it has only been around for 5 months, the site caters to a specific type of profession (court reporting) and so far I have bought 2 apps that I installed on my network and I can assure you I would by more if there were around.

reynolds
If a facebook app is done right you can make a ton of money. Incentivized offers are a huge money maker when creating facebook apps.
markm
Full stop.

Incentivizable offers are a good short term solution. I went from $60 a day to maybe $2 a day whereas subscriptions of $5/month hold steady.

vegai
Never heard of this ning thing before.
agentbleu
Another question, has anyone made any money off a facebook app or myspace, etc.? I'm not convinced that providing entertainment services would be monitizable period. Thus you add value for them, spend money on servers, get 100k users, that pay you nothing.
RyanGWU82
My first thought was how much this sounds like "All my friends are using Facebook while I secretly am using Ning." A social network's not very helpful if you're the only one on there. ;-)

But the network effects are far different for app developers than for users. Good luck, let us know how it goes!