Blog Content

It May Depend On Your Theme.It is fair to say that not all of this post applies to every possible blog theme.Some themes do not have a different layout for the homepage,some themes have multiple sidebars,while others have none,some themes have a header and footer,some do not.Plus,I am sure you won n’t agree with every suggestion I’ve outlined below. Please add a comment and let me know where you’d put the widgets I’ve covered in this post.To keep it simple,I have tried to cover some of the most common widgets, along with a few of the more useful ones that you might not be familiar with. Most of these can be found in the Genesis framework for WordPress.And if there’s another plugin I recommend,I have included it below.


In today’s post,we will be looking at 7 widgets that relate to your content.

1.Your Latest Post – Homepage

Showing your latest post on your blog’s homepage is essential. Along with showing readers a new post, it gives a good idea of how up to date the blog is. Putting this at the top of your homepage gives maximum exposure to your new content.
If you’re using the Genesis framework, try the Featured Posts widget – or Featured Widget Amplified if you need more options.


2.More Recent Posts – Homepage

Assuming you have more than one post on your blog, it’s not a bad idea to showcase a few more of your recent posts on the homepage. This gives readers a good way to see what else is new on your blog.
If you’re using the Genesis framework, try the Featured Posts widget – or Featured Widget Amplified if you need more options.


3.Classic Post – Homepage

Once you’ve started to build up a large number of posts (over 100) it may not be a bad opportunity to showcase a few of your older posts, again on the homepage. In How To Maintain Traffic Without Posting New Content,I explained how numbering your posts and updating the oldest posts can significantly boost the overall quality of your blog.
Once you’ve numbered your posts, you can display a post with a specific tag on your homepage. In the Genesis framework, the Featured Widget Amplified will allow you to do just that.


4.Upcoming Posts – Homepage or Footer

This is a good plugin to use if you get ahead with your writing, and schedule a few posts to go out at a later date. In Making a Better Upcoming Posts Plugin, I explain how to use the Upcoming Posts plugin to make a really awesome list of scheduled content.
If you have space, you could display your upcoming posts on the homepage, otherwise try putting them in the footer.


5.Most Viewed Posts – Footer

A list of your most viewed posts can help readers see what’s popular on your blog. Typically, the most popular posts will be viewed more than any others. For instance, if one of your posts is “stumbled” or “dugg” by a lot of people, it may receive a lot of views.
You can display your most viewed posts with the WordPress Popular Posts plugin. However, be careful not to let your popular posts dominate other good posts. Readers tend to gravitate towards the most popular posts first, which is great, but you may find that those posts just get more popular, while others may be forgotten. And once you have a few posts with a huge number of views, the list of your most viewed posts may not change much.
You can get around this by adjusting the plugin settings to only look at posts from the last 30,60 or 90 days.Even if you do use this setting,I wouldn’t recommend putting your most viewed posts on the homepage or at the top of your sidebar. Stick them in the footer for anyone who reads to the end of the page.


6.Most Commented Posts – Footer

In much the same way as your most viewed posts, a list of your most commented posts shows the posts that have generated the most discussion. It’s another way to highlight popular posts, but using a different metric to measure exactly what makes a post popular.
Once again, you can display your most viewed posts with the WordPress Popular Posts plugin. In addition to not allowing your popular posts to dominate other good posts (as mentioned above),be careful when displaying both your Most Viewed Posts and your Most Commented Posts at the same time.You may find that the same posts show up in both lists. As a result, it’s probably best to choose one of the two lists, and not show both.
As before,I’d suggest displaying your most commented posts in the footer.


7.Related Posts – After each post

Showing related posts is a good way to encourage clicks between your posts. When someone finishes reading your post, they can see a list of related posts and stay on your blog for longer.
There’s not much point displaying this anywhere except at the end of your post (but before the comments),as readers are less likely to see it otherwise.


Conclusion:-

A potential drawback with showing related posts is that you may push people away to other posts,when they might have posted a comment otherwise.Of course,if it keeps them reading your blog for longer,it may be an acceptable tradeoff.You can display related posts on a WordPress blog with the plugin: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP).

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