From Linda Roeder,
Your Guide to Personal Web Pages.
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Why?

There are a few places online that will let you create your own social networking site. Why, you ask, would someone want to create their own social networking site when there are so many out there already? One reason would be that there isn't currently one out that covers the niche you want covered.

For instance, do you like knitting and want to meet up with other people who love to knit? As far as I know, there's not a knitting social networking site out there.

Another reason would be if you wanted to create a local site or a site for your organization. Social networking sites are a great way to keep in touch and stay together when you can't get together. They also give you a forum to make announcements and tell about things going on in your group.

Think of this, you have a group of friends, be them school friends, work friends, club friends, whatever. You want to keep in touch and be able to update each other on what's happening in your lives. Or you want to create a study group, work group, idea group, whatever. What better way to do this than with a social networking site?

Where?

One of the most popular of these is Ning. There are other's, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we're going to use Ning. Ning has to be one of the first sites that created the ability for the average person to create their very own social networking site. The site you create can be about anything you want it to be.

When you create your own social networking site on Ning you get all the bells and whistles you'd get with any social networking site. The blog on Ning is so easy to use, just click on "Create a new blog post" from your profile page and write your blog entries. Friends are easy to make on your own network because you're all there for the same reason. If you choose, you can have all the activity from the group listed right on your profile so it's easy for you to see what's going on with everyone.

Upload your own music and videos to your profile too. Add music you have on your computer or from another website. Videos can also be added from your cell phone or through email. If you want to, you can even add videos from YouTube and Google Video. There's one rule, only add music and videos that you have permission to add. Of course you can add photos too. Lots and lots of photos.

Ning also has forums and groups features. Forums are great for getting opinions from members or telling about things you've done or events that are coming up. Groups add depth to your social networking site. When your members create groups they are saying that they have special needs and they want to know who else shares their need. Then they can all talk about it on the forum.

How?

1. Sign Up: From the Ning homepage click on the button that says "Sign up to get started". If you're not already a member of Ning, sign up now. If you're already a Ning member click on the link that says "Sign in here".

2. Log In: Log into Ning with your email address and password.

3. Name It: Now you'll see a box that is asking you to name your new social network and to give it a URL. Think of a descriptive, yet creative name for your new social network and type it in the name box. Then type a shortened version of that name into the URL box. Click on "Create Your Network".

4. Options: On the next page you'll get to choose several options for your social networking site.

5. Privacy: The first will be to decide whether you want to open your network to the public, or make it by invitation only.

6. Tagline: Give your social networking site a subtitle or add a catch phrase for your site.

7. Describe: Tell everyone what your social networking site is about, what they can find there and what they can expect to get out of joining it.

8. Keywords: These are so people can find your social networking site when they're searching for it. Use words and phrases that describe your site and words and phrases that you think people would use to find it if they were doing a search.

9. Language: Choose a language for your site. This is pretty self explanatory.

10. Icon: Every site needs a picture, photo or other type of graphic to help people see what it's about and to catch people's attention. Choose carefully, make sure it's a good match for the theme of your site.

What?

1. Choose features: Decide which features you need and want your members to be able to use. Drag and drop the features you want onto the page, put them where you want them.

2. Appearance: Choose a theme. These come in different colors and with different designs on them. There are quite a few different themes to choose from. You can use the advanced color boxes to change the theme too, or use CSS and create your own.

3. Questions: Choose which questions you want your members to answer when they sign up for your social network. There are a few questions already in there that you can use. Make up the rest yourself. What do you think your members will want to know about the other members?

4. Launch!: Once you click on the "Launch!" button your social network will be created. Now you can invite people or submit the address of your site around the Web to get people to join.

5. Have Fun: This is your site, have fun with it!