-By allowing anyone to create their own mini social network free of charge, the creators of ning.com believed that such a strategy would become a run away hit.

– What the creators failed to factor into such a strategy, was the fact that most people wouldn’t want to spend much time on generic personal social sites, when they were already members of the most popular general social net-works, and popular niche networks.

– Once the creators noticed that such a strategy wasn’t feasible for the company for the long haul, they decided to do away with the free strategy and replace it with a fee strategy.

– The fee strategy, does bring in more revenue than the free (ad supported) strategy. However, ever since such a network focused on their current fee strategy, they have failed to seek out meaningful innovation.

– I still believe that the for free strategy would have been, and would be useful in certain areas – especially when it comes to gaming. However, such a strategy would’ve had to have a slightly different system.

– Instead of a single minded focus on a social strategy, ning.com could’ve focused on a gaming strategy, in which individuals build personal teams within their own social/gaming spheres.

– The most obvious ways to generate revenue off of such a social/gaming strategy, would be through sponsored competitions, virtual item sells, general ads, etc. Yet, there are other revenue streams that could easily be tapped through the creation of relevant features… features that would perfectly fit into the structure of existing social and/or gaming networks with the proper system…

– Even a company like Microsoft could easily enter the social network race, with an initial push that would intergrate their x-box live feature into a relevant and innovative social platform.

– In sum, I believe ning.com’s founders gave up on figuring out a relevant/profitable free strategy too soon. Yet, I realize that they still have time to build a free strategy system that would initially complement their current fee strategy- especially since the free strategies would ultimately outshine their current strategy if created properly.