I have seen magazine style themes and plugins like WP-Sticky Post becoming more and more popular among blogs. Such tweaks to your blog will help you to show off your best work instead of letting it flow down through the usual chronological order characteristic of a blog.
However, I do spot some bad spots with a featured post on your blog and I will give you some tips on the usage of a featured post.
5 Tips on Using a Featured Post
No featured article with welcome message
New blogs tend to have a welcome message as their featured post and this is totally wrong! A welcome post on the top of your blog will just tell people that your blog is new. A welcome post is normally the first post on a blog and if it is on the top, it will send out the message that the blog only has a welcome post, if not, only a few posts.
This will send away lazy readers whom you need first impression to capture them. If someone is new, it is more likely that he/she will take a glance at your blog rather than navigating around.
Recent posts list
It is important to have a list of recent post if you have a featured post on your blog. Also, such list must be placed as high as possible to show new readers that you have some other posts.
A recent post list will also show readers that you have updated your blog by having the new posts appearing on the list. With this in place, you will be kept away from the fear that you will be sending your readers away because they thought that you are not updating your blog.
Excerpts instead of full post
Posting a featured post in full will be too much to fit into the top fold of a blog’s home page. Do keep in mind that most readers won’t scroll unless they are persuaded to do so with your powerful post.
The best for you to do use excerpts for the featured posts rather than having a full post. This gives the opportunity for the top part of other posts to appear on the top part at first glance to offer more choices of reading for readers.
Attractive excerpts
Following the tips above, since your featured post will now have the "Read more" tags, your excerpts must be appealing enough so that your readers will click on the "Read more" link.
If your featured post is not attractive, the consequences that you will be getting is not just about the featured post. Readers might just leave your blog because the featured post (a post is featured because it is good) is not good enough for them.
Photo by homme de chevre
Blink the FEATURED
A featured post should not be mixed with other posts. They got featured because they are one of your best work. You must highlight it to your readers, especially new ones to build a firm first impression for your blog.
Surround the post with borders, add in a special avatar to get attention and also have a big font of the word "FEATURED" will be the ways to really feature something.
Featured Post Feedback
Photo by Bitterjug
I see showing off good posts in the form of popular posts in the sidebar as the better preference since it is much better to be managed. However, if you feature a post, the post will tend to be viral (might become a pillar article) once there is enough marketing for it and it is of sheer quality.
Did you use any methods to feature one or few of your best work in your blog? Will you use it in the future to show off your work? What do you think about other ways that blogs with featured post can do to improve the usage of a featured article?
Other blogging tips that you might be interested in:
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December 22nd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
“Did you use any methods to feature one or few of your best work in your blog?”
Of the 5 tips mentioned above, I think I am using the “Recent Posts” thingie as well as the Top View Posts thingie.
Though my Recent Posts section is way at the bottom instead of at the top, not sure how many people would scroll down to the bottom to check it out.
Perhaps adding in a “a href=#name” same page hyperlink would help?
Besides that, I shamelessly plug in linkies to my articles in forums that I participate in.
“Will you use it in the future to show off your work?”
I would give it a try if it is that effective?
“What do you think about other ways that blogs with featured post can do to improve the usage of a featured article?”
Eh, I am a bit blur here now.
What do you mean by featured post and featured article arh?
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 pm
If it is at the bottom, people will have somewhere else (within your blog) to go to after they have reached the bottom. Since you are monetizing using Advertlets, I won’t recommend you to use the #name tags because a click on such links won’t generate an impression.
It’s the same. A blog post can be an article but an article won’t always be your blog post. Even blur? An article can be a newspaper article but a post always means a blog post.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I usually don’t need to feature any posts, since they are picture posts anywayz…. Google Images indirectly does that for me!
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
They are not always picture posts. Anyway, I have to agree that Google Images helps.
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:10 pm
I know, but since 80% of my posts are pictures…… good enough lar…
December 24th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Remember compilation post? Compile 100 over wallpapers and make it your featured post. For example, you can start compiling Chinese New Year wallpapers from now on.
December 27th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I don’t really have a featured post spot on my homepage because my theme doesn’t allow for it but I do have a Top Posts page which highlights all my best posts…
December 28th, 2007 at 6:38 am
I don’t have a page for top posts either because the navigation bar is too small for me. This is the result of using a free theme.
I plan to get a blog redesign by next year though if everything is doing well.