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Fun and Informative Tips for Ning Network Creators

Fun Tip #1: Tag Cloud

Want a great way to create a tag cloud (description below) for your Ning Network? Here's a dynamite Tag Cloud Generator:
http://www.tagcloud-generator.com/index.php

Here is an example using some of our keywords. I used the following link to pick up the keywords: http://theningdirectory.ning.com/forum2/topic/list?pageSize=500

Spiritual Search! Medicine Womans Spiritual Lodge ~ Saralonde Medicine Path Jobnet By Category Forums My Listings Beat the Book Sportsbetting Social Network Translated - Get Scripts and Gadgets to Go International! Videos ShowCase Blogs New Age Employment Gold Members Create Ning Network Reply by Directory of Ning Networks - NCs: Add your Network! Music JukeBox My Page Reply by Saralonde New Age Latest Reply SarahPalin Add a Listing Fantasyland Communities All Listings Main COUNTRY LOCALS Inspired Living CLub New Age New Age DIRECTORY Ning Classifieds Photos istanbul NewVibration almaitreya Language TOP100 TOP100 Group Cosmic friends of love THE LIST Spirit Mythos Ascension Hologram Network ForumView RichandRich By Listings Featured Pet Paradise

What is a Tag Cloud? A Tag Cloud contains a list of important keywords. These keywords contain links to pages on your Network. Search Engines typically pick up these type of links. So, if you have keywords that are important to your Network, add those keywords with links to a tag cloud. Fortunately, the tag cloud generator shown above, will automatically pick up the keywords, and add the links for you. Copy and paste the tag cloud HTML to a text box, on your Network.

Fun Tip #2: Keyword Density and Importance

What are keywords?
Keywords are the special words that help Search Engines index your site. These are the words Internet Surfers type into Search Engines, to find web sites. The words we all "Google".

Keywords on a Ning Network versus Web Pages:
On a Ning Network, keywords are added via the Manage/Network Information/Keywords. On regular web pages (outside of a Content Management System like Ning), keywords are added via meta tags. See example #1 below. You do not need this example for a Ning Network. I'm including it, for a sense of understanding keywords. You use the Manage/Network Information page to enter your meta tag keywords.

Example #1:

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword, another keyword, one more keyword, keyword" />

Important Note: From Ning Network Information page, enter quotes around double keywords. Then, Ning interprets them correctly and removes the quotes.

Keyword Importance:
Not only are keywords important from your Network Information page, they are important all over your site.
In addition to your regular keywords, Search Engines will pick up keywords from your site title, menu links, your site description, your tagline, tag clouds, and especially from the top-most text blocks of your home page.

A Great Little Keyword Secret:
Keywords are also picked up from some of your image files. How? When you add an image, be sure to add an Alt="text". If you add an image in a text box, add some special keywords to your image - - within your img src HTML TAG. I will show you an example below, #2.

Example #2:

<img src="image_filename" alt="Enter keywords for your image. Don't enter many.
That could hurt more than help, with some Search Engines. The no-no is called stuffing."
  />

Important Note: The ALT TAG for images is actually used to indicate what the image is, when a site visitor cannot display or load images. The idea behind this keyword secret: If "pets" is an important keyword, use an image of a pet, and then the ALT TAG is appropriate. Also, go ahead and add a few more to the ALT, like "dogs, cats".

Keyword Density:
Did you know that words within your pages (like text boxes) that are in bold, have more weight with Search Engines?
If you have a Ning Network where the word "pets" is very important, make sure you use the HTML TAG for bold. Simply put, from a Ning textbox, select your special keyword. If you don't know the code for bold, just click on the B from the formatting bar at the top of text box.

Fun Tip #3: How To Add Background Image and Border to Chat Box

Ning Chat Box Background Image:
First, select your image, and save to an Internet server folder - - like your Ning Network folder or photobucket. After you know what image you are using, add the following code to the top of your CSS code. Be sure to change the image location, to your server and image file. Access CSS Code from Manage/Appearance/Advanced. After you add code, click on SAVE.

/* Add black border to Ning Chat */
.xg_module_body.body_right {border:1px solid #000000;}

/* Add Background Image to Ning Chat */
.narrow .viewer {
background-image:url(http://your_ningsite.ning.com/your_image_folder/your_image_filename);
}

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Comment by JenSocial on February 4, 2009 at 11:10am: WOW- Due to the instantaneous popularity of our this page: ‘Fun Tips for Ning Network Creators‘, I went ahead and moved/copied the tips from here to a new Group. The Ning Page (here) is easier to paste code like CSS and JavaScript. But, the Group will be easier, and more organized in the long run.

So, check out the new Group, Ning Network Tips for Network Creators at:
http://theningdirectory.ning.com/group/ningnetworktips

Comment by JenSocial on February 4, 2009 at 9:17am: I emailed the code to you. As I mentioned, please let me know if there's a mistake here. I had to do some br line feeds, for the code to fit within width of this page.

/* Add black border to Ning Chat */
.xg_module_body.body_right {border:1px solid #000000;}

.narrow .viewer {
background-image:url(http://networkname.ning.com/images/imagename);
}

Comment by JenSocial on February 4, 2009 at 2:51am: Great!

Comment by JenSocial on February 3, 2009 at 10:30pm: BTW, I made this section a new page, instead of a Group, due to limitations with scripts within Group Discussions. I wish it could have been a Group, so we could add Discussions.