One of the benefits of having so many blogs is we can experiment across a statistically relevant number of blogs and visitors to test out how different changes to aspects of the blog works.
For example the way we display titles on permalink pages, with the post name first and the blog name second, is the result of testing and we found that having the post name first has an impact on blog traffic, mostly from places like search engines that show the page title as part of the results.
Anyway, one of the places we think is pretty under-used on our themes is the spot under the post and above the comments. It makes sense, when someone is done with your post they’re probably looking for someplace else to go. We were brainstorming some ideas of what to put there, here’s what we have so far:
- Related posts
- Ads (your ads)
- Blogroll or avatars
- Popular posts
- Random same-blog posts
- Author profile
Of those, “related posts” is the most exciting but also the most difficult, but probably the one we’ll try to tackle first.
However I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff we haven’t even imagined yet. So… what would you be interested in having under your post on the permalink (single post) page?
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I would definitely like for you to make “related posts” the priority for that space. But if I can’t have that, I’ll take “popular posts.” Thanks for the improvements.
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I would go for Related posts! For the time being, I don’t have any other better idea.
I want “Related post”, especialy when I can choose manually which post will be added as related. Sometimes is hard to choose but it’s my problem 😉 I don’t trust algorithms.
Thanks 🙂
PS. Sorry for my English 😉
Due to the nature of my blog, an “Amber Alert” feed
Maybe a gallery of pictures. Wouldn’t be useful for every single post, but sometimes could be really handy, when you were just talking about something and want to illustrate with some pics.
Just a suggestion, I’m sure you guys and the community will come up with some genius stuff. 😉
I would be interested in related same-blog posts.
‘Related Posts’ would be a bonus. The few times I’ve gone to the trouble of doing this myself it’s been a tad painful, though not at all impossible. Some sort of shortcut to do this easily would be fantastic!
Many thanks, as always, for the ever-evolving benefits you’ve all brought to wordpress 🙂
~ Molli
What about this standard quotation: “The slightest thought hadn’t even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind”? 🙂
Related posts or Random same-blog posts.. 🙂
Popular posts from my own blog, I think. That would be it, I guess. And thanks for asking…
I also have a new idea. One could have a miniature debate-product there (forum style), that showed a little number of headlines from those posts, that got recent commentaries. Then people could click the headline and land in an other thread. It would stimulate the commentary function on our blogs and make them more attractive to visit, because the posts that have generated recent interest will be easy to find.
There is a new disease around, you know: debatitis. And it is chronic. And epidemic. These people need support.
The product could look a bit like the forum threads that we use for support on WordPress but perhaps with less features. I’m not sure, people should be allowed to start a new thread. That could lead to some sort of hijacking of ones blog.
So the idea is a miniature debate-product or mini-forum for a number of ones threads (posts) shown as click-able headlines.
Related posts would be great.
Forgot: Only posts (threads) from ones own blog, that is. A mini-debate related to ones own blog…
“Related posts” sounds good. But how is the relation determined? Would authors get to choose from an assortment of possible posts and approve which ones are shown?
The avatar would also be cool. And although I wouldn’t use the author profile (I’m the only author on my blog), it would be nice for a multi-author blog.
Ads? No way…
Maybe the related posts or an author profile on WordPress… but would that profile be like the ones on Blogger? (of course, much better, but i think you’ll understand what I am saying…)
Related posts is great. Some Digg this stuff and Stumbeupon buttons. Vote possibility for the post
It would be great to have a selection of links that the author could choose. For example, we really need the option of standard Digg & Stumble It links.
cool! thanks… : )
Google Ads? 😀
How about polls?
And “watched posts comments”? 🙂
I would go for top posts or latest posts
not ads for sure!
Related posts sounds great! But popular posts and random posts are also not bad.
Ads!
I don’t like Ads, but would be nice have an Author profile.
I think related posts would be a phenomenal addition. As you say, it would be complicated, but it would be great. Popular posts would be good too.
Related posts, hands down.
Random same blog posts.
No new ideas but the Related Posts sounds great
I think the “randon same-blog posts” option is a good idea.
Hi Matt! I like the related blog idea a lot. Only concern is that putting it between the post and the comments section might divert people away from the blog before they leave a comment. For me the comments add to the post – not that I get all that many – and I value each and every one.
Just to throw out some added possibilities…sometimes I read a post that I wish I could recommend to others. Might be fun to have a radio button there that places the post title in a Reader Recommended category (or some such thing) that people could go to. Not sure if that’s too complicated, but at least it might spark other ideas.
I think Related Posts and Random same-blog posts are the one i’d like to have on my blog…
Thanx for asking, I guess… 😀
Love the idea of having the related posts link there.
How about “blogrings” where different blogs with common interests or themes can group together?
I agree that “related posts” is the most interesting. However, just as a starting point, a small “popular posts” ranking can be a good idea.
Also, a “send to digg”-like link may be useful.
Most of the things you list could probably be done as widgets.
Would that be related posts on the same blog or related posts on other blogs?
I think that on the same blog is probably best.
I just saw a neat feature on a blog and it looks like it is a WP plugin.
I left a comment to ask where to get that.
It looks like this:
Comments
If you found this page useful, consider linking to it.
Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site (Ctrl+C to copy)
It will look like this: (etc.)
User-defined areas like widget, of course 🙂 At least, here @ Pixline we are working on that approach, a widget-like sistem for other areas, with different kind of content.
All your list would be easily build like site-widgets for those areas, letting users define what they would have there easily.
Just my two (euro)cents..
Related posts would be nice 🙂
How about “Other Posts in this Category” or “Most Popular Posts”? Since you already have the widget that lists the top posts, putting them at the bottom of the permalink page should be (relatively) simple. I know that I often miss stuff in the sidebar, because my concentration is focused on the larger frame where the posts are.
I love how you slip ‘ads’ oh-so-casually into that list. For the record, I’m one of those who hates ads above or below the body of the post. I don’t care if you earn more that way, it just looks unbelievably low-rent. If we must have Adsense, can we restrict it to sidebars and footers, please?
What would a list of related posts do that tags don’t? If I want to read more posts by that author on the same subject, I’ll go to their tag pages. Of course, if I’m on a sidebarless page, that’s a little difficult because if I click on a category I’m going to get sent to the global tag page instead. If you fixed that, it would pretty much negate the need for faffing about with related posts and you could get on with other theme-related stuff such as internationalization and the provision of more pinkness. 🙂
How about a Flickr photo bar.
Would be cool if it was linked to post somehow so that the photos displayed in the bar were links to the posts in which those photos appeared. Might work for people who use the Flickr “blog this” feature a lot.
I like all those ideas though.
-M
I say you allow the user to choose, almost make it like a widget where they can drag from a select pool of widgets. I think related posts or relevant text ads would be best. I think if you allowed Google ads or a similar contextual ad system to be displayed on WordPress blogs, you’d unluck a whole new avenue of revenue for your users. That wasted space could be a good place to put those ads. The only reason that non-paying users cannot have ads on their blog is because you don’t allow them.
Just an idea on how to do the “related posts” for Matt as reference.
You can provide a option- a pull down list of the name of categories the owner are using- in the post Editor, for the blog owner to assign one (or more) category (categories), that is the category where the related posts will come from. That means, if I assign “human rights” category, then only posts from my “human rights” category can be listed as related posts.
Because there are more than 300 posts now under my “human rights” category ):, so probably you just want to show the first 5 or 10 recent titles, with a “more>” button at the bottom. That will be ideal for me.
Thanks a lot in advance for your great effort.
I go for “related posts”, because it is the most useful one.
Hello Matt! Excellent ideas! that is really a brilliant change that you propose. Also I suggest as a contribution some things to you that also you could consider and are the following ones.
– Rank Post (To vote) – Example: http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-postratings.html
– To send post to Digg, Meneame, etc (Share This) – Example: http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress
– To send post a e-mail friend – Example: http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-email.html
If ideas are happened to me but I warn to you. 🙂 Excuses by my ugly English. A greeting and follows thus, wordpress is the best thing.
firstly thanks for all your works..
i think, “related posts” is the most important inside those ideas..
On a side note, I would be interested to display the hit count for the specific post on each post page… We already have the data in the blog stats page, but would be great if we could also have the data for each post in its appropriate page.
Hey, great idea!
I’d personally like to have following
– Technorati blog reactions
– Related Posts (is somehow similar, but more generic – how “related”? Via tags? Keywords?)
– feedburner feedflares (this would imply the possibility to redirect the feed to feedburner…)
Thanks a lot!!
Isa
I might be willing to be one of those test people to see if their are any changes! Well, if you are looking for volunteers! I think this is some amazing stuff your doing here recently and appreciate that you are thinking of things like this!
Oh, definitely Related Posts!!
And then “Author Profile” 🙂
I’m currently doing the Related Post links by hand…can take some time to do: searching for them previous posts, coping the link, etc.
It will save us so much time
Cheers
Random Related posts from around other blogs would be cool. This can be referred by tags. That would be kind of cool.
I’d be interested in this order:
1- Related posts
2- Popular posts
3- Random same-blog post
4- Author profile
5- Ads (er… who’ll get the revenue? lol)
how about a link to a random blog post from a different blog using the same tag/ or with similar content?
Related posts, definitely. I could see how some of the others could be beneficial, but I could get the most use out of that.
The related posts thing sounds like an excellent option. It would be nice to be able to set that to be either related posts from the same blog or related posts across wordpress.com, I’m sure the second option adds headaches for you all, but it would be very cool.
All of the mentioned, let the user choose?
Wonderful thoughts. I am looking forward to see those changes.
* Related posts
Yup, that can be the best option for the future.
* Ads
Ads, for who? I can’t put ads if I’m not a VIP member. But will be another good option.
* Blogroll or avatars
I don’t understand exactly this idea.
* Popular posts
With the first option, awesome.
* Random same-blog posts
We have this option, don’t you?
* Author profile
Please tell more about this idea.
All are okay, but first and quarter needs to be first in becoming. Keep up the good work!!
—
Spanish forum administrator [http://es.forums.wordpress.com]
5 related posts (same blog) and 5 Random same-blog posts
Any chance of making these choices optional? If not, random same-blog posts would be my preference.
I’d pick author profile… please no ads!
I agree that the “related posts” would be the best!
I’d like to be able to choose, or turn it off on a post by post basis.
First though – no ads unless I’ve set them up, or unless I approve, related posts if they are mine, or I approve, blogroll could work, author profile of course. I find that some of the related stuff that now shows up on YouTube isn’t very good for me – eg. I posted an interview with a woman who was talking about something serious, then the related stuff that came up beneath her in the video window had to do with another woman, same first name, a singer in Argentina in a wild and hot outfit etc. Its funny but has made me think twice now about using YouTube for those postings. I’d really really hate to see wordpress.com go in that direction.
Aggregate results from blog search engines looking for posts on other sites that link to the current entry. Technorati, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, etc. Weed out duplicates (also look for duplicates in the Trackbacks/Pingbacks). Oh, and make me coffee.
I’d really like to have a “related posts” one, because people can visit other posts you have written and discover new things.
You could also add a small system to rate the post, like giving 5 stars if you liked a lot, so people can take an active role and the author can track which entries people like.
It would be nice to have these things…
Anyway, thanks for all!
Related posts would be fine. But you mean related posts in the same blog or even in other ones?
As an alternative, latest posts of the blog.
By ^_^
I’d love to see the Related Posts under it. Sort of a list of already published posts and we select the ones that we believe are related.
Honestly, nothing. Or at least the option of having nothing.
Soundtracks.
It’s good enough to keep that spot unchanged.
No ads, please!
Related Post, sounds most interesting.
Currently, many time we have to manually add the links.
Second Phase:
It would be good for us if there is interface in future which helps us manually relate one post to other post. Some kind of Grid, which we can use.
Google Ads works too.
Related posts FTW.
I like your approach. But why not just use the same method you already have in place.
Let the user select from a list of widgets to place there?
For example – I would think that would be a great place to put
“If you like this post – click here to receive it as an e-mail.”
Or
Put the delicous, DIGG, etc. buttons there so the post can be submitted as a story.
Or
Allow me to put the category words with different sizes.
Or
Let me put a picture of my favorite friend.
Again – each person is SO different and the goals for their blogs will be different and their needs will be different.
I realize with so many blogs – there will be trends and maybe you can provide a place where statistics are captured so people can see what works for others.
Eg:
The DIGG Button Widget is used by 10,000 people and its clicked on average of 7 times a day.
The Delicious Button Widget is used by 1,000 people and its clicked on average 100 times a day.
The E-mail Subscription Widget is used by 100,000 people and its clicked once per day.
I think you get where I am going with this…..
You guys are great!
This would tell me I should be using the delicous and ignore the DIGG button.
I definitely think that Related Posts would make the most sense. Heck, even if it just pulled from categories it would be worthwhile, attempting to do anything more than that would be downright crazy.
Related posts from same blog or author.. Based on tags. That would be awsome!
Of that little list, I would go for the related posts or random same-blog posts.
No ads please!
I don’t think I’d put anything there on my blog. I’ve got the sidebar on all pages, so folks can get that info there. Also, my readers only click on the permalink to make or read comments.
Related posts will be more appropriate. Famous quotations picked up randomly from some sort of database could be another idea.
Definitely the Sphere plug-in.
* Related posts MAYBE
* Ads WHOSE?
* Blogroll or avatars NO
* Popular posts NO
* Random same-blog posts NO
* Author profile NO
My preference:
“Digg this”, “add to delicious” etc.
No contest.
Great Work !
Ads?! I really hope you’re not serious about putting ads there – that turns me off a site immediately, and would even turn me off my own blog.
Please no ads!
I think that related posts or random same-blog posts (maybe have a snippet of it?) would be most interesting.
Or you could make a box where readers can select, say “Related posts” or “Blogroll” or “Author profile” , etc. and have the box expand to show the content.
Just wondering, how will the themes manage this?
I thought it would be neat to have the ability to put a text widget under there. That way you could make it pretty much anything (signature, avatar, image, links, stats script, etc.). I’d want to be able to make it defeatable in the write post screen (similar to turning comments on/off) if I wanted to.
‘Related posts’ and ‘author profile’ definately sounds logical. As long as we’re able to turn these things on/off, I don’t see any the problem with having more options 😉
Personally, I woundn’t want to have any ads on my site.
defiantly the “related posts”,
as you said, its the most exciting,
Ads!! oh please NO!
but how about having a wiki box or extension that shows related pages to
things mentioned in the post?
well, you can tell I just made that up LOL! I don’t know
if thats even possible,
but, thats one of the common things that I do when reading blogs, I
go search on things that I know nothing about at Wikipedia,
thanx for all the work you guys,
you’ve been such a great team!
Peace
-Halla
I love the idea of links to “Same-blog” posts, but rather than random ones how about ones that are similarly tagged?
Mama Kelly
What about an option to include some/all of the above? Basically – design a module/widget that you can assign to the end of a post. Then – in the back end you could add any compatible widgits.
Example: using a text widget – whatever you feel like included after each post: signature, links, images, Social Networking badges (Digg, etc.), a button to destroy the universe…Whatever.
The previous and next posts… No ads!..
Related posts would be great. Please, no ads.
Related posts will be very useful. IMHO
Terrible idea! I contacted support recently to get permission to build a WP.com blog for a local non-profit charity to use as their website. The response was overwhelmingly positive, but some of the above ideas would make the charity’s website look tacky and unprofessional. I guess I’m going to have to look for an alternative host for them now.
This doesn’t surprise me – especially the “ads” idea. I knew those would come eventually. 😦
Maybe have the number of times that the post has been read/hit.
I would add “Popular related post” in the list. Is the one I would choose as reader. But as blogger, “Random same-blog posts” sounds good!!!
Thanks!
In my opinion I see that belogs are very important why? most visitors can post and post comments …and the title is so helpful for the bloger..
Author profile ..I think its number one if i post it seriously and honestly
Related posts certainly sounds very interesting. One of the main benefits on keeping my blog on wordpress.com is the large community of bloggers here. Links to related posts wold be a nice way to get/keep in touch with others who blog on the themes I am interested in, thus making the most of this community.
Another interesting possibility is same-blog posts, but rather than making it random posts, I would love the possibility to have same-blog, same-category posts listed.
What I certainly do not want is ads. The total freedom from advertising is one of the main reasons I chose WordPress, and I would very much like to keep it that way.
Other than that, the freedom to chose is always nice, so the very best thing would of course be if you could implement all of the above, giving the bloggers the choice between any one of them – or none. But, hey, I would be perfectly happy with just the “related posts” option. Thank you very much for asking!
So long as you don’t mean ads imposed compulsorily by WordPress.com, I’ll be interested to see the results of this.
Latest post or top post would be nice.
Is there any way this could be chosen by the individual blogger? I can easily see some professional blogs wanting an author’s bio, while more casual bloggers wanting related posts or an avatar or something else. Whatever you choose to work on, I recommend building some method of customization into it.
And that’s my $0.02.
I like the Related Posts option, despite the amount of difficulty… but I also like the idea of throwing an avatar/profile at the bottom as well. I’ll be the first to write up a little profile about myself and throw it out there for people to see once they finish reading one of my posts, rather than link people up to my “About” page.