As the head of your community, you’re going to get questions from your members. They’ll want to know how your site works, how to change privacy options, how they can find other members, etc. This section of the Help Center is here to serve as a reference point whenever you have questions about your members’ experience.

Welcoming your members

Some of the most successful Ning Networks have set aside a page for members (and potential members) that explains what the community is all about, how people interact on the site, and encourages new members to get involved. These types of Welcome Centers can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be, but keeping it short and simple is probably the easiest way to start. If you don’t know where to begin, we’ll help you Create a Welcome Center for Your Members.

Want to customize the email your members receive when they sign up? Great idea. You can Edit the Welcome Message by changing the text in the Language Editor.

Admins vs. Roles: What’s the difference?

Recruiting people to help manage your network is a superb idea. Before you decide how you want to do this, you may want to take a look at how permissions are set up. Some sections of your dashboard will only be accessible to you, the Network Creator (e.g., the Custom Code area). Many are editable by admins. Admins have a good amount of power on your network, so you should only appoint people you trust to admin status. If you’re not ready to entrust members to that level of power but want people who can help out with forum or chat moderation, etc., consider Roles instead. Roles let you give members privileges around specific features.

• Appoint Administrators on Your Network
• Privileges an Administrator Has on Your Network
• Appoint Multiple Levels of Administrators

Members and their privacy options

It’s up to you whether to make your community public or private. No matter which you choose, your members have additional privacy options they can set for their own profile page. This is a great article to have on-hand if any of your members ever have questions about privacy:  Control Privacy Settings of Your MyPage.

Member profile pages: customizable or locked down?

One detail many Network Creators feel strongly about is whether their members should be allowed to customize their own profile pages (MyPage). If your community is all about self-expression, you may want your members to go hog wild with their profile designs. If you have a business-oriented network that you want to look consistent and professional, locking down profile pages may be your preferred mode. Learn more about how to Control Profile Page Customization.

Paid membership options

Can you charge for membership? Yes, you can! We offer an optional Paid Access add-on which will take care of all of the accounting details for you. You can charge for access to your entire site, access to premium groups, or access to specific pages on your network. Most Network Creators who charge for Paid Access use it for site-wide membership, but you can use it however you think it will work best for your community. Head over to the Introduction to Paid Access to check out your options.