The wordpress sidebar can be use to display popular post that catches the eyes of a blog visitor.
it can be use to display a blog popular blog posts, a blog facebook fan page, recent blog posts and host of many others cool stuff,
Many users normally ask how can they display a popular posts in their blog sidebar with a plugin.
There are many plugins that can be use to display a blogs popular post but we at Goldenspeak.com prefer wp tabbed widget by themeshop because the plugin uses the power of ajax, that is to tell you that the speed of your blog was put into consideration when the developers developed the plugin .
To display popular posts in your blog sidebar, download and install wp tabbed widget by themeshop in the worpress directory .
If you do not know how to install a plugin click here.
After a successful activation of the plugin, visit Appearance » Widgets page at the left corner of worpress admin area.
Just look for wp tabbed widget by themeshop.
click on it ,hold down with your mouse and drag to the position you want your popular post to be displayed in the sidebar.
Here you can configure the plugin according to what you want it to do for you, after which click on the save button.
P.S The wp tabbed widget by themeshop apart from displaying popular posts, it can also be use to display recent posts, recent comment and a tag tab. what it displays depend on how you configured it.
For those that have little knowledge of php, you can display a popular post without plugin in your blog sidebar. All you have to do is add a little php function to your sidebar. just drag the html widget to your blog sidebar and add the below php code.
<o/>
<div class=”box”>
<div class=”box_title”>Most popular Posts</div>
<div class=”box_content”>
<ul>
<?php
query_posts(‘orderby=comment_count&posts_per_page=5’);
//If there are posts. checks to see if the current query has any results to loop over.
if (have_posts()) :
//loop through the posts and list each until done.
while (have_posts()) :
//Iterate the post index in The Loop.
the_post();
?>
<li><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” title=”Permanent Link to: <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a> <?php echo ‘(‘ . get_comments_number() . ‘)’; ?></li>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;
//Destroy the previous query. This is a MUST.
wp_reset_query();
?>
</ul>
</div>
</div><!– end of most popular posts
</o>
this function shows popular posts base on comment count.The default function shows 5 popular post per page </o> query_posts(‘orderby=comment_count&posts_per_page=5’)</o>
you can alter the number to suit what you want.
i hope with this you can display a popular post in your sidebar with and without a plugin. show some love by liking our page on facebook and also follow us on twitter for more update.
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