If you never visited my blog archive, a screen shot is below:
Blog archives come in many styles.
There are many elements of an archive but most include a reverse-chronological display of years and months, categories and tags, and/or articles. The intent is everything in an archive is clickable. Some bloggers choose simplicity and others opt for snazz.
Featuring Kirsten Wright, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Diana Studer, Keith Davis, Marti Lawrence, Mitch Joel, Elyse Bruce, John Haydon, Wayne John, Daniel Brenton, David Bradley, Danny Brown, Heather Armstrong, Kristi Hines, Elysa Rice, and Neal Schaffer, join me on a tour of these 17 bloggers and their archives:
Yes, that is a video. You can watch it here. Apologies to Mitch for an inaccurate display. I’m unsure why.
Learn how I created my archive.
While many plugins do the job, I try to reduce the amount of time pages load when you visit something for the first time. As such, and complemented by this blog being powered by the WordPress Thesis theme, I employ custom functions written in PHP that perform numerous actions. The archive is such an action.
My code, which you are free to copy and paste below, was amended from a prior version by Matt Langford:
function my_archive() {
?>
<div class="archive">
<div class="archivel">
<h3>By Category:</h3>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&title_li='); ?>
</ul>
<h3>By Month:</h3>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="archiver">
<h3>By Post: (Last 100 articles)</h3>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=postbypost&limit=100'); ?>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
remove_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'thesis_archives_template');
add_action('thesis_hook_archives_template', 'my_archive');
Styles are enhanced with custom CSS code:
.custom .archive h3 {margin-top: 0;}
.custom .archive ul {font-size: .85em; }
.custom .archivel { float: left; width: 40%;}
.custom .archiver { float: right; width: 60%;}
I am unsure how other WordPress themes would need to be tweaked, but the WordPress codex on archives is always helpful if you get stuck.
Please click the bloggers’ names above for I frequent their blogs — some daily, others monthly. If they didn’t put out great content, I wouldn’t have included them here. Thanks.
Related articles you may enjoy:
{ 65 comments }
February 22, 2011 at 6:36 PM
Well, thanks for including me among the likes of Brogan, Godin and Hines! I deserve no such honor, but it’s much appreciated that you included me in the video and links.
My archive has been obviously neglected. You might have noticed that I’m slowly evolving the design of my blog. Slowly. But, I will have a !bang! change coming in the next few months, and that archives page is certainly going to get a facelift, and hopefully a more meaningful set of information that allows for easy navigation to content within categories.
I’ve always seen “by date” archives as pointless. Completely pointless. When was the last time you found anything under “March 2008″ that you were looking for? I jest, but I think my point is clear. No one cares WHEN something was written when looking at archives. They care more about the topic, and finding what they happen to be looking for.
That’s why you’ll never see an archive selector in my sidebar….it’s completely useless imo.
Good job on the video, I notice you’re doing more of those lately.
Haha, yeah, have you noticed my name in your recent spat of blog articles? It’s par for the course as I am trying to refine blogs I want to follow — and which categories I place them. Since you employ the CommentLuv plugin, your blog is in such a category.
But I digress. Yes, I’m trying to do more video these days; hence, the recent switch to a YouTube account that brands me. Not to mention, online video viewing is on the rise.
February 23, 2011 at 12:02 PM
You forced me to update my archive page. Twisted my arm, even. There were changes I was planning on making for some time, and now they’re done. What do you think of the differences?
Southern California making you soft, eh?
You jest … there is nothing on your blog, or in your life, last April … this July … next December? March 2008? Yes, if I had been blogging back in 2008. Our March lilies are about to bloom …
No one cares WHEN it was written?! You would be happy to find a blog post five years old, and would accept what you found as useful? Social media five years ago, nothing’s changed?
Looking at blogging from a different viewpoint is why I read Ari Herzog! Thanks for including my blog here. You broke my rule, I watched your video ;~)
February 23, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Let me clarify that a bit. No one uses a date to find information, they look at the title and content. If I wanted to know when I wrote an article on ‘avatars’, I’d do a search, I wouldn’t go through the archives, month by month looking for an article. To me, an archive is only good for indicating the age of a blog, and how often someone posts…it’s not good for finding something you might be looking for.
Dates become important when you find that article, and need to know when it was written to get some idea of how relevant it is to your query. But I still feel there is limited value with any archive page. I’d venture a guess that they are perhaps the least hit pages in a blog.
OK, to me the dates in the archives are just one simple way of sorting. You made me look at your blog. The latest post doesn’t appeal, but you have recent posts with snippets, and a list with a few more, and recent comments. That is what I want, point me to another post when I have read this one. The archive is a tool I use myself on my own blog, and I look for something to achieve the ‘Now which post?’ purpose on your blog.
Going to read, 11 reasons … and why you should … and victim of changes …
February 23, 2011 at 2:51 PM
I know exactly what you’re saying. I used to offer a list of related articles at the bottom of each post too.
I’m in mid-redesign, so some things aren’t there yet…but giving the reader visibility into a variety of what you have to offer is incredibly important for blogs. Many people miss this, and I think their blog suffers as a result of it.
Can you elaborate what you mean by my blogging from a different viewpoint, Diana? Is a contrarian view a positive view? Or, do you imply I don’t echo what others write?
Nothing so sinister Ari … if the blogosphere is a huge circle, and garden blogs are at four o’clock, and blogging about social media is at eight o’clock … neither contrary nor positive nor an echo. Each of us sees a different viewpoint, if your blog circle is too tight and familiar, it starts to feel claustrophobic, too much within the family, almost incestuous.
I am surprised and flattered that you read my blog, but perhaps you cherrypick when I write about blogging, rather than gardens?
Thanks for the elaboration!
As to my reading your blog, I make it a habit to subscribe to commenters’ blogs by RSS and group them into a specific category that I peruse now and then. Call me a lurker, more looking at title than body unless the title inspires me. I don’t necessarily keep a blog in my reader (and truth be told, I’ve since unsubscribed to yours) but I’m aware of what it generally looks like and so I can refer others to your blog should the occasion warrant. Make sense?
‘should the occasion warrant’ What could warrant that occasion?
My metrics tell me that readers go to the tabs, up front between the header and the beginning of the post, to use the pages. Only the latest post is on the home page. LinkWithin, the 5 Latest Posts, and the Recent Comments widgets draw my readers to another post. The archive is parked lower down, not the most important access point, altho it caught your attention ;~)
OK, here’s one example: I am currently teaching a continuing education course on social media marketing at a community college, and one of my students owns a garden store. As she is seeking to learn ways to market her business online and improve her Facebook page, etc., your blog is a place I’m about to share with her.
Or, if someone asks me if I know South African bloggers. Now, I know two.
Then you could point her at my latest follower James Fisk. He runs a nursery in Paarl/Franschhoek and has an interesting lively website and a FB page. (South African plants are world famous, as she will know)
Who’s the twoth Ari??
I haven’t read his blog in about a year but Rory Williams is the other South African blogger in my mind. He’s in Cape Town, writes about sustainability. I know other people who live/born in SA, but they’re not bloggers.
Sadly, that is a blog that went dark in August last year.
February 22, 2011 at 10:14 PM
Great post and video, Ari. Good fortune shall come to those who dig in people’s archives. This was one place that kept me coming back to your site when I stumbled upon you. I offer my visitors many easy ways to access my archives:
1. At the end of each post, there are links to related articles with thumbnails images. Very effective.
2. Google Search box to help you find any word you might read or look for. I use it a lot myself and it works well especially for returning visitors.
3. I have five ways to easily access archives by:
A. Favorites (posts, videos, and images).
B. Indexes around major topics (Manually compiled).
C. Categories (Automatically compiling all of them)
D. Last 50 articles (Thanks to your code I’ve been looking for)
E. Monthly Articles, which as Wayne mentioned I consider the least value of all if not pointless.
I don’t have sidebars because I believe they are noise but you can access my archives easily from the navigation bar above my banner. Feel free to take a look and tell me what do you think. Appreciate feedback!
I tried the Google Search bar in the past, then tossed it for a reason I don’t recall — though likely for a similar reason that I use the vanilla comment system.
Looking at your site, Joy, you don’t have an archive link but a series of drop-down boxes (both vertical and horizontal) that may be intuitive to you but not to me. For instance, why include a page of your favorite blog posts? Does that imply everything else on your site is not your favorite and thus should not be read?
Too ambiguous and hence confusing.
February 24, 2011 at 2:57 AM
Take a look again, Ari. It is not different than yours in anyway so I don’t know why it is not intuitive to you! And having selected few articles to archive as favorites means that I’d like you to read those first but not only. Thanks for the feedback but I think you are not giving me enough justice.
Something changed between my last comment and now. You now have a “browse” link in your top navigational bar; that wasn’t there last night, for I’d seen “archive” instead.
I still don’t understand your use of “favorites.” If they are YOUR favorites, you are hinting to ME not to read anything else.
And, you spelled “indexs” wrong.
I also have no idea what a koan is.
February 24, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Correct. After I posted, I decided to change the navigational bar link from “Archives” to “Browse”. The three sub links are the same with one changed from “All archives” to “Archive”. Is it still ambiguous or confusing? You are the only one to have this issue. If you have specific suggestions, share.
About the favorites part: When you offered your top 2010 Articles, were you suggesting for us not to read the rest? It is “another” way to introduce to people the best I wrote. Do you have an issue with the word “favorite” rather than the idea? I guess you go with the saying; “All my articles like my children. I love them all the same.” On the other hand, I am a discriminate parent.
Thanks for the Typo correction and if you clicked the Koan link, you would knew in two seconds but you passed it.
Here is one koan: http://www.willtoknow.com/we-shall-see/
For the benefit of others seeing this thread, the page in question is Joy’s favorite blog posts. Looking at that link the way it is (right now), I only see a list of posts. I don’t know why they are there. I don’t know the background behind their being there.
I’ve clicked to that page three times now (since this thread began) and only now, on the third time, do I see These are my most favored posts based on visits, rates, comments, links to them, or just my favorites but didn’t get enough attention. at the bottom of the list of posts.
Perhaps if that italicization is on top of the posts it would be clearer and draw people in. Perhaps, too, if there was a “master” browse/archive page and everything else were subpages linked from it, not the way it is now with three subpages linked off a dropdown menu.
But, don’t listen to me, Joy, as I’m not a regular contributor in your blog community. Listen to your community. Ask them. Also, gauge your metrics and how people are navigationally clicking to which page.
February 24, 2011 at 1:07 PM
Thanks for the feedback. You missed the text you quoted up there in your previous two visits. It was always there and highlighted but it is a good recommendation to move it to the top. There will never be one layout that satisfy everyone or accomplish everything but I always try my best to avoid confusing people. We only have few seconds or they are gone.
It is s good idea also to ask people who are first-time visitors like you to see how they react to site’s structure and navigation. As you know the site is new and you can think of it as Beta where I am not only trying to find the right layout and structure but also find my “strong” voice of where I want to take the site, which will effect the design. Same as initially you were trying to take Ariwriter. Your articles and engaging community offer that and I appreciate it greatly. Thanks again.
February 22, 2011 at 11:51 PM
Great video, and thanks for including my archives in your examples of well done archives. I’m glad you noticed the fact that I include posts from elsewhere – that’s actually done using a plugin (del.icio.us for WordPress) that pulls in my Delicious bookmarks. That way I can simultaneously update my archives page and my writing portfolio simply by bookmarking my new posts.
You bet, Kristi. Did you watch the full video or only listen until I mentioned your name?
And, you’re still using delicious?
February 23, 2011 at 12:29 AM
I watched it all the way through.
And yes, I’m addicted to Delicious until the end. Fortunately, as a backup, the plugin I use also works with Diigo, so I backed up all of my Delicious bookmarks there and can just tweak the code a bit to work with that system.
I was addicted to Delicious until Yahoo announced it would kill it, so I transitioned to another bookmarking site…
February 23, 2011 at 11:16 AM
I use Delicious religiously. Love it to death!
Check out my self coded technology blog archive Ari…
Do I read archives Ari? Not very often to be honest, but sometimes if I am looking for a post I have already read, I will use them.
Archives are old news aren’t they? Who does go to a blog and read the archives rather than the latest stuff?
Who reads archives? Say I came to your blog for the first time today. And I read your latest post.
Interesting, now what? No archive? I’m out of here … But a dead archive which the blogger never uses, is no use to either of us.
Diana of EE
Diana, do you look specifically for the word “archive” or does my (current) use of “read me” work for you or Daniel’s use of “table of contents,” for instance, as well?
I will find tags, labels, categories, archive, latest posts … As with comments, any reasonable sensible ” ” works. So long as the ” ” is not so cute that I wonder what it means, and move on. You know how you sometimes battle to leave a comment on a blog because they call it “?!” It is like fishing, the blogger is fishing to get you to read, just one more post. Stickiness?
How do you make that Ari? I mean your cool page layout where it shows a summary of the article, the title and then ‘I want to keep reading!’
e.g.
17 Examples of Blog Archives
February 22, 2011
If you never visited my blog archive, a screen shot is below: Blog archives come in many styles. There are many elements of an archive but most include a reverse-chronological display of years and months, categories and tags, and/or articles. The intent is everything in an archive is clickable. Some bloggers choose simplicity and others [...]
38 comments I want to keep reading!
Is it a plugin?
In my case, because I use a paid Wordpress theme called Thesis, I clicked a few buttons and filled in a field. For other blogs, it would involve editing core files.
How much does Thesis cost?
You don’t like clicking links, eh? One-time cost of less than $90 to use it on one site; and about $160 for unlimited sites.
I typed the comment, posted it and then realised it was a link, sorry Ari
I guess I see what you mean Diana…
How would you define a ‘dead archive’ and how do you prevent it?
Dead, in the sense that someone told the blogger to Add an Archive, and he did. But he doesn’t ever use it … If, you have an archive on your blog, have it first because you use it yourself. And second, set it up the way you would use it, if you were visiting a new blog.
That’s a model for anything on your blog — or in life, for that matter. Introduce yourself to someone if you want to meet that person, and tailor your speech based upon how you’d want that person to talk to you.
Brilliant, thanks Diana. I use my archives, so that’s a start
Hi Ari,
Thanks for this post. You just reminded me to PUT A BLOG ARCHIVE on my website. While I’m not really a fan of archives (because my habit is to look up recent posts only), it would be helpful for my audience who’d like to see what I’ve written previously.
Indeed, you can choose what you write; but your physical frame around your content should be user-friendly.
Good day sir,
A fortune telling sparrow once foretold a fortune forging traffic to my fortress selling ad space could be formed for only folding former moments in a forest.
I thought this bird was a crackpot, but now I see clearly that it was simply attempting to advocate the use of archives to help drive traffic to older content which may otherwise go buried in the dungeons for eternity.
Thank you for your help in clarifying this matter. I sincerely regret feeding sparrow to my demon oysters
February 23, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Ari –
Thanks for including me here. And I’m flattered by your comment about my content. Appreciate that.
Like Wayne, I never cared for the “archive by month” option because it really tells the reader nothing. Obviously I’m using Dagon Design’s sitemap plugin defaulted to show all my existing posts — which does make for a long, and rather cluttered list. Having looked at all these others via your guided tour, I’m feeling the need to up my game.
The choice of the term “Table of Contents” seemed more inviting to me, and grouping by category was the only logical way to do it within the context of the plugin I settled with. Giving the visitor multiple options certainly looks like a better approach.
Ya got me thinkin.’
– Daniel
For what it’s worth, I don’t suggest you change anything. But if you are thinking about stuff based on other sites and feel inspired to do something, that’s your choice.
At the end of the day, a blog is dynamic. Things change, and search engines (and thus, people) take notice. So, change things around; you can always retreat.
February 23, 2011 at 3:34 PM
Ari,
Thanks so much for including me in the ranks of some very awesome other bloggers. The reason my archives are so simple is because I have found most people prefer to search by keyword (search box) or categories than they do by month. I actually almost left archives off altogether because I don’t believe that many people care which month it was in – they want the topic! I would be interested to know the number of people who actually go to your archives? Is it a significant number?
Between January 22 and February 21 (thus, before this article was published), people visited the archive 127 times — 97 visits by unique visitors.
97 people are significant visitors, despite their being a tiny fraction of the whole who didn’t visit the page, no?
February 24, 2011 at 6:45 PM
That is significant – which is why I asked. It may give me a reason to check out mine and possibly modify my archives.
February 23, 2011 at 3:42 PM
thanks for including genpink! I am actually in the process of redesigning it and browse by topic was something I will be highlighting/bringing out more in the redesign. It’s my favorite feature. I have a few thoughts on archives:
- I have never understood why people make an emphasis to archive by date. I have never gone hmm I wonder what this person wrote in April 2007. BUT I would certainly want to know what else they may have written about a category or a tag.
- I will definitely be pointing out the search bar in my redesign on the archive page. I like the visual archives as well. I do have similar posts in a visual way at the bottom of each post but hadn’t thought of doing that on an archive page.
Nice seeing all the differences!
Dates do have some sense, for I occasionally wonder what someone wrote 2 years ago a certain day or more likely I scroll to the beginning and peruse how writing style has evolved. But to randomly click a month and year? Not me.
February 23, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Thank you for including my site with these other outstanding bloggers! I watched the whole video and enjoyed seeing the different methods of preserving and allowing access to older posts. I liked the ones with search boxes and categories. I think the only folks visiting my archives lately are spammers (I get an awful lot of spam comments on old posts – don’t know why.)
All the best to you!
Kudos on your word “preserving,” which inspires me to now draft a follow-up. Thanks!
February 24, 2011 at 11:22 PM
As Ari mentions in his reply, Marti, I love the use of the word preserve as well. Never thought of archives that way before, but such a perfect description.
February 24, 2011 at 11:48 PM
Thank you both for the compliment! Much joy to you!
On this side of the pond, a preserve is something you spread on your morning toast. We lose the p, and call it a reserve. But then we garden bloggers would think of national parks, not a blog archive. Divided by a common language, again, and again.
February 25, 2011 at 7:46 PM
Oh, I love preserves (we pluralize it here in the US – not sure why). I’ve even made homemade plum preserves with fruit picked from our own trees. We also have places where wildlife are protected and allowed to roam free called “game preserves”. Strange how the English language changes when crossing the ocean, isn’t it? Thank you for your reply!
Oh and the spam on old posts … they think you won’t notice …
February 23, 2011 at 8:51 PM
Hey there mister,
Cheers for the inclusion, fella, and interesting to see how differently blog archives are put together.
I agree they’re still an important part of any blog (I’m still getting comments on articles that are two years old and were found via the archives). Though perhaps with the addition of related posts, archives are less used than before?
Cheers again, mate, enjoying the new video approach.
Like you, I’m experimenting with video these days. Some have my face, some have my voice. They’re not perfect but I’m learning as I go…
February 24, 2011 at 10:38 AM
You are doing fine from day one and you are getting better with each one.
Hey Ari
Thanks for including me in your list.
I never knew I had archives. LOL
March 24, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Interesting! I’m about to start experimenting with video to create How Tos for my site. I’m thinking it could add genuine value and make the site much more useful to visitors. Regarding blog archives meanwhile I’m happy to use the theme default for the moment. It’s not great but we’re re-evaluating the entire site so I’ll improve it when the time comes.
Pete
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