Sep | 11 | 2006

Creating your home.php quite easily on WordPress

Posted by Professor as Blog Tutorial, Templates, Plugins, Tips, Blogging Tools

home If you have been thinking of using WordPress as a CMS aside from a blog, or if you just want a static front page on your blog, it’s not difficult. There are actually at least two easy ways to go about this.

Method 1:
You could try using plugins for the job. One of them is the Semiologic static front page plugin. Basically you make a new page and call it “Home” and the plugin will do everything else for you. You will just see it as a front page. Convenient, right?

Pros:
It is easy to install a plugin, activate it and create a new Page via the wp-admin dashboard.
You don’t have to create a separate one altogether.

Cons:
You cannot control what it would look like. You are stuck with the default page layout. Unless you have a theme you that has the kind of static front page layout you like.

Method 2:
You just have to make a home.php in your wp-content/themes/ directory. The nice thing about this is that it’s easier to customize your home.php and you don’t need an extra plugin for that. Apparently, WordPress could do that instantly.

Pros:
It is more customizable. Whatever you want your static front page to look like is something you can control.

Cons:
For those who are new to template creation, it might seem a bit daunting. You would have to learn what WordPress tags you have to use first in order to make one.

Whether you are a new blogger, a problogger or someone who has been blogging for ages, the moment you decide that you would like a static front page is another step in deciding on how creative you could be when it comes to presenting your blog. Make sure that you could find a nice design for it, not just any other kind of static front page.

Tags: blogging, blogs, wordpress

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Comments are closed.

Our Features

Design and Themes

Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

Last night I checked my personal blog’s code hoping I can proudly display the W3C Validated Button. Since I use Blogger and do not really do anything to clean up the code (beyond adding Alt-tags to the images I embed) I wasn’t surprised at all to find that my blog contained lots of errors - […]
Read on
More Design and Themes Features
Software and Widgets

Wordpress Plug-ins

If you blog using Wordpress and can’t do something that you want done like adding Sphere-related content at the end of your blog posts you might be surprised to find out that there are already plug-ins available that make it happen.
To find good Wordpress plug-ins all you need to do is search for “wordpress […]
Read on
More Software and Widgets Features
Reviews

A Friend In Need

I’m helping out my friends from the UA&P - IShareHappiness Blog Team.
Whenever you feel pessimistic, angry, troubled, frustrated, and depressed – what have you – you need someone to talk to. Someone who could help you be more optimistic and help make you feel that there is hope. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to someone […]
Read on
More Blog Reviews
Monetization

Making Money Through Consumer Generated Ads

As I mentioned in my previous post today I will be suggesting some ways you can still profit by joining programs such as Pay Per Post and yet ensure that your readers don’t get turned off.
In my opinion the only way to really do this is by making sure that your blog entries stay […]
Read on
More Monetization Features
Marketing and Search Optimization

The Blogger’s Guide to SEO

One of the best holistic guide to optimising a blog is Aaron Wall’s Blogger’s Guide to SEO. It is not the most in-depth guide but it covers all the basics (and a bit more) and is written in a such a way that even newbies in SEO will definitely understand. The guide also links out […]
Read on
More Marketing and SEO Features
Blog Resources