Blog Tip - Table of Contents

Repurposed Books with Cookbook Divider Covers by copabananas

How about giving your readers an easy way to find older posts that they might want to read? I recently deleted my archives from the side bar and added a Table of Contents instead.

Do you all really care what I wrote in October of 2007? Probably not. Do you care to have a look at all of my Tips for Bloggers? Maybe.

Look at all of your posts and see if they can be divided by subject. Each subject will be a heading in your Table of Contents, kind of like chapters in a book. Your reader will click on a subject and see a list of the posts that belong there, all clickable of course.

Check out mine over on the right.

Here's what you do. Take a look at the oldest page of your dashboard. Take note of the date of your first post. Create a page for each of your subjects. Before publishing, click on "post options" below the text box for each post. Change the post date so that it is earlier than your first blog post. That way these pages won't show up on the front page of your blog. They'll be buried way in the back.

Ok, you've got a page created for each subject in your table of contents. Now to put them in the sidebar. Click "layout". Then "add page element". Choose "link list". Title it "Table of Contents". "New Site Name" - That's where you put the title of the first subject. Open a new window or tab. Go to the oldest page on your dashboard. Find the matching post to the first subject. Hit "view". Copy the url. Back to your link list. Paste the url where it says "New Site URL". Do that for each of your main subjects for your Table of Contents. Make Sense?

Now it's time to fill those pages that you created. Go through your dashboard putting the titles of each post onto the appropriate subject pages. Hit "view" for each post so you can copy the url and paste it to make each title clickable. You know how to make them clickable, right? Highlight the title. Click on the green button at the top of the text box. Paste the url in the box that pops up.

I haven't finished making all of my titles clickable. It's a mighty big job. Maybe your blog is young and it won't take you very long. If you've been blogging for a while, maybe choose your most informative, funniest, whatever, for your Table of Contents. Then from now on, with each post you create, be sure to add it to your Table of Contents.

Your readers will thank you.

Want to read more of my "Tips for Bloggers"? Just click here.