If you have an association, cause or even a business, consider building your own social networking site from scratch. The best part about this is you don’t have to be a programmer and you don't have to do it through Facebook!
There are a number of sites on the Internet that enable you to create your own social networking site. Ning is the most popular one. But, there are others, like Elgg, SocialGo, Spruz and Grou.ps. If you are looking to create your own community, it’s best to check out all these sites before selecting one. 
Ning has been around since October 2004. The site, which used to be free, boasts more than 40 million visitors a month. Recently, the web site started to charge a fee to have a community on the site. The fee is minimal, $10 and up.
Ning has more than 2 million communities established on the site. The site is broken down into various categories, such as Entertainment, Music, Politics, Activism, Sports, Brands, and Publishing. It offers a 30-day free risk free trial, and it is fully integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more.
In an interview on the Charlie Rose Show this past March, Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, said that communities on Ning range from the Bulivian government to people who love surfing.
Elgg focuses on schools and community groups but also offers businesses and non-profit organizations the opportunity to use the service. To me, Elgg looks like a functional site. It’s not attractive like Ning, but if you are looking for a basic site to host your community, this could be a viable choice.
SocialGo is another community building site. What I like about this site is that they offer live help to walk you through the development of the site. Some of the sites on SocialGo include “Christian Military Wives,” and “We R Moms.” Each site on the network has it’s own individual design. This service is offered for free for 1 GB of storage and 10 GB of Bandwidth, but if you are looking for more, the prices start at $14.95 each. SocialGo has Facebook integration, along with blogging and forums on each site.
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