To drive traffic from one of my blogs to another, I decided to add Recent Posts widget on the sidebar.
This will not guarantee high views, still it’s free exposure without the need of asking for permission or writing guest post.
2 Ways to Add Recent Posts
I’ll show the two ways of adding recent posts of another blog on the sidebar. Similar to the recent post of making a sitemap, coding is not required other than widgets.
Option 1: Display WordPress Posts (Jetpack)
To make this trick work, first install Jetpack. It is a plugin that has many features; ironically, some of these features are not necessary, making bloggers pass up Jetpack and opt for simpler alternatives.
I’m one of the bloggers who disliked Jetpack but gave it a go and learned to appreciate it.
- Install Jetpack plugin (use your WordPress.com account).
- Go to Jetpack > Settings > Widgets > Enable “Make extra widgets available for use on your site including subscription forms and Twitter streams.”
- Go to Appearance > Widgets.
- Add Display WordPress Posts widget in the sidebar, footer, or after entry.
- Choose how many recent posts (maximum of 10) you want to display.
I like having no more than five recent posts in the sidebar. And that also goes to my blog’s top posts and comments.
Many choices may lead to decision fatigue that a reader may settle of not choosing at all.
Option 2: RSS
In the past I spent time subscribing and reading on Feedburner. It was my personal online library; all subscriptions were carefully chosen.
Gone are those days. I only use RSS to display recent posts from another blog.
- Go to Appearance > Widgets.
- Add RSS widget in the sidebar, footer, or after entry.
- Choose how many recent posts you want to display.
Tip: The WordPress blog RSS feed link are https://yourblog/feed/ for post and https://yourblog/comments/feed/ for comments.
Out of the two ways to add recent posts, I prefer doing option 1 using Jetpack. It’s easy to install and the Display WordPress Post widget looks nicer than using RSS.
The integration of posts from another blog seems seamless though it’s definitely a shameless plug.
Who knows how many reader will also appreciate being redirected from one golden blog to another.
Were you able to get higher traffic with links from another blog?
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