How to create a social network for traffic

While most all of the posts in this category are about how to utilize Social Networks for Traffic and Promotion, how many people out there are creating social networks for traffic reasons. We have created a social network on 'Ning' for two clients and have seen that it has been a great success. We only have about 200 members on each site and I will not get into specific on what niche other than they are completely different one geared towards animal sports and the other to mid-income family needs... the amount of CONTENT that the users have produced has been uterly AWESOME and just having a link to the site these networks where setup to promote has been WAY better than either a high ranking Hubpage or Squidoo lens could ever generate.

Has anyone else had sucess with this strategy? I thought it was going to be to time consuming to get going and produce, but a simple email to over 1000 subscribers did the trick and the network grew legs of it's own. In both cases a really big SEO boost came into play about 3.5 to 4 months after creation and email going out to the double opt in lists we built.

PM me if you want the details on the niche and/or let me know if you have had success OR failure with this method.

Peon - TLBrown

 

What's the difference between this and just putting up a forum or a blog?

 

what is Ning? I am interested in having social media links also if you have such ability... PM me please