Navigating blog content - basic questions
I am just getting started with IM, and I am going to set up a Wordpress blog as the platform. I am hoping some of you might be willing to answer some general questions I have about blog navigation.
Okay, here's the thing. I've seen many blogs and themes lately. The actual content is the most important thing. The posts are generally organised into categories, while the pages have the static stuff.
Two things are confusing me.
1.) Although the all-important content is in the categories, the categories themselves are very often listed almost as an afterthought! They might be listed in the sidebar halfway down the page, while the static pages are listed front-and-centre in a prominent position! This seems very odd.
2.) I'm confused about how users are supposed to navigate through a blog. Often a thumbnail-like selection of the most recent or most popular posts can be seen on the front page, but it is difficult (or at least non-intuitive) to browse through all posts to find things of interest. Add to this is the issue of 'old' posts being 'archived' by month.
This seems to indicate an ethos where only the most recent information is of interest, and any topics over a month old are moth-balled and need to be hunted down. Seems a bit clunky - or am I misunderstanding how this works?
Is there a better way to organise blog content? I would have thought that the categories would take pride of place, while the static pages would be off to the side somewhere. I also think it would be better to have all posts under a category viewable in brief (those mini-previews) so users could browse all the available posts in a category, regardless of when they were posted (my subject matter will not be time-sensitive).
Thanks for any help and info you can provide!
All the best,
Sean
WordPress For Business and Personal Use
"You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose." -Dr. Suess