Shawn asks: "I've studied your Low Carb site. It looks like a blog but has the shopping pages like a website. I want to do something similar with my niche site -- a blog, but also pages for About Me, Product Recommendations and Tips.
Do you have a link to a tutorial on accomplishing that? I know how to install WordPress on a new site and how to add a blog to an existing site, but I've never read how to add other pages..."
It's quite simple actually. You can even create an entire traditional looking "website" with WordPress by using Pages instead of Posts. This is a great way to create affiliate sites that have all the bells & whistles of WordPress (tags, commenting, social plug-ins, etc)...
From your Dashboard, go up to the top right corner where it says "New Post" and use the drop down arrow. One of the options will be "New Page".
You can also go to Pages in the left sidebar menu of your Dashboard, or click Pages from the main menu in your Dashboard and create a New Page from there.
You'll have the option to turn comments on or off, and in some themes you'll have the option to remove the sidebar(s) or leave them.
Adding Pages is a great way to keep some of your best content front and center, as it becomes part of your site navigation.
Best,
About Lynn Terry
It is amazing how sometimes when you are looking for answers, a blog post like this happens along at the perfect moment. This is exactly what I have been trying to figure out. I want the feel of a traditional website because I think there is an added level of professionalism over a standard blog. I decided to incorporate both, so I will have featured products but also bring latest trends and news to my readers. I have to admit I am having some challenge with the dropdowns (getting them in the order I want with the right 'parent') but I am getting there. I only started a week ago and don't have much time to work on it (my first attempt at a website) so it is still in the 'bare bones' stage, but a great learning curve. I am sure my next one will be built much quicker. Thanks for this timely article!
I needed a website for my retail high heel shoe business. Not only did I want to have the ability to sell shoes from my site, but also blog, provide event updates, & include general information about my business...but I did not want it to look like a typical blog page. WordPress was the PERFECT solution for me!
There is a WordPress plugin called "Vice Versa" that allows you to turn any post into a page and any page into a post. You can do one or many pages/posts at the same time. Makes it much easier than having to cut/paste.
@Cindy
what you say sounds like a tool for mass changes. Is it also possible to change a post into a page wihtin wordpress w/o using a plugin?
Any advice is much appreciated
Making it part of your site navigation is a great way to keep if "front and center" as you mentioned Lynn.
Additionally, I like to set hot links to my pages in all of my blog posts using predetermined keywords.
This generates link heat and trust for your static pages.
Mark
This is why I love WordPress. Creating a page is so hassle free.
I have one problem w/ WP pages and I'm hoping you have the 'fix.' No pressure! 🙂
First let me say that I use Thesis. Don't know if it's relevant to the question, but I seem to remember that you use Thesis.
So my question is about display. If you look at my site, you'll see the Top Navigation bar has all pages. For example 'Venues' is a page and then the sub pages are in a drop down menu. Easy peesy.
My problem is when I want pages in my side bar. I go to WP dashboard, go to Widgets and there is a 'Pages' widget. I move it over to my sidebar, put in 'Title' and 'Sort by'.. but then it asks for which pages to exclude. Exclude? If I have 100 pages and want 5 displayed there, then I have to exclude 95 pages! Crazy.
Do you know of a simple way to display pages in our sidebar?
thanks.. Dee 🙂
I build all my non-blog-oriented sites using pages in WP now. It allows me to edit from anyone, with no need for a desktop app (even from a mobile phone), and ensures code compliance. Makes life much simpler.
Hey Lynn, thanks for another great post 🙂
A question over posts vs pages - have you seen any difference in ranking value?
Posts tend to sit on the front page for a bit, then drop off, whereas pages sit in a navigation area and don't really move.
Also, for me anyway, I find it easy to promote pages with external links so it is these that generally get more attention.
Finally, I tend not to maintain my posts - they get created and then WordPress just archives them. But pages - these can be easily updated and kept current.
Do you find the same?
Lynn,
I am a little confused about what you said. You are saying to go to the top Right Hand corner in the Dashboard. Do you actually mean top Left Hand Corner?
I am building a new site where I am trying to get the main page, (usually where the posts are put) to be a static page. I am still not sure how to do this. Maybe now I will try that Plugin that Cindy mentioned. Hopefully I will be able to understand how it works!
Pages are very important for some of the your list like affiliate or listing of something that you want your audiences to notice immediately.
Oh, wow! This is exactly what I want to figure out how to do. But how on earth do I have dropdown menus start to happen? I'm clueless (which isn't unusual!)
Thanks if anyone can help. 😀