June 2007

Network Creators love to ask us whether the Ning Platform can scale a social network on Ning to millions of people and page views. It’s a great question.

The short answer is absolutely. That’s why we’re here. Our general approach is to quietly earn your trust on this front by simply being up and, well, awesome. As your network continues to grow and grow and grow, it should just work. You shouldn’t even have to think about it.

The longer answer is that creating a platform that works smoothly and speedily at high volume is a challenge. We love challenges. It’s an area that we have taken seriously from the start and a place where we’ve put our money where our mouth is.

No other element or feature of a social network elicits as much venom or praise as the member profile page. Why? It’s simple:

Profile pages on social networks represent the very heart of freedom, self-expression, and the ability to make something uniquely your own.

A profile page is all mine to do (almost) anything I want with it.

Profile Page Features

So, this is my profile page on Ning’s Network Creators:

In many cases, The Right People First is an easier and more common path to creating a wildfire network than One Great Piece of Content.

It’s totally your call as to who are The Right People for your network. That’s the beauty of your own social network. You have the freedom to do anything you want with it.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Funny or Die is the best example of a social network that was created with One Great Piece of Content.

Unlike The Chronicles of Narina on YouTube, Funny or Die was no accident. It was constructed. That’s what makes it beautiful to you and me. You don’t have to be Will Ferrell to do it. You just need to be paying attention.

The most important thing you can be asking yourself as a Network Creator is:

How the heck do I get this thing off the ground?

This is true for any entrepreneur, hobbyist, or company Network Creator.

The good news is that one person can get a network off to the races by focusing on a very small number of important things. That’s easy enough, right?