Request to Make NEXT and PREVIOUS Blogs more prominent

[Debby Bruck]

Dear Ning Creators and Administrators

I know you have more important things to worry about, especially as so many changes have been happening with Google, algorithms and major restructuring and developments on the NING platforms.

I would just like to spark an idea about how to get people to stay on the NING platforms, read more of an author's work, and make the possible selections of related material more prominent.

I'm providing some illustrations below:

At the very bottom of each blog post a number of social networking selections are available. In all the years that I've been on NING, I used only a few of the features below the blogs. Lately, I click the new LIKE button, and some other members are finally starting to click it, too. Ever since the  Twitter and FaceBook share buttons have been implemented, they also get used frequently once I teach a member how to find it and use it.

But, what about the PREVIOUS AND NEXT POST?

In my mind and the way I visually view these pages, these tiny links blend into the page and becomes quite hidden, especially the NEXT POST because it is flush right and away from all the text on the page. There is nothing that makes it stand out attractively.

Now I'd like to plant in your mind two options that Hubpages uses to promote more activity on their network.

1) At the bottom of each article the bold and colorful choices to rate the article. And, when the author has categorized the blogs, the Titles are prominently printed in bold colors with supporting arrows. We're more likely to see these choices and click.

2) In addition to these lively enhancements for any member of the community, others can get in on the topic of discussion with the prominently placed selections on the sidebar.

Make the comparisons yourself and see what you think. I've been wanting to talk about this for a couple of years now, but have been too busy building my NING network.

Everything that Hubpages does really gets the entire membership involved and excited to participate with all the possible modes of action. They also have the mainstream activity page with commenting, plus a forum area for inside discussions.

At this time they are undergoing major structural changes and this has caused a bit of havoc. But, otherwise, they've got many ideas that NING could put into place to enhance our networks.

Blessings

Debby

[Michael Thompson]

Hi, Debby,

I do like some of the other ideas such as they have on hubpages. In regards to the next and previous blog buttons, I have replaced them with arrows. It could be better, but the arrows do seem to have helped to increase use of these next / previous buttons. 

example of the arrows:

http://www.standingstonenews.com/profiles/blogs/juniata-college-pro...

[Debby Bruck]

Very nice Michael. How did you replace them? It's one little thing that makes the forward and backward movement among blogs better, but the whole experience needs upgrading. You can see how the programmed integration of similar topics done within the system, rather than having to input data to collate articles within the network. This is another thing that I do manually.

[PeruCool]

Like, me uno a la idea.

[Ed]

I believe they're working on, or planning to work on the blogs at some stage this year. Take a look at the Product Roadmap.

[SweetPotato]

I have changed my pagination to look like this on my legal blog posts and this on my lawyer members page.

css:

/* PAGINATION*/
ul.pagination li a{
border:none!important;
background:#E00B3B;
font-size:14px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;
border-radius:5px;
color:#ffffff;
padding:5px;
}

ul.navigation {
    background-color: transparent !important;
    display: block;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    position: relative;
    width: 730px;
    z-index: 5;
}

might be of use, might not.

SP

[Debby Bruck]

That is super awesome. Where do we put the code you have provided?

[SweetPotato]

sorry, advanced css section. change colours to suit.

SP

[Michael Thompson]

Hi, SP,

I gave your code a try. It looks nice. However, I am having trouble with the text color on hover. My page buttons are blue to match the color of my site with the text color white. However on hover the text turns blue (the default text hover color for my site). How can I make my page/blog button text remain white on hover? I want the network default hover to remain blue for the rest of the site, but for these buttons I would like the text to be white or gold (the other color on my site) on hover.

You can take a look here. 

[SweetPotato]

Add

ul.pagination li a:hover{
color:#ffffff;
}

Not tested it as I'm on mobile but should do the job
Sp

[Michael Thompson]

Debby,

I believe that I used the language editor to insert the arrows. I will check.

Sweetpotato,

As always great job sweetpotato!

[Michael Thompson]

Yes, it was the language editor. 

In language editor > I searched for Previous Post > I inserted the following:

<p><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/rb26OEU*p8LIujaEnaTEO8x*NoZhCOAwHsI1-iDboRwLhHd-Pl29tWbZgOKgkgBec5LA2G80HSBwSKuc0Q4OzpFdj1HuWHEW/Previous.png" width="30" /></p>

You can exchange the image with any back arrow image and adjust the size. 

Language Editor > Next Post > I inserted the following:

<p><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/kblBBo-wrJ2tot1*gOSeCOp6vTbCFxoWQ2sNnHPWbBrlcszOmHEKy9*UF2mxZjyF4waG8Bzl85yUhcGJxMa9H-EjfEaTjtmv/Next.png" width="30" /></p>

Again, you can replace with any arrow image and adjust the size. 

Sweetpotato's solution might work better for most. Perhaps this may be useful as well to some of you. 

[Debby Bruck]

Please teach me how to SEARCH IN LANGUAGE EDITOR? I can't figure it out. I clicked LANGUAGE EDITOR But there is nothing that says SETTINGS. Hold on. Maybe I found it. I have to click "ENGLISH"

WOW! That is so cool Michael. It worked! Whoopeee!

Unfortunately, SweetPotato, I have not had success with ANY CHANGE TO CSS on my website.

I do wish there was someone who could take a look at it and see what is wrong.

I have tried so many times. For instance, I wanted to change the Titles to ALL CAPITAL LETTERS the way it is here on NING CREATORS to no avail. Blessings, Debby

P.S. You can see it worked here.  Also, I like the way when you mouse-over it spells out the name of the next blog.