How to Make a "Home Page" in Blogger

If you're like me, you're not all that enamoured of "blogging"  I know, it seems like everyone is blogging these days, but to me, nothing beats a regular old fashioned website.

One thing that sets a "blog" and a "website" apart is that a website has a home page. Here's how to make a home page in Blogger.

First of all, let's discuss what we need to change and how we can do it in Blogger.

We need to...

• "Trick" blogger into posting the same post on the main page of our blog every time it loads.
• Remove the date and time stamps
• Make only one post show on the main page
• Remove commenting from the home page

Additionally, to make our site not look like a blog, we'll need to remove the archives from the sidebar as well.

So let's get started!

Step 1: Tricking Blogger in Posting a Static Home page

The first thing you need to do is create a post that will serve as your home page.  So just make a post as normal and put whatever you'd like on it.  Typically you'll want to have these elements:

1. An interesting headline that introduces what your site is all about.
2. Some introductory text that expands upon your headline and engages the reader.  You want to encourage the visitor to read further.
3. Helpful tips for navigating the site to make it as easy as possible for a visitor to find what they are looking for (or what you want them to find!)
4. Content that makes the visitor feel comfortable and confident that you are what they are looking for.  You'll want to use "you" in your copy, be focused on your main subject, and write clearly and simply.  If the visitor feels confused about what the purpose of your site is, chances are they'll leave pretty darn quickly.

Once you've made your post and published it, you want Blogger to think that this post is the most recent one all the time.  This is because Blogger will always post the most recent post first.

The way to trick Blogger is simply to change your post date to sometime in the distant future.  On this blog, my homepage's URL is: http://bloggertipswithchristine.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-tips-with-christine.html

Although it doesn't show, here's a screenshot of the date of my homepage post:

Step 2: Remove the Date and Time Stamps

Obviously we don't want everyone to know that our post is dated far into the future, so we need to fix that.  While we're at it, let's just take all the dates off all the posts so we don't feel all pressured to post all the time.  (I HATE that).

Here's how to remove that date and time stamps:

Find the "layouts" tab...

Then choose "edit" within the blog content gadget:

This will open a popup.  Uncheck the date related boxes.  (I unchecked the byline box too).

Now don't close that out yet, because we are going to take on the next step which is...

Step 3: Make Only One Post Show On the Main Page

Don't forget to click "save"

Step 4: Remove Commenting from the Home Page

Some would argue that this isn't really necessary, but I disagree.  Who ever heard of a "commentable" home page?  I'm removing the archives while I'm at it just to reduce the whole "blogginess" of the website.

All you have to do is go to the setting tab:

Go to the comments...

And hide them.

Similary, go to the archiving sub-tab, and choose "no archives"

That's it.


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