Ning will no longer be providing free accounts and will be phasing out it’s existing free networks. It can still be a cheap option for community groups, or there are some alternatives that remain free.

Read about the changes to Ning here

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We created this guide as a walkthrough for the Ning session of ‘Creating a Website for Community Groups’.

The topics covered in this guide are:

• Setting up an account on Ning.com
• Creating a social network
• Changing the appearance of your network
• Adding features
• Uploading photos
• Starting discussions
• Inviting members

Download the Ning Guide (pdf, 1.6MB)

This guide is based on the Talk About Local Guide, which can be found at http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/set-ning/

The big part of this is CONTENT! If you write good content, people will come back to your site and they will encourage other people to visit, by linking to your blog elsewhere.

WordPress guides

1. Lifehacker’s Beginner’s Guide
2. 10 Plugins for WordPress
3. WordPress Plugins for Community Sites
4. WordPress for beginners – video

Write good content

1. Wridea – a free tool for brainstorming and collaborating
2. The elements of style – a classic reference text
3. Articlechecker.com – check for similar content already online
4. Writer’s block? – 20 Blog Topics to Get You Unstuck
5. 5 Steps to Creating your ‘Voice’

Stay the right side of the law!

1. Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers
2. Talk About Local’s Libel and Defamation blog post

Royalty-free images

1. Wikipedia Commons
2. Stock.xchang

Other ways to promote your blog

1. Share videos on YouTube
2. Share photos on Flickr
3. Create Facebook Pages
4. The Twitter Guidebook

http://www.audlem.org/

http://goosemoor-lane.com/

http://www.wakegreenpark.blogspot.com/

http://www.harringayonline.com/

http://mytunstall.co.uk/

http://kingtonblackboard.org/

http://www.trefriw.org/

http://wrexhamblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.llandaffnews.com/

http://www.chesterwiki.com/Main_Page

http://www.chestertogether.co.uk/

And a few that are more issue / community based:

http://bizfizzburslem.wordpress.com/about/

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/liverpool/

http://www.choirzone.net/wirral_community_choir

http://www.mctof.org.uk/

The best place to link in to more local sites might be http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/

The topics covered in this guide are:

• Setting up an account on WordPress.com
• Creating a blog
• Changing the appearance of your blog
• Writing your first blog post
• Adding images to your posts
• Adding links to your posts
• Moderating comments

Download the WordPress Guide (.pdf, 1.7MB)

This guide is based on the Talk About Local Guide, which can be found at http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/how-set-wordpress/

Community Building Online

Here’s to the future of online communities

We’re very excited to create this new blog and we hope to engage our local community in its activity. Please feel free to post a comment or come back regularly to check for updates.

Thanks for reading!

This training is provided by Deep Search