Removing The Date from Posts

Seeing this article at Daily Blog Tips about removing the timestamp from posts got me thinking.

I get a significant amount of Google search engine traffic (50-60 percent on average) on my main blog (as well as my other ones), so I know many people are finding my site through single posts. And most of the content they are clicking on are my most popular posts … some of which were written more than 6 months ago.

So I’m doing this experiment … I’m taking the post date off my single post entries only and leaving them on my home page … so that people who come to my front page see timely, up-to-date content … but those who come through the backdoor don’t think it’s stale content (it’s not).

POST UPDATE ON HOW TO ACTUALLY TAKE OUT THE TIMESTAMP FROM POSTS: One of the commenters to this post mentioned he came because he wanted to know HOW to get rid of the date from posts. To do so, go into the Theme Editor and select the single.php and Main Index templates and take out this code:

< ?php the_time('F j, Y'); ? >

For more information on this tag, go the WP Codex page here.

Pavlina: Become an Expert, Create Value

Professional blogger Steve Pavlina answers 11 questions from Daniel at Daily Blog Tips.

Number 8 was worth reading the entire post. Daniel’s question was: If you could give an advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?

Here’s Pavlina’s response:

Don’t be a novice. Nobody wants to read a novice. Instead become an expert at contributing substantial value to your readers’ lives. Focus on giving people something that will actually help them as opposed to pumping out “content” that will just waste their time. Value generates referrals, referrals build traffic, and traffic builds income. Focus on giving the best you can, and the getting will come fairly easily.

My Latest Blog Redesign: Church Communications Pro

church communications pro blog redesign

The blog that started it all — Church Communications Prp — just got a much needed facelift that more accurately reflects my design “flair.”

Here are some of the features I built into this new blog design:

  • Clean, fresh look
  • Focus on content and blog posts
  • Tabbed top menu navigation
  • Cross browser compatability
  • A linkblog in the sidebar — called Sidenotes — for really short posts on the left side using a category

By the way, I’m also planning on releasing a dumbed down version of the design as a free WordPress theme in the near future.

Six Answers On Blog Design Success

Brian tagged me … and he’s one of my best friends online and has been an incredible influence and encouragement to me as a blog designer … so here’s answers to the questions floating around about designing success as a designer.

I’m going to answer these questions strictly with my blog designer hat on … and most specifically, a WordPress blog designer.

1. How did you get started in the business?

I love blogging with WordPress and started talking with an excellent blog designer about how to do it myself.

2. What kept you going in those early years?

As bad as this is going to sound … money. And the dream of buying a house.

That really sounds materialistic … but the longer version of that answer would take a while. It’s not all about money. But the money I’ve made doing custom blog design has been an incredible blessing in my family’s life. And we are faithful to give back a portion to the One who gave it to us to manage.

3a. Did you ever feel like you weren’t good enough or you would never make it in this industry?

Of course.

3b. How did you work through that?

Personally, I don’t think I will ever get over it.

4. Do you look at others today and think “Wow, I wish I were that good”?

Ah, yeeeaaaahhh.

5. How do you measure success?

Just responding only in reference to success as a blog designer here … 1. making some great design friends (ref. Nathan, Brian, Nathan P, Ryan) … 2. doing great work that people love, use and feel good about … 3. seeing friends do really well and helping them launch their own design businesses (ref. no. 1) … 4. making an impact in other people’s lives (yeah, this sounds odd probably being here … but this has to do with my faith and being able to live out my faith in my design biz as best I can — although very imperfectly) … and 5. absolutely enjoying myself in the process!