Definitive Sticky Posts Guide for WordPress 2.7

Nathan Rice on November 11, 2008

As the blogosphere is abuzz about all the cool new features in WordPress 2.7, I’ve seen very few (if any) good posts on the new Sticky Posts feature that will allow you to take any story, or stories, you’ve published and place them at the top of your homepage without editing the timestamp.  This new feature will allow you to take posts that you’re especially proud of and display them for all the world to see for as long as you want.

But for many theme and plugin developers, and even users who may want to do a little DIY theme hacking, there is very little documentation for getting the feature set up to do the things you want it to.  That’s where this guide comes in. Read More

Creating a “Blog Page” — With Paging

Nathan Rice on May 14, 2008

If there was one question I get asked the most about WordPress themes, it’s this one: how do I make a custom static homepage at the root of my blog’s address (e.g. http://example.com/) and have my blog posts go into a /blog section (http://example.com/blog)?

WordPress is becoming more and more usable as a Content Management System, so naturally the question comes up.

But they don’t want to abandon the idea of a blog either. Blogs can be an integral part of a business website, and it makes sense that businesses and individuals would want the site and the blog managed from the same WordPress installation. Read More

3 Ways to Optimize Your Blog Homepage

Nathan Rice on September 14, 2007

Back when I wrote “Good Design Starts with the Homepage”, I didn’t include much in the way of tips for actually achieving that perfect homepage. The fact is, there is an endless list of possibilities to optimizing your blog’s homepage, but I believe that if you do these 3 simple things, you’ll be on your way to the perfect homepage!

(disclaimer: all the below tips pertain to WordPress blogs. Sorry guys, I’m a WordPress fanboy.)

1. Use the correct header tags

One of the most common semantic mistakes made by blog designers (at one time, myself included) is using the wrong header tag to wrap your titles in. Read More

Good Design Starts With the Homepage

Nathan Rice on September 3, 2007

I know there’s a lot of controversy over which part of your blog is most important.  Some people say that because most of your traffic is going to come from links to your individual posts through either search engines or links from other blogs.  Others say that because one of the most clicked links on your website is the “home” link, the homepage is the most important detail you should focus on.

While I don’t want to negate the importance of individual post page design, I personally find the homepage to be where you should spend the majority of your time designing.

The reason is simple (at least in my mind).  Once the homepage is taken care of, single post pages can be taken care of based on your homepage design.

See, web design is all about structure.  A “wireframe” if you will.  And if the structure of your homepage is in order, it can be copied (at least partially) for the structure of the single post template.

For instance … if you are designing a blog homepage, chances are you’ll have a header, navigation, a content column, and some sidebars.  Work on the homepage … get the layout hammered out … then use that layout as a guide for your single page template.  Replace “recent comments” with “popular posts”.  You get the idea.

I’m not saying one is more important than the other … I’m just saying to start with the homepage, and let the other page designs follow from the way your homepage flows.