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Make A Static Home Page For Your Blog

OK, everybody knows that, with a Blogger blog, you can't really make a static home page. That's one of the known limitations of Blogger blogs. The home page of a Blogger blog will contain the most recent posts - as specified by the Settings - Formatting "Show at most" value.

So, just don't show any posts on the main page. That's not a lot of work, really.
  1. In Settings - Formatting, set "Show at most" to 0 posts.
  2. Add a "Welcome" gadget, using an HTML / Text gadget. Or compose a "Welcome" gadget using Post Editor, if you want a really shiny static home page. You'll have a couple choices for positioning the new gadget.
    • If you want your Welcome gadget to look like a "Welcome" post, you can position it just above the Blog Posts gadget, and have the sidebar(s) visible.
    • If you want your Welcome gadget to look like a "welcome" header message,, you can position it just below the blog header, and have the sidebar(s) below it and not visible.
  3. Tweak the "Welcome" gadget, so it only displays on home page.
  4. Remove the Status Message code from the template, so your readers don't have to look at the "No posts were found which match your query" / "Showing posts with label" message (both messages are produced by the same code).
  5. Add a custom pages index, to index the pages and posts in this blog, and other blogs. You can have either true static pages - or you can have dynamic pages, using labels.
  6. You're done - check it out.

If you wish, look at my Static WebSite Test blog, and see how simple it is. Note that my example shows a linklist in the sidebar, with mostly links to other blogs. It's a separate task (no more complicated than this one) to create a menu bar for this blog, to index pages and posts in this blog.

(Update 2010/09): The "Show 0 posts" setting is still available, but may require a small amount of extra work.

Comments

Ruth K said…
Okay, I get the static main page... can I make an additional page that will display my posts?
Nitecruzr said…
can I make an additional page that will display my posts?

No, you cannot display posts in an additional page - posts are dynamic pages, and can't be published in static pages.

Just add an entry or two to your linklist in step 6. Link to an archives or label retrieval, and you can have any posts display with the static pages.
Iv said…
Alternatively I suppose you can make another blog under the same account, turn that into a text based blog and wrap it inside a static page...
Nick O Larse said…
Tweak the "Welcome" gadget, so it only displays on home page.....how do you do that??
Anna said…
Good Morning! Ok so I am lost! I have been going in circles through the pages you have trying to follow the step by step process. I seriously need some help. I feel like I'm computer savvy but maybe I'm missing something or maybe a couple details have been left out, I'm not sure. This is my blog http://gracefulbyanna.blogspot.com/

What I am trying to do is have all my posts be posted (linked, tagged- dunno) to the header(not sure what to call it) I want my reader to be able to come to my page and see a welcome screen with no posts there and then be able to click on about me, love, etc and see my posts. I want the post to be archived though. I hope I'm explaining this right. I followed SO many of your steps and thought I was doing awesome but I got to labels and now I'm confused. PLEASE HELP ME!! Thanks so much for any response!!
Nitecruzr said…
Anna,

Instead of trying to simply help yourself using my blog (which works for some folks - but not for everybody), why not ask your question, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, so we can explore your needs, interactively? That's the better way to go.
Anna said…
Thank you Chuck for your quick response. Great suggestion! Will do that now. I looked for so long last night and the only page that seemed to explain how to do anything I think I'm trying to do was your blog. So thank you so much you guys for being so helpful by having this stuff on here for all us bloggers! Much appreciated!! ;)
Sunit said…
Thanks a lot!!
Unknown said…
thank you so much chuck, I love love love my new home page.

http://paidsurvey100.blogspot.com/
Unknown said…
I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well.Thanks for sharing this information.And I'll love to read your next post too.
Greetings, Chuck! I found your directions for making a static home page, and tried it last night. I added a slider. I added the slider code into the template and added the final code into the html/javascript gadget as directed. Then i followed your steps to set it as my homepage. It worked last night. I was so excited!

Then, this morning, when I went to the site, it takes a really long time to load, and an error symbol appears in the lower left. And now, the slider is not auto advancing to the next slide at all. Could you please tell me what it could be and how I can fix it? The site is www.fthreeo.com. Thank you!
Nitecruzr said…
FthreeO,

This is a good example why careful testing of third party provided code is a very good idea.

Do you have a discussion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken? That's where we need to start.
Unknown said…
Blogger just changed something that really pissed me off. I was just creating a blog with a static homepage depending on being able to display 0 posts on homepage. Now the minimum is 1. I mean, what’s that all about? Are they afraid no one will eat up their stinking dynamic views? Can someone, please, tell me if there’s a way to override that limitation and get the 0 posts option back? Thanks in advance.
Nitecruzr said…
Masa,

The "Show 0 posts" option is still available - you just have to use the right wizard to set it.

However, a Static Home Page is now a lot easier to set up - and does not depend up "Show 0 posts".

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2010/09/make-static-home-page-for-your-blog-2.html

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/06/blogger-magic-static-home-page-improved.html
Thats what i want to do in my blog but plus I want to put home page some boxes like categories but without snipplets, images or thumbnails only text and small text.Is it possible?or it can be with flash ?or is there any easier way?

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