How To Display A Featured Post or Ad On Your Blog

Ever thought of displaying an Ad, announcement, Featured Post  or better still An Opt-in form on your blog’s home page so that it’s the first thing your readers see when they arrive at your blog?

Well, here’s a simple way of implementing it.

1. Download the Get-A-Post plug-in, install it and activate it.
2. Write your Featured Post, Ad, Announcement or Opt-In as if it were a regular post but date it like 2 – 3 months back so it doesn’t repeat itself on your home page. Publish it and take note of it’s ID.
3. Add the following code to your theme’s index.php right before the function <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
   

   <!–The Intro section starts.Start editing here –>

   <div class=”intro”>
   <?php get_a_post(22); ?>       <!-Replace 22 with the Post ID that you want to show –>
   <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
   <?php the_content(); ?>

   </div>
   <!–The Intro section ENDS.STOP editing here ->

4. Add this code to the end of your theme’s style.css file. Edit it to fit your blog’s layout and you are done.
   

   /****INTRO SECTION STYLING ****/

   .intro{
   margin:0px 0px 30px 20px;
   padding:10px;
   border:1px solid #CCCCCC;
   width:570px; /* EDIT THIS WIDTH */ height:390px;           /* EDIT THIS HEIGHT */
   background:#F4F7FC;   /* background color of the box */
   }

   /****INTRO SECTION STYLING ENDS****/

Drawbacks: I had to remove it from my blog because whenever my readers searched my blog, the featured post or ad kept appearing above the search results and that was somewhat of annoying.

Hope it works out for you. Cheers!

P.S: As always, thanks to Ampercent! He took the time to figure it out for me without asking for a dime or favor in return.

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