May 4, 2014

Blogging 101, Day Twenty: Add a New Page

Today’s assignment: add a new page to your blog, and make sure readers can find it easily.

Welcome to Blogging U! This course isn't currently active, but you can learn more about what we offer and register for upcoming courses on the BU home page.

As bloggers we’re often focused on the Next Big Post, but using pages thoughtfully encourages readers to dig deeper and organizes information to help them find the content that will grab them. Today is all about pages.

Today’s assignment: add a new page to your blog, and make sure readers can find it easily.

Why add a page?

  • Because pages offer you a great way to organize longer-term or evergreen content — and make it easy for your readers to find it quickly, which makes them more likely to read it.
  • Because you might not have had a chance to add that About page we chatted about, back on Day Eight. (No judgement!)

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about precisely which type of page you’d like to add.

  • An About page helps readers get to know about the person behind the hilarious stories, badass music, heartbreaking poetry, or breathtaking photos — if you’re still thinking about yours, commit to finish it up today.
  • A contact form allows readers to get in touch without you making your email address public (and gives your readers a way to share info they’d rather not post publicly in a comment).
  • Comment guidelines set the tone for the behavior you expect from readers — and the behavior you won’t tolerate. You’re welcome to steal The Daily Post‘s guidelines as a starting point.
  • Make your readers part of the blog — invite them to suggest or vote on topics by creating a poll.
  • An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page can help you avoid blog fatigue — If readers continually seek the same info, write up the definitive response.

These are just examples — you’ll want to customize the pages on your blog to match your needs. Think about your goals for the blog, any challenges you’ve been facing with it, and the feedback you’ve had from readers so far. Can a page help you address any of those?

Once you add a page, make sure readers can find it. You can add a link to it in your sidebar, now that you’re a whiz with widgets or, add it to a menu. Here’s the run-down on menus — to start, head to Appearance → Menus in your dashboard, and you can drag-and-drop your new page into a menu.

Ready? Here are the step-by-step instructions for creating a new page. When you’re done, feel free to publish a short post letting readers know about your new resource, share it on your social networks, and drop a link to your new page in The Commons so we can all check it out.

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  1. Pages are great – I’m always looking at ways of improving the structure. Now I have around 200 book reviews on my blog, I’m thinking of sub categorising pages to make them easier to browse (A-C, D-F etc). Do other book reviewers use this method or stick with a single page?

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      1. Hmmm, potentially that would mean a couple of pages with a lot of books and about 10-12 pages with 1 book each! I tend to stick with a handful of core genres but occasionally something outside of what I might normally read will grab me.

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    2. I do like the lay out of your page it’s very nice! sometimes it’s easier for the reader to know the title rather then the author of a book, just something to consider in organization.

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      1. I did consider book title but wonder if that might be too complicated – after all, most libraries are organised by author first, then title (which is how I have it).

        Thanks for visiting, I really appreciate it!

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    3. I post each review as a separate post, then also add them to a page I’ve created for each year: Books, 2013, Books, 2014, etc.

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  3. I’m thinking of adding in a page for my photos, but yea it’s going to take quite awhile to add in all my photos and give them treatment haha. I got my portfolio page set up though.

    Here it is: http://lhuwenkai.com/portfolio.

    Yea one of the reasons why I prefer setting up a manual page instead of using WordPress’s portfolio form is because of the versatility I get when arranging my works. I can immediately show and wow my potential clients (and the girl I’m crushing on) when they immediately jump right in. I can also select how many columns of works I want displayed, and how big I want them to be displayed. So, if you’re planning to set up a portfolio page and find that a big first impression is more important, then yea maybe you can take my advice.

    The wordpress portfolio one works and looks heavenly tho, so it really depends if you wanna show all at once, or have lots of “case files” that you prefer to be stored till someone wants to see the progress or outcome of it.

    Happy blogging! May the 4th be with you!

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    1. Wow, very powerful stuff mate. I only read a few posts, and will have to dig in later for more…few people are that honest and raw. All the best!

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      1. Your a gentleman, thankyou. Had a peek at you blog too, the story about Denie looks interesting was looking for the 9min clip??

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    2. Thank you! Yes Denie is a fascinating person to say the least! It appears I had accidentally deleted the link…oops…sorry about that…thanks for pointing it out! It’s back on there 🙂

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    3. whoa i really really like the content of your blog, it is definitely a quality- filled blog! have a follow mate, Aussie is one my favourite countries to visit! Plus, i’m going to further pursue my studies there sometime in the next year 🙂

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    1. To change the order of the pages, you need to specify that the “About” page is number 1, and the Feedback page is number 2.

      You can go to Pages → All Pages to see a list of your pages.

      Then, click on Quick Edit on the Feedback page and change the order from 0 to 2.

      Then, click on Quick Edit on the About page to change the order from 0 to 1.

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  8. Ohhhh! I was just thinking about adding another page in my blog! Haven’t figured it out yet, though. Will put more thoughts into this tomorrow!

    But actually, for now, I also edited some of my current pages [specifically my “About” page and the “Contact Me” page]! :). Thank you for this assignment!

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  9. Done for today’s assignment. Added not only one page but three:) I added a page for all of my zero to hero posts, my poems and my contact page. Feel free to look at it and comment it if you like:)

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      1. Go to your Dashboard then Appearance then Menus. Click your Categories then check the category you want to add then save it.

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  11. Ooh adding a page…I want to put my CV on my blog but I do not know if that is a good idea or not!? I have created a Contact Me page instead!

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  13. Hi Michelle, I have a question about pages. I have a gallery page with photo slideshows and a terms of use page that I would like to make accessible to visitors but I don’t want my followers to receive an email when I do publish those pages. In other words, let visitors find it when they search for other posts. Is there a way to publish without anyone getting a notification that I just posted something? Thanks.

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    1. Hi JRosemarie! Notifications are sent to your followers for new posts only, not for the pages, so you can quietly add them whenever you wish! 🙂

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    2. You can’t add previous posts to pages. Here’s the infohttps://wordpress.com/forums/topic/adding-posts-to-pages-5?replies=8

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  18. I’ve created a new page that has a spotify playlist embedded – so now my readers can listen to the tunes of 1984 while reading my posts on the topic (or even if they leave my site they can continue to listen while they surf). Take a look (and a listen!)

    http://wp.me/P4uiWF-5F

    Question – I’d like to use a different image for my header (ideally an image of a cassette or turn table). I remember reading about stock images available to WP users – but can’t find that post now. Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

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    1. I cannot help you with the image part (I don’t recall the post) but love the fact you embedded your spotify 1984 song list (good selection as well!)…are you using wordpress.org?

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    2. Thank you! No – I’m using wordpress.com -I haven’t explored the differences/benefits of .org. Would you recommend it?

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      1. Oh I just could not find the how-to for wordpress.com so I thought you used .org…from what I can tell if you are a web designer and all that, .ORG is the way to go…otherwise .COM is perfectly fine. With .ORG you have basically more freedom in with your design, with you .COM you have some limitations.

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  20. Hey guys I have spent all week really playing with pages and organization…would love to hear any feedback and see how your experience is in surfing through the blog/site…thank you all in advance!

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  21. Very helpful. As for me, I find it too overwhelming at times to be always on top of what content to write, much more of what title to use to grab the attention of others.

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  23. Quick question– I’ve done this with a new page I call “Fast Food Fiction” (short serious pieces) because my blog’s theme is humor yet I still wanted to showcase these other writings). However am I understanding correctly that nothing I publish on this new page appears in the Reader? So none of my followers will know when I’ve added a new story in this page unless I purposely mention it in my regular blog?? Thank you.

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    1. Have a good Sunday as well! Your blog looks real nice with nice balance! Well done and looking forward to reading more and checking out more of your recipes!

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