How to create an Archives page/post for a wordpress.com blog

ARCHIVES are created automatically in wordpress.com blogs. And if you want your readers to have access to your blog archives, the only way to do so is by adding the Archives widget in the side bar. But what if you don’t want the Archives widget in the side bar (to minimize clutter maybe!) but still want your readers to have access to it? Well, the only way to do so is by creating an Archives page or post. If your page tabs are already crowded (depends on your theme), it is better to create an Archives post and link to it in your side bar with a text link using a text widget.

So how do we create an Archives page or post? Take a good look at your blog first. Have you posted in all months from the moment you started your blog? The best way to check it is by adding the Archives widget in your side bar temporarily and clicking the months. If you have posted in all months, well, then first of all, let me congratulate you for being so dedicated. Regular posting is a big deal for blogs! Ok, back to the Archives thing again. If you haven’t posted in all months, that’s ok too. Shit happens in life and I understand! But do note down which month(s) you didn’t post on. Let’s say, a sample blog doesn’t have posts in March, 2008.

Now we are ready to tackle our project big time. It really isn’t that tough. So if you are holding your breath, don’t!

Blogs go back in time, (like B.C!). So we have to travel through time in our Archives page – from the present to the past and go back to the time of Big Bang – the time your blog was born and the first post was created.

A sample Archive page of a blog can have the links ordered according to year and month. For a blog that started in October, 2007, doesn’t have posts in Marc, 2008 and is continuing in the present (which is, May, 2008), the order will look like this:

Year: 2008

May
April
February
January

(Notice that the month March is absent)

Year:2007

December
November
October

So far, so good. Now we have to actually make the months clickable. Before we learn how to do that let’s analyze the structure of a url of an archive page, say, May 2008.

The url of an archive page shows the blog url, the year and the month – and in that order.

So, the Archive url for May, 2008 in my blog will be
http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2008/05

The green and red part go for the year and month respectively. In which month did you last blog? Configure that url first. For me, it is the url right above. Now write it down under the months and simply copy this url and cut it (press ctrl + x in your computer keyboard to cut it).

Go to the code mode of your blog (relax, it’s not gonna bite you!) and select the month when you last blogged. Now click the link tab and paste the url (press ctrl+v in your computer keyboard to paste the url).

Select the rest of the months one by one for that year, click the link tab and paste the url.

Guess what, your Archives page is almost ready. You are probably wondering why we pasted the same url in all months for the year. Well, we did it because it is quicker. Now all we have to do is change the month bit (the orange bit, remember)?

While you are still in the Code mode, look for the month bit (it won’t look orange, by the way!) and change it accordingly. For the months April, March, February and January, the month bit will decrease increasingly (um…..sorry about the words) – like this, 04, 03, 02 and 01. Don’t mess with the whole url, change just the month bit!

Ok, we are done with the year 2008. now we have 2007 deal to deal with. December is the last month I posted in my blog. So, the model url for the months of 2007 for me will be this:
http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2007/12/

Repeat the process for all the month of 2007.

Now your Archives page is ready!

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Important reminder

Your Archives page will not be updated automatically. Don’t forget to update it manually from time to time!

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Good to know

It is possible to configure the archives for whole years as well. In that case you just have to get rid of the month bit in the url. For example, for the year 2007, the archive url for my blog will look like this:
http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2007/

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A friendly suggestion

Right after you post the link to a month, you might like to link to the best posts of the month under the heading “Best posts”.

Readers love to find the good bits of a blog easily!