Replacing a website based on Drupal by a NING solution

I am analysing and considering replace my website - www.jhareias.com - because I depend on a webmaster, by NING that I can develop and mantain by myself.

I hope to finf some answers here.

What I need from my website?

1. Advertise my services - consultancy and education (courses) in Sports Management and Marketing and sell products (books I wrote).

2. Tools

Blog - I find it is possible with NING.

Forum - I use Google Groups as a private virtual classroom , where we post discussions and files liki handbooks for my studantes. I find groups on NING where I can build these private classrooms.

E-learning - in the near future I will intend to offer online courses. It seems that classroom20 has a solution like elluminate. There is no portuguese from Brazil available, but I will consider if is a good solution for me.

CRM - I do not need a complete CRM, but to have a list of emails that I cand send emails inviting those interest in my courses.

Subscription Form - A form to those interested im my courses could fill it out, with name, email and ome other information that is good but not essencial (interests, team, etc).

Thank you in advance

Joao Henrique Areias
www.jhareias.com

Online store - I need a section where people can buy my books. I use a brazilian payment system called PAGSEGURO that works like PAYPAL.

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Permalink Reply by DoonePlace on December 7, 2008 at 2:26pm

You can do all of that with Ning but be forewarned that Ning does not have many tools for importing or exporting Network content so you would need to do a lot of copying and pasting. A few of the items will be best done by widgets and a bit of custom programming.

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Permalink Reply by Joao Henrique Areias on December 7, 2008 at 2:54pm

Thank you Doone. I appreciated your help. As I started one month ago, I do not have many posts in the Google Groups (there are only 60 students that attended my course.
Joao Areias

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Permalink Reply by Ellen on December 8, 2008 at 10:58pm

Hi Joao,

It may be that a Moodle installation with a Drupal wrap is your best solution, however, it is also somewhat tech heavy. Ning has a wonderful simplicity to it and as you might see in my profile can integrate links and feeds. You might start by using this in addition to your Drupal site as an alternate avenue to garner attention.

In the meantime, you should be able to do much more with your Drupal site (make sure you have administrator access and check out the many plug-ins available). You might take a look at this site: www.rayitodesol.net in which I used Drupal as an idea of the possibilities.

All the best,
Ellen

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Permalink Reply by Joao Henrique Areias on December 10, 2008 at 3:07pm

Thank you Ellen.

It was very nice from you to give me some orientation (I am a little bit lost....).

My last webmaster was hired by a big bank here in Rio de Janeiro. Now I am looking for another one. Sincerily I would like to learn drupal, but there is no courses availible here.

All the best for you too,

Joao