How do you navigate a 1000 posts? Five Practical Suggestions for WordPress Bloggers

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I’ve made a number of improvements to find posts and get around the blog, I’m featuring five improvements that I think readers will like.

1. Random Post Plugin

I’ve been working on the blog upgrading usability somewhat in the last few days. I’ve also been trying out the Random Post Plugin.

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You can see it clearly in the grey bar at the top of the blog! Try it!

2. ADDTHIS Widget

The AddThis Bookmark plugin is now featured. I’ve used three separate instances of the Bookmark This code in each page to help readers add this to their favorite service. It works well.

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3. Bob’s Simplistic Navigation

I’m also using Top/Bottom Navigation which places code at the top and bottom of the blog page to show the previous/next post. It’s a standard feature in some themes, including Kubrick, but not my current theme. I still need to sort out the words since I use LONG titles.

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In Pages View it’s fine, but the long title in Single Post View is ugly. See what I mean in the next picture…

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There’s no clear marker between the two posts. Oh, well. You can get the plugin here. It’s still pretty neat.

4. Related Posts Plugin

This plugin simply “returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches.” You can see it on the main pages and on the Single Post pages. It requires a little hacking of the theme since it’s not installed by standard, but it works well. Get it here.

related posts

5. Feature Pages

I’m adding feature pages that are posts in the top bar, it’s slow progress, and I don’t want to crowd the bar area with too many, but this theme allows this extra space, and it’s easy to edit. Just edit the HTML in the theme header.

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Right now, it’s just got ‘WordPress and Top Posts’ but I’ll expand it slowly to include more posts that I want to highlight!

So those five ways will help readers find pages, esp. important pages, their own favorites and discover new stuff… When there are nearly a thousand posts in the archives, it’s time to help readers find some of the better ones. And these three tools help a lot.

How do you help readers find their way around your blog? As a reader, what do you like or hate in blog navigation? I know I loathe really long and loaded sidebars…. but… what about you?

Our trip to Taichung in Pictures

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Last week on Tuesday we took off for a trip around the island and to get away from the rain in the north, and for the most part we succeeded in escaping the rain. I’m including some of the pictures for you to enjoy.

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Taichung’s skyline on a sunny day! Yes it was sunny there! And warmish.

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Here in the small mountain region near Nantou called Zhushan (because of all the bamboo forests around) we spent a lovely evening and morning in the village. We also stayed at a lovely guest house there, too.

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They had lovely little cabins on top of the house and in the bamboo greenery behind the guest house. Our cabin looked like one of these, too. Very nice. You can visit the guest house website to see what it’s like. i do recommend staying there, but book first! The owner and his wife were very generous and kind to us. As usual, I was offered some wine and smokes… pity I don’t do either! Wonderful hosts. And the view in the morning…

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The light wasn’t so good, and I under-exposed the surrounding country to get a feel for the distance. Perhaps Craig can give me some tips on this one! This whole area is also famous for its green tea which could be seen all around the valley area.

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The following day we visited a lovely and huge country park called Shitou which was huge, peaceful and very natural, despite it being a ‘park’ with roads, paths and restaurants. This picture was taken in the village outside the park entrance.

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This is a bamboo bridge built over a pond in the park, and it is a bit scary, but it really works. Bamboo is strong and is used in construction and even in some house walls!

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Other visitors in the park that day were also enjoying the pond area. It was so quiet … something that is very untypical of parks on holidays! But then it was COLD!

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One of the beautiful flowers taken in the park that day… Anyone see a theme from other trips!?

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And one of the most unusual walkways I ever used: it’s filled with woodchips and very comfortable to walk on! There were many such walkways throughout the forest park.

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And I’d like to say a big thank you to our friends in Taichung who hosted us so graciously and thoughtfully, Cathy and her husband Lin-Hau. Thanks for being there and showing us around. We miss you!

Guess the picture: Where in Taiwan?

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Updated: Competition – Win a FREE Review!

This snap was taken from outside the window of a building in Taichung City. Can you guess which floor it was taken from? The answer lies between 1st and 101st. Guess correctly, and I’ll publish on InvestorBlogger dot com a full review of your website within 7 days. Answers by Sunday 12pm (New York Time) in the comments or via the contact form!

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I will reveal more about my trip to Central Taiwan this weekend! I look forward to sharing some of the photos and stuff that we discovered there.