Ning recently replaced its long-time CEO Gina Bianchini with COO Jason Rosenthal and, as with any shift in power, changes were to follow.  If you work for Ning the bigg news was that they cut 40% (70 peeps) of their staff, for the rest of us the big announcement was that they would no longer offer free accounts.  That means all existing free Ning sites would either have to transition to a premium service or go elsewhere.

Most of the people I questioned on this topic replied with “What’s Ning?”  If you’re one of these people I’ll go ahead and clear up the mystery.  Ning is a hosted service that allows you to create your own network very much like Myspace.  And I don’t mean that you can have your own page like on Myspace, but the network itself.  So if you were into Poodles you could have a Poodle network and all of your Poodle peeps could have their very own Poodle page on your site.  Sweet right!

Yeah it is.  Ning does this quite well really.  When you think of a free (or formerly free) service the picture that comes to mind is something very ghetto and ugly.  And while that may not be far from the truth, Ning could be styled to look quite nice by the right person. And the tools provided by ning are down right decent. Very few products are able to match this service and I’ll bet they stay alive for years to come - even without the freebies.

In my practice I tend to do a healthy amount of Ning build-outs. Luckily all of my clients have premium networks and won’t be negatively affected by the changes. And I’m okay with letting my own free NIng sites die as they were essentially my testing grounds but I had just spent a chunk of my precious time designing a Ning site for a family member.  Oh well.

I’m guessing this will be a good move for Ning.  They’ve been around long enough to know where they stand popularity wise and cutting the dead weight should free up valuable resources which will now be able to focus on serving their paying clients.  Sounds good to me.

Below are a few examples of Ning sites I’ve styled:

Since the beginning of Webdom banner ads have the been a zit on the face of web. Whether rapidly changing color like a horny cuddle fish, jumping out at you from nowhere or maybe just hanging out in the corner, these attempts at grabbing your attention most often lead to nothing.

I was inspired to write on this topic after seeing a small banner ad for bake mix of some kind (brownies I think) making a sad plea for my time. It was apparently the wrong size because a quarter of it was being cut off and the part that was visible simply showed me a picture of the product packaging, a tag line and a button that said “Click Me.” Day-um. Even if I had been interested in brownies I wouldn’t have clicked that banner. It was trying too hard (but keep trying). By attempting to communicate too much the message was lost all together.

The question they should have asked themselves was “What do I want to accomplish with the ad?”
Was it a click? Are you going to convert a brownie sale right there on the web? Doubtful. If you want brownies you’ll go to the grocery store. Likely the best you can hope for with a web ad for brownies is brand and/or product exposure. Maybe they’ll think of you next time their shopping. So why waste all that real estate with a tag line and button.

A more effective option would be to infuse the ad with humor, that way It’s more likely to be memorable and I, the viewer, would have received something from the ad.  A laugh can be very valuable and I’m likely to reward them with a purchase later on.  Admittedly humor can be difficult to achieve so a simpler approach might be to simply use all the banner real estate to communicate the product.  Fill the banner with the brownies and eliminate the tag line and button, no one will click it anyway.

If you have realistic expectations of what the banner can accomplish you’ll reap a greater reward.

Sometimes the change caused by technology happens so fast we don’t see it coming.  Other times it leaves us tapping our fingers, waiting for things to catch up.  TV on the web seems to be the later.  It’s not a new concept.  Webtv was a front-runner of the web but the public wasn’t ready.  Now many of us are ready and there’s little to be had.

Now I’m not saying you can’t watch TV shows on the web because you can.  Networks like ABC and NBC, as well as secondary providers like Hulu, have been providing online programming for quite some time but that’s beside the point.  My question is why can’t I see the shows I want to see whenever I want to see them?

As far as I know, networks make money by selling advertising.  And the TV commercial has been somewhat of a phenomenon for oh, a gazzillion years, yet I still can’t watch a full episode of Bear Grylls wrestling up a tree without having cable?  The cable companies must be to blame, right? Maybe they’ve got tight contracts with the networks guaranteeing them exclusive rights to the content.  But why? The internet is nothing new. If you own digital content, which is what TV shows amount to these days, why not distribute them through as many channels as possible?

I can, however, watch 30 Rock, but only the most recent episodes. The current model here seems to be very much based on fear.  Certainly the cable company is worried the internet will take over and for good reason, it is!  But why then are limited “network” shows available? I really don’t have the answer myself.  Storage and hosting costs should certainly be offset by advertising revenue, theft may be an issue but once it’s out there, it’s out there and the damage has already been done or maybe they are afraid of hurting DVD sales.  I’m hoping there’s another reason I’m not smart enough to think of.

Tell me this, how much money are episodes of Hell’s Kitchen Season 4 making Fox right now?  Are people flocking out to buy the series on Blue Ray?  I doubt it.  But I would certainly watch it on Fox.com or Hulu.com.  My wife and I just finished watching Season 5 and 6 online and we’re ready for more, yet it simply isn’t available.  I’m sure one could argue that selling advertising for an older show is difficult but why?  Unlike cable, when I watch a show online the provider knows. Therefore we can( and do) sell advertising based on views.  An old show suddenly becomes just as valuable as the new one.  Especially at the end of a season!

Hopefully it won’t be long before this post is irrelevant but right now I’m wishing for more. In a time where every dollar counts you’d think less would be left on the table.

This may be a little off topic but I think it’s time for a new direction in the marketing of shaving cream. Wa what? Yeah, shaving cream. Most of us use the stuff every day but how much do you like it?

When you’re strolling down the hygiene isle at the grocery store it’s pretty clear that shaving cream has two distinct markets, men and women. Blue and green paired with black or silver is for men and anything pink is meant for the ladies. Of course that makes perfect sense but there’s something else.

Men’s shaving cream usually smells like the alcohol and menthol cocktail that it is, while women’s shaving cream can smell of fruit, perfume or even baby powder. Having been married for the last ten years I can tell you that I’ve tried them all. And while I loathe commercial baby smell the fruity goodness offered by SC Johnson’s Skintimate brand is nothing short of pleasant.

Having toggled back and forth a few times between my male branded shaving cream and my wifes shaving cream I must say that men’s shaving cream sucks. Why would I want put something inches from my nose that smells like menthol and stings my skin when I could be lathering on an olfactory rainbow of fruit flavors?

Now I have owned some fancy men’s shaving cream that had a nice smell and no burning sensation but it was nearly 20 bucks a bottle! I didn’t get to finish it either; thanks airport security.

So I suppose it comes down to comfort. Maybe if you have a coarse beard or sensitive skin the alcohol and moisturizers in men’s shaving cream may do something for you. But as for me I’d like to see some unisex fruit smells on the market. A hard sell? Probably. But I can dream.