Creating a static front page on a blog

by Sapphire (December 1, 2007)

I decided one of my blogs needs a static front page. There’s just so much going on and so many subdomains, it really makes sense to have a landing page with links instead of dumping people in on whatever post happens to be at the top.

I actually do not think this is appropriate for every site. For example, this one: it attracts a very tight niche of people who know what a blog is and more specifically what an affiliate marketing blog is. It would look strange to me to visit an aff marketing blog and find myself starting with a landing page. Plus, what would I say on that page? “Here is my blog. It’s about stuff. Um, here is the directory. Well, enjoy!”

It is suitable for blogs that have a network of subdomain blogs under them, or blogs that attract people who don’t ordinarily read blogs and tend to assume whatever article is at the top indicates what sort of site it is.

I opted to create a static front page with a different template from my other pages, which was easier than I thought. The instructions confused me for a minute, but basically you

• Create a new page with a php ending in your template (say, “jinglebells.php”)
• You stick the code they show in the above link in the top of that file, then I would copy and paste the content from your single.php file into the rest of it, then edit it until you like it
• Now every page has the option of which template you want to assign it. Go into the pages you want to have the jinglebells template, and assign it to them.

Posted in Blogging
Subscribe to the feed or email updates