Turn Your BlogInto One Long Web Page

When I first wrote this post,
I started with a faulty assumption.

I assumed that what I wanted to do
was to stop blogger from archiving
my posts.

Why? Why put an end to archiving?

I thought archiving was bad because
it stopped all my posts from appearing
together on one page.

Now I know better. I now know that
archiving and the number of posts
per page are separate issues.

Repeat. These two things are
separate issues:

1. The archiving of posts
2. The number of posts that
   appear on your main page

Had I understood this earlier,
I would have done things
differently.

Since I thought the issue was
archiving, I decided to turn off
archiving.

Seems that Google's blogger defaults
to archiving your blog posts on
a monthly basis. At first, I thought
this was bad.

I didn't want this because my blog
posts are typically fairly timeless.

I don't use my blog to talk about politics
or anything that is topical, so why should
I archive my posts? That was my thinking.

To me, archiving implied that my posts become
less relevant over time. In my case, I didn't
think this was true.

Turning Off Blog Archiving

Here are the 6 steps I took to turn off archiving
of posts:

1. Click on View Blog
2. Click on Customize in the
   upper right-hand corner
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Archiving
5. Choose No Archive from the drop
   down menu
6. Choose Save Settings to make
   your choice go into effect.

After following the above 6 steps, I
thought my blog would turn into one
long web page with the most recent
post at the top. That's what I thought.

I was wrong. After turning monthly
archiving back on, I looked for the
true solution.

Turns out that Blogger allows you to
set the number of posts on the main
page.

Blog Visitors Have Trouble
Navigating a Web Site

I prefer to have as many posts on the
home page as possible because many many
web visitors have trouble navigating a
web site.

This is what I find when I talk to
people.

So many people miss so many things
when navigating a site.

Better to cater to these visitors by
keeping your site dead simple. Keep
them rather than loose them or confuse
them. That's my motto.

Getting All Blog Posts
on the Same Page

Here's what I actually did to get all
my posts on to the home page of my
blog:

1. Click on View Blog
2. Click on Customize in the
   upper right-hand corner
3. Click on Settings
4. Click on Formatting
5. Find Show at the top of
   the page
6. Choose 500 posts to get
   as many posts as possible on to the
   home page of your blog

The choice of 500 posts is quite
deliberate. This is the maximum number
of posts that Blogger allows on one page.

I now have monthly archiving turned back
on because it can only help. It's just
another way for web visitors to navigate
my posts.

This is a good thing.

I also now allow Blogger to put up to 500
posts on my Blog home page. This is also
a good thing, I feel.

Since my blog is not a topical one, and
since most web visitors benefit from a
website that is laid out in a simple
fashion, I now try to keep as many posts
as possible on one page.

Most web visitors know how to scroll.
That's a fact.

What's surprising is how many people
find it clumsy to find and click on
links.

Many many people are still not very
good at this.

So, I blog with this in mind. I blog
with link-challenged people in my heart
and in my thoughts.

Ed Abbott