Using Swyzzle with a Ning Social Network

We recently built Ethel Zings (http://EthelZings.com), an Ethel Merman parody community, using Ning. If you haven't heard of Ning, it's a platform for creating your own social network web site with a blog, video and photo uploads and members. Right now, Ethel Zings has a couple blog entries and a small number of members. The "Ethel Zings Rock - Show #1" is a parody of Ethel Merman singing some of the finest rock and roll music. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Embedding a Swyzzle show in Ning

If you create a Ning network and want to embed Swyzzle shows, it's really simple. While you are in your Swyzzle account, go to Manage My Shows and select the show you want to embed. In the Share My Shows section, choose the size (anything up to 800 x 600 worked well). If you want the show to play as soon as the show loads, click the Autoplay box. Then click Create Embed Tag. Your embed code is ready to paste. Go to the Ning post and just paste it into the post. As soon as you publish your post the Swyzzle show will be visible. You can also add it to any page you create using the Add Page feature in Ning.

Our experience with Ning

Ning is a really nice tool for creating a social network. We used the free level, but added domain mapping for $4.95 per month (so it's EthelZings.com instead of EthelZings.ning.com). Here's a summary of what we learned:

Positive:

• It's easy to set up the network. You can choose your own templates and customize the look somewhat (we added our own header graphic)
• Inviting members is simple - you can select contacts from your accounts at gmail, yahoo, microsoft and aol.
• Blog entries are quick
• You can tell which members are on line
• Posting our Swyzzle show was really easy. Just paste the embed code from Swyzzle right into your post.

Negative:

• I wanted my last blog post to be open when people arrive at the site instead of having to hunt around for it
• Some of the things I expected to be under "Appearance" were under "Features"
• The Google ads take up a lot of real estate and cost $29.95 a month to remove - a bit pricey.

The negative comments aren't too bad, and we're pretty big fans. Go play with it if you have a chance.