Adding a blog to the front page of a website?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Compila Limited on December 9, 2009 at 4:50am

Hi Chris,

Please could you clarify a couple of points for me.

1) Do you want the whole site to have a news feed style or just a related articles section. Similar to hear;

Website Hosting Related Articles >>

2) Where would the RSS news feed come from? i.e. bbc.co.uk or a specific Music site or an RSS feed you create.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on December 9, 2009 at 3:49pm

Hi Harvey,

Many thanks for your reply - I really appreciate the response!

It's possible that I worded my question badly, still being slightly new to website design. Basically what I'm trying to replicate is the effect achieved by these two websites (both put together by friends of mine):

Website about actor Robert Kazinsky (former Eastenders actor)
Fan website about the animated series ThunderCats

Both of these sites have been put together using HTML / CSS (albeit in some cases with the aid of Dreamweaver!) and both have a front page that is updated via a blogging platform (in the case of the second site, I can confirm that it's updated via Blogger).

So, I wouldn't be looking for the whole site to have a "news feed" style, only the front page - the rest of the site would be comprised of static HTML / CSS pages that would be updated only when necessary.

Re: the RSS feed, I must confess I need to learn more about them to be able to answer your question completely accurately - I always assumed that any blog-based system of updating would generate its own RSS feed, although perhaps I'm incorrect in this assumption?

I really appreciate all your advice and, in particular, your patience as I try and expand my knowledge of how to get the most out of my website. I hope I've explained everything clearly, and I'd very much welcome any additional advice you were able to supply me with re: the above. Many thanks!

Take care, and best wishes,

Chris


Compila Limited said:

Hi Chris,
Please could you clarify a couple of points for me.
1) Do you want the whole site to have a news feed style or just a related articles section. Similar to hear;

Website Hosting Related Articles >>

2) Where would the RSS news feed come from? i.e. bbc.co.uk or a specific Music site or an RSS feed you create.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on December 9, 2009 at 6:34pm

Hi Chris

I am really sorry to say this, as you probably don't want to hear it but I would advise you to move to a blog system, WordPress would be my recommendation. The reason being it is very easy to use, Compila has an easy installation facility from within your Cpanel and there are literally thousands of themes (free and paid) and plugins.

I really cannot see the benefit of you having a front page that is created in a blog and the rest in html/css. All pages in a blog are also html/css based, but it is much quicker and easier for you to create the pages. You can just paste in from a Word document or text file and the system will sort everything out for you.

You can change and add html if you need to but I really think it will be much quicker and easier for you in the long run.

Plus the blog system will create the RSS for you and you can easily get comments from your readers and much, much more.

I hope this helps and honestly it is not as daunting as you might think.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on December 10, 2009 at 12:28am

Hi Harvey,

Many thanks for your detailed response - really kind of you, and very much appreciated!

Funnily enough, I have looked at WordPress before, and it's something I have considered using - I must admit my knowledge of the WordPress software is not all that hot, but I am currently reading (don't laugh at the title!) "WordPress for Dummies" by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, and I'm finding it an informative read.

I know that here on Compila Exchange there are a number of very useful "How To"/jargon buster guides - I've noticed that WordPress in particular is gaining more and more popularity on the Internet as a Content Management System, and so (assuming there isn't one already and I've just missed it), maybe it might be worth you guys setting up a thread in this group with some handy info about WordPress?

I must confess, if in the meanwhile anyone has any idea how I could achieve what I spoke of in my original post, I'd still be curious to know how it's done - but, I would definitely be willing to consider the WordPress idea as an alternative means of upgrading my site! :)

Also, just one final question whilst I think of it - is it possible to link a site created in WordPress to a CSS file (albeit I'd assume a customised one), so that if someone has already coded out the exact colour scheme, fonts, etc., that they want, it can be implemented on a site created in WordPress?

Thanks for all the excellent advice - I'm absolutely loving this online community!

Take care, and thanks again,

Chris

Harvey Raybould said:

Hi Chris
I am really sorry to say this, as you probably don't want to hear it but I would advise you to move to a blog system, WordPress would be my recommendation. The reason being it is very easy to use, Compila has an easy installation facility from within your Cpanel and there are literally thousands of themes (free and paid) and plugins.
I really cannot see the benefit of you having a front page that is created in a blog and the rest in html/css. All pages in a blog are also html/css based, but it is much quicker and easier for you to create the pages. You can just paste in from a Word document or text file and the system will sort everything out for you.

You can change and add html if you need to but I really think it will be much quicker and easier for you in the long run.

Plus the blog system will create the RSS for you and you can easily get comments from your readers and much, much more.

I hope this helps and honestly it is not as daunting as you might think.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Compila Limited on December 10, 2009 at 5:48am

Hi Chris,

We have a Group on CompilaExchange called "So what's Blogging then", if you have not looked at that you may find some more useful information there. However, your idea for specific information regarding WordPress is a good one and will definitely be something we will add soon.

Please take a look at our blog http://www.compila.com/blog

and in particular this page as I believe it is similar to the layout you are looking for;

http://www.compila.com/blog/blog/

This is all done in WordPress. We chose a theme called HybridNews, which was free;

http://themehybrid.com/demo/hybrid-news/

As you can see the layout is the same, but all of the colours, backgrounds, fonts, images etc are all different. This has been done using css.

So you can customise WordPress exactly how you want, with any font and colour you desire all with CSS.

I am not going to say setting up WordPress will be without some frustration, there will be. However, especially as you have some knowledge of html and CSS, within 2 days you will have a great looking site.

I hope this helps

Regards

Compila

Permalink Reply by J Purdie on December 15, 2009 at 4:49pm

I'd be interested in this sort of thing too. The only problem with WordPress is that there doesn't seem to be a control for page height. You can get something like eight or ten posts which means you're scrolling down several 'pages'. It can be done in WordPress though, I think the best example I've seen is Subterranean Press.

Permalink Reply by Compila Limited on December 15, 2009 at 6:06pm

Hi,

You should be able to control the number of posts shown on pages in WordPress using these settings;

In the admin section -> settings -> writing

Blog pages show at most - x posts

by selecting a desired number here this should control the length of the page.

Regards

Compila

Permalink Reply by Gerald Hornsby on January 3, 2010 at 12:11am

I quite often use Wordpress as a CMS for the whole of my sites. Apart from the huge array of themes there are around, it's now very customisable. The use of "Pages" means there are a number of receptacles for static web content, as well as the dynamic blog content.

You can also select one of the static pages to be the home page if you wish, although this is just the reverse of what you want (I only mention it out of interest). Also, there is an enormous range of plugins available too, which add even more functionality to the basic CMS.

Gerald