Blogs just aren’t the same as they used to be. In the old days a blog was characterized by time and personality—chronology was important, and you read the blog because of the author, not the information he could give you.
Nowadays blogs are used more for short bursts of information about a single topic—typically a blogger’s expertise. The personality behind a site barely matters. “Content is king!” as you may recall.
So if chronology is no longer important, why post by date? I think part of the answer is that WordPress displays dates by default in most themes. Let me propose an alternative way of displaying content in WordPress. By tag frequency.
Making tags useful
Tags provide wonderful meta information about a post, but sadly this information is typically relegated to an ugly list in the sidebar. I say, if you’re going to go to the work of tagging all those posts, you had better use those tags for something useful!
By adding a couple snippets outside “The Loop” in WordPress you can display N number of posts by X tag. Here is an example to help make it a little more clear:
Imagine you have 20 posts tagged Home and Garden, 10 tagged Clearance, and 13 tagged Hardware. With a bit of PHP we can get WordPress to display posts from each tag in order of most popular to least popular. We can even take it a step further and limit the number of tags to display. The end result might look something like this:
HOME AND GARDEN * Tag 1 Post 1 Title * Tag 1 Post 2 Title * Tag 1 Post 3 Title * Tag 1 Post 4 Title HARDWARE * Tag 2 Post 1 Title * Tag 2 Post 2 Title * Tag 2 Post 3 Title * Tag 2 Post 4 Title CLEARANCE * Tag 3 Post 1 Title * Tag 3 Post 2 Title * Tag 3 Post 3 Title * Tag 3 Post 4 Title
Now that is a usable list of tags that makes the content readily available. A great side effect of displaying posts by tag frequency is that your site become much more dynamic. For example, maybe you go to a plumbing conference and blog 30 posts about it, all tagged Plumbing. The content on the site will automatically start displaying the posts tagged with Plumbing at the top of the list. I call it the “bubbling” homepage.
Enough rambling, here’s the code:
[php]
query(“tag={$tagRight->slug}&showposts=$noOfPosts”);
?>
have_posts() ) :?>
- name ?>
Friday Focus 03/20/09: Fun, Illustrated Personalities
This week’s featured designs have great personalities and stand to remain etched in your brain thanks to generous use of illustrations. You’ll definitely want to meet them!
Designs of the Week
Taking cues from the company’s name and branding, this design is a joy to look at. I can only wish it had more pages so I can see how they can take the construction theme further. I love how the text moves around the design, and not the other way around. Sometimes it’s good for function to follow form, isn’t it?
A snarky website deserves an over the top concept, so here you go. Is that Obama on the left and Einstein on the right?
We’ve seen so many one-page websites with AJAXy scrolling effects with cute illustrations with an ocean theme, and yet seeing a new one like this doesn’t bore me. This design brings several new things to the table, like some texture and grunge to match his scruffy beard and future island job. Take a few things from a concept that works, then add a few touches that make it your own.
Social Media Weekly
Design – 25 of the Best Designed Twitter Homepages
Because the current king of illustrated branding can give you lots of design inspiration too.Programming – Chrome Experiments
Google’s site for demonstrating the power of its browser. Lots of ideas for harnessing JavaScript for neat tricks.Facebook: Advancing and Failing
Depending on what side of the fence you sit on, you might think Facebook is making the right moves, or think it is totally going in the wrong direction. Facebook has tried, since the beginning, to open up its system to various application developers, advancing the functionality, features, and draw of the site, all the while trying to make its developers and itself wealthy. In this equation, little thought is given to the users except what new “trend” can be taken advantage of, and this is what people are currently complaining about as Facebook’s front page starts to mimic Twitter and other micro-blogging tools more and more.
In a world that barely understands blogging, can the masses take advantage of, and enjoy micro-blogging through status messages and whatnot that Facebook now employs?
Talking to many Facebook faithfuls, and Twitter users alike, most seem unhappy with the changes, one of my friends recently saying that Facebook has, in its latest version lost what made it interesting and worthwhile.
In the last design change, Facebook relegated most applications to other pages, rather than the single profile page, we all had before the redesign, and in doing so, they greatly reduced the application development ring that was so large earlier in Facebook’s history.
But with Facebook creating and managing relationships through Facebook Connect, and other application sharing models that are coming to fruition, from a developer’s perspective, Facebook seems determined to attract attention to its platform and user base.
Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform – enabling you to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into your own site. Enable your users to…
- Seamlessly “connect” their Facebook account and information with your site
- Connect and find their friends who also use your site
- Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook
What is it about Facebook that has made it so addicting to millions of people, and has it made a mistake in its recent redevelopment, refocus and redesign? Could someone now take over as the new-Facebook, as Facebook did against MySpace according to many people?
Or as a developer, is it just a chance to get in on the fbFund that attracts you to the platform?
From TechCrunch:
Facebook will choose 50 teams based on app metrics, developer talent and potential to succeed. From those teams, a subset will later be chosen and offered the opportunity to receive up to $100,000 in equity investment and an invitation to participate in an incubator program in Silicon Valley later this year. While there, the teams will be able to meet with Facebook engineers, venture capitalists and other tech executives.
I think Facebook is interesting, but as an early adopter when it comes to the web, and technology, I am ready for the next big thing, aren’t you?
What Drives Your Website?
For designers, there’s always the danger of putting form before function, of providing dazzle without enough substance. I know I’ve been guilty of this more times than I care to admit- even to myself. The truth is, it’s just easier, less of a challenge to pretty something up and leave it at that.
But designs, like so many other things in life, only work when they truly serve their purpose. A website should fulfill its goals and look great while doing it. I like to think of this as the motivation behind the design, and find that it helps to keep a few questions in mind when working on a new website:
What does the visitor want?
Always, always put yourself in the shoes of the person viewing your page- whether for the first time, or the tenth. Ask yourself what he wants, why he’s looking at your page in the first place, how he got there. This progresses naturally to the next question…What does the visitor need?
I once read that the secret behind the luxury Four Seasons Hotels’ impeccable service is that their staff is trained to anticipate their guests’ needs. That’s something you should strive for when creating your website. Will your visitor need to contact you after visiting a page? Make sure you include a contact form there (or place an obvious link to one). This way, you give them what they need before they even know they need it.Why does this page exist?
For example, your front page: it exists to highlight important elements, to link to the various sections, to establish the design feel of the site. Ask this of every new page you create, whether it’s an About page or a Site Map or a Privacy Policy. Asking why a particular page or section exists is also a great way to keep to the essentials: how important is it? Remember, if it’s necessary, it’ll always be useful.How Helping Other Bloggers Can Increase the Traffic of Your Blog
One of the things that has helped me get traffic and links to my blog is simply helping other bloggers.
I often link out to other blogs and sometimes I’ll get a link back. One day, I took this linking out strategy a little bit further. I did some SEO on a post where I linked out to a popular blogger. This post got a number #1 and sent him a lot of traffic over the next couple of days.
Next thing you know, I checked my logs and I saw a lot of traffic coming from his blog. He had published a post welcoming my readers and included a link back to my blog in the post. Also, he added me to his small blogroll. I get a good amount of traffic every month from the blogroll link.
What’s great is that I didn’t ask him to do any of those things. I just helped him out and he returned the favor.
In another instance, I found a useful WordPress plugin for blogs in my niche. I emailed a few WordPress bloggers about it and one of them wrote about the plugin and linked back to me.
Now helping others doesn’t always work. Some bloggers are too busy to help you. But you’ll find that many bloggers will reciprocate and help you. As humans we naturally feel obligated to help those who help us.
Some Actions to Consider Doing
Here are some ideas for helping bloggers.
- If you have a influential account on a social media site like StumbleUpon or Twitter, try promoting another blogger’s post. Make sure to compliment them on their post and tell them that you promoted it.
- Create a really good guest post and send it to a blogger. If your post gets published, do your best to promote it.
- Bloggers will often talk about their goals and projects. Think of ways you can help them accomplish their goals and projects and then take action on one of those ways.
- Buy a product through their affiliate link and thank them for recommending that product.
Your Turn
What are some other ways you can help your fellow bloggers?
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