Lately I’ve been building some sites with Ning. It’s a social community site similar to Myspace or Facebook, but without all the super crazy distractions.

What I’ve really be digging about Ning is that it really provides an atmosphere where people can interact with each other much more in depth then in a typical forum. Users can exchange videos, write their own blog posts, upload pictures, music, etc etc.

But here’s where I think it gets really cool. Because of the options the users have to contribute to the site, you get a really good glimpse into them as “real people”. Most savvy marketers talk about the need to get to know your prospects.

Well, with Ning you get a really good idea of just who your target audience is. You get to see their faces, their likes and dislikes, their rants, raves, and whatever they are willing to put out there.

My girlfriend and I have been working on a site and she’s been very interested in finding out exactly who would be replying to her Adwords ads. Well, after quite a few clicks we are starting to get a good idea of who the target market really is.

We can now see their pictures, location, and get a really good feel for who the target market is.

Anyhow, what I really love about Ning the most is the simplicity behind using it. Anyone can set up one of these sites. You can have it open to the public or make it private and require registration. You can use the free version, or pay $20 to strip away the Adsense ads and add your own monetization method in it’s place.

All in all, Ning is pretty darn cool.

We just moved the Easy Video Sales mastermind over there and I already like it 10 times better.

So, if you are in need of creating a social community for your niche websites, take a look at Ning. You might dig it as much as I.

Cheers,

J-Mo