Free Plan and blog posts

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I am on the free plan for now. My blog posts are showing on the Home page. I would like the home page to be static. I would also like my most recent blog to be at the bottom of the blogs, and not at the top. Is there a way to put all blogs on a separate page and in order from oldest up top to most recent toward bottom? Can I do these 2 things on the free plan, or only possible on a upgrade?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • wdn2020 · Member ·

    Yes, you can set a static page on the free page. Go under your site WP-Admin page then go to settings -> reading.

    Yes, you can sort your blog posts by chronological order. You can learn about it here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/show-your-posts-in-chronological-order/

    You may also want to use category page: https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I am not able to find WP-Admin

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I found Admin, but I don’t see anything there that says ‘reading’

  • wdn2020 · Member ·

    This link should get you there: myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/

    If you cannot access the page direction, please go to: https://wordpress.com/sites

    The select your site. WP-Admin is at the bottom of the left panel

  • wdn2020 · Member ·

    Expand Settings and you will see “Reading”. It is at the bottom of the left panel.

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    Expanded Settings and still no ‘reading’ at the bottom of left panel.

    All that is in ‘Settings’ is the following

    General
    Writing
    Discussion
    Traffic
    Site Profile
    Save Settings

    Site Title

    My Hair Therapy

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    Bringing my hair back to life with Monat
    In a few words, explain what this site is about.

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    myhairtherapy.wordpress.com
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    Privacy
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  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Hi there, hope you don’t mind me jumping in here.

    You can create a static front page for your site in the Customizer. Click on MY SITES in the upper left corner, look towards the middle where you should see the Themes link and click on the Customize button next to it.

    This will open the Customizer where you can set a page as the front page of your site. You can learn more about that here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/

    That support guide also explains about setting an optional blog page but if you want to arrange your posts in chronological order you should follow the support guide that @wdn2020 linked to.

    Let us know if you have more questions.

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    JustJennifer ….thank you so much! It worked.

    Now, if I can get my blog posts in chronological order….the previous post about it did not help at all.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    You’re welcome.

    Where are you getting stuck in creating the blog post page arranged with the oldest post first? There are two options in the support guide that @wdn2020 linked to that I’d consider.

    The first uses a special URL. Whenever someone clicks on that URL as a Custom Link in a Custom Menu, the blog posts will be called up in chronological order https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/?order=asc You do not need to create an actual page for your blog posts; you only add the Custom Link in a Custom Menu. Here’s more about creating a Custom Menu: https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

    The second option uses a Display Posts shortcode which you add to a static page you created on your site, like your blog-posts page at https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/blog-posts/

    You’d add the shortcode as the only thing on that new static page and the shortcode calls up and displays the post data information. What displays depends on what parameters you choose. Since you mentioned you want your posts to display with the oldest on top:
    [display-posts include_date="true" include_content="true" order="ASC"]
    should display your full blog posts, with date, and oldest first.

    However, in my testing, no matter what I did the display posts shortcode only showed 3 of the 31 published posts on my test site, so there might be an issue here or I’ve overlooked something. I’ve tagged this for Staff attention. Staff here is a link to my test page (Private site): https://teachandtestsite.wordpress.com/posts/

    Personally I’d opt for the first choice (custom link) regardless because the way your posts are displayed remains the same as it is currently on your theme, with the exception of the date order. With the Display Posts shortcode, the styling of the posts changes and you’d need an upgrade to edit the CSS.

    Apologies for the long and probably convoluted explanation, but I hope it is clear. Let me know if you need more help.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    justjennifer – Thanks for testing this out. Which browser are you working from? I’ll see what I can come up with.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Hi Liz- Chrome Version 64.0.3282.167 (Official Build) (64-bit) at the moment and it is updating. :) Win10 PC 64-bit.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Thank you! I’ll get to work on this :)

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I can go with the first option then. I have a Custom Link called ‘Blog Posts’ but it’s empty. I don’t now how to find the URL that you are talking about justjennifer.

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    Also, the custom link you provided above> https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/?order=asc

    when I click on it, it does show the posts in chronological order. But I have no idea where to put that link.
    I just don’t understand any of this. It seems impossible.
    Not everyone with a blog is a tech person. Are they this naive to think they are.

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I would like it all to appear as it does in that link. But on my end, it’s still out of order and I don’t know what page the blogs are on now, since I created an extra page.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Hello again,

    Let’s take this step by step:
    1. Copy the custom link for your posts to your clipboard.
    2. Open the Customizer in your dashboard at https://wordpress.com/customize/myhairtherapy.wordpress.com
    3. When the Customizer opens, you’ll see a number of modules there. Click on “Menus”
    4. A. If you don’t have any Custom Menu, you’ll see a button to Create New Menu.
    4. B. Give your new Menu a name and under Menu Location select “Header”
    4. C. Click the “Next” button.
    4. D. Add items to your new Menu by clicking on the “Add Items” button. (Ignore anything below that button for now.)
    4. E. A new panel will slide out. Under Pages, click on the plus sign next to “Home” to add a link to your site’s front static page in the Custom Menu.
    4. F. Above the Pages module you’ll see another module called “Custom Links.” Click on it and paste the link https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/?order=asc on the URL line. Make sure you first delete the existing http:// there and only have your full https:// link
    4. G. On the line beneath where you pasted the URL, where it say “Link Text,” write “Blog Posts” or Posts or Blog, whatever you want.
    4. H. Click the “Add to Menu” button.

    So now in the left panel you should see the name of your Custom Menu with two items:
    Home
    Blog Posts

    At the top of the left panel click the Publish button and your site will have a new menu.

    If you already have a Custom Menu, let me know and I’ll walk you through the steps needed to create a new Custom Menu.

    @lizkarkoski – I found my problem with the display posts shortcode. :)

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    Ok. I did what you said. Now, it still shows the posts out of order.

  • myhairtherapy · Member ·

    I see the blogs on the BLOG page now though, so that’s good.
    Just now want it to be in chronological order.
    Nothing posted on how to do that, makes sense to me.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Try hard refreshing the page. If you are on a PC that is Ctrl+F5

    Here is how your posts show for me:
    At the top https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/2nd-wash/
    Below it: https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/2018/02/27/my-plan-to-reach-my-hair-goal/
    Below that: https://myhairtherapy.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/orderasc/

    So the posts are in the correct order, oldest to newest.

    (Did you intend that last post “My Hair Goal — With Monat” to have that link? :) )

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