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Building a N1WAY Guide Site in WordPress

11 August 2009 21 Comments

n1way-wordpressMany questions have come in about building your N1WAY planned Website with WordPress, and the best way to get it accomplished. Should you use Pages, Posts, or a combination of both?

I had contacted Kelvin and Adam directly to discuss this last week, and this post should answer many of the questions… based on their own replies, along with sharing how I have built my own new WordPress driven N1Way site!

WordPress Pages or Posts – Which Is Better?

I have at least 100 emails on this topic, to the point that I have considered creating an auto-responder! :-) The main thing to keep in mind about pages and posts, is that “Pages are Static”, “Posts are Dynamic, or Newsworthy”. In a nutshell, when you use a page on wordpress, you are saying that this stuff rarely or never changes… like your contact or about pages. Posts on the other hand have a tendency to be timely, dated, and often change as comments are added, etc.

The other MAIN difference between a page and post in WordPress… Pages are NOT included in your RSS feed, unless you install a plugin that puts them there! In addition to the RSS inclusion, with PAGES, you DO GET a better structured URL, which will be explained below.

In the N1Way Guide, Section 4, it’s clear to see that they chose to build their site using the PAGES function of WordPress.

When I asked if there was a specific technical reason why…Kelvin responded: (They also included this in their email to everyone)

There’s no great underlying reason here. WP is an extremely flexible
site development tool and as our background is in “static” sites and
not “blogs” our interpretation of the WP platform in accordance with
our goals led us to prefer pages over posts. That’s all.

So… whether you choose pages or posts is purely your own preference, based on whats easier for you! (I have heard that before!)

How I Built My Own New N1Way Guided Site

I have previously mentioned that I started and am well into the development of a second (or 3rd) site, using the WordPress platform to build the site. When I started it, i tried to remain as close to the guide as possible, and built all the pages in the page format. As many of you who got the emails from me know, I switched from Pages to Posts, before anything was published.

The PRO Reasons:

  • I Prefer to Publish a post once – and have it link everywhere automatically.
  • Posts are IN the RSS feed and Indexed faster
  • I can make better use of the Custom Fields without much coding. (Used for the images in my case)
  • I am VERY familiar with WordPress and have developed more than 200 websites, including ecommerce sites with it.
  • Time Savings are Dramatic!

What Did I Sacrifice Using Pages versus Posts?

  • Slight diversion from the Guide
  • URLs are a bit less properly structured

Just to pull all this into focus…

When using the posts and category structure – I have essentially eliminated ALL extra steps in creating the summary pages, the image reposts, etc. I write the review, and everything else occurs as a function of WordPress! In addition, I can use the tagging system to further pinpoint the exact targets I want users to reach, with little to no effort!

Assume for a second the site is a review site on specific products… (That’s a joke)

In the “Permalink” settings section, I set my category base to “reviews”.

WordPress Pages:

  • Home (Automatic)
  • About (Custom written)
  • Contact (Custom written)
  • Guides (Can be automated with a little code)
  • Reviews (Can be automated with a little code)

WordPress Categories:

  • [Brand 1] – Automatically generated page of the review POSTS
  • [Brand 2] – Automatically generated page of the review POSTS
  • [Brand 3] – Automatically generated page of the review POSTS
  • etc for all brands

This results in a URL structure like: domain .com/reviews/brand/

WordPress Posts:

  • [Brand - Product Review] – This is the ULTIMATE Landing page
  • [Brand - Product Review] – This is the ULTIMATE Landing page
  • [Brand - Product Review] – This is the ULTIMATE Landing page
  • etc for all reviews

As the posts are written, I DO LOSE the reviews/ portion of my URL, but its not overly important… and the URL ends up as: domain .com/brand/product-review/

IF I had stayed with a paged structure, the urls would have resulted in:

domain .com/reviews/[brand]/[brand-product-review]/

BUT – I would have had to hand code alot of the pages, or write the code to do it on its own… and lost some of the functionality of the WordPress system for posts.

The Bottom Line

For myself, the bottom line was time savings! While wordpress pages could be just as effective as using posts, I want to do things once… and walk away. I write my post once – everything else occurs automatically by using the category/post system.

If you choose to build with pages, you have the extra step of building your pages to show the summary of each child, or review page OR coding yourself a custom page to do it all for you.

Both are equally effective in the end…

21 Comments »

  • Caroline said:

    Oh, dear! I wish I had thought about the advantages of using posts versus pages before I began my site. I’ve always built my phpBay sites using the static page method, though. I guess I just like to do things the hard way, LOL!

    I don’t suppose there is an easy way to automatically convert pages to posts? :(

    Caro

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #1, 11 August 2009 at 4:28 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @Caroline –

    I wouldnt jump and change anything unless you just want to. I have several WP sites using phpbay that are 100% pages, and do very well!

    On this new type of N1Way built site though, I am focused on one thing… do it, walk away from it. (minimizing efforts) In this case, I wont be writing blog posts that lead people to the pages of listings, which I DO on the other sites.

    Ideally, without weekly or daily posts driving the traffic, I want the site to act as its traffic cop, and direct visitors to the reviews on its own.

    M

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #2, 11 August 2009 at 4:34 pm
  • Ray said:

    Mark,

    This post was really timely for me as I’ve been wrestling with the idea of building my first site using pages as the N1Way guide suggests. My gut feeling told me posts would be better, so I’m pleased to hear your views.

    One thing I don’t understand is how you make the ‘product review posts’ appear on the ‘review page’ – you say it “Can be automated with a little code”, but I’m not sure how that will work, any suggestions?

    Thanks for the Niche Report by the way, it was $40 very well spent and when I’ve finished this site I’ll be back for more reports.

    Ray

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #3, 11 August 2009 at 5:50 pm
  • Caroline said:

    Mark -

    Will you be revealing any of your new N1WAY WP sites in the near future? :)

    I love WP myself and feel more comfortable using it then I do BANS. That said – have you seen any difference in the speed in which a BANS vs WP site gets indexed?

    Caro

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #4, 11 August 2009 at 6:47 pm
  • Shawn S said:

    Mark-

    When using the categories function to automatically build the brand landing pages, how do you take care of meta keywords and descriptions?

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #5, 11 August 2009 at 11:31 pm
  • Cherie said:

    That makes things much clearer and easier. But like Caroline, it’s probably too late for me to change this site.

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #6, 12 August 2009 at 7:05 am
  • Jay said:

    Mark:

    Thanks for posting this. This is a big issue that I was wondering about as I went through the N1WAY guide the first time. I do not have as much experience as you with WP but I have enough that I knew the differences and saw the value of using posts. This is the exact approach I took. I would love it if we could add a thread to this topic about turning commenting on or off. The guide says to turn it off. I do not agree. There are some tremendous benefits of tapping into the social network by allowing visitors to comment and share reviews via twitter, digg, etc. I think that by allowing this you are automatically enabling your site to have fresh, new, FREE content added as site visitors enter into the mix with their thoughts and feedback – especially if you integrate the rating and ranking element. I think of it as a “mini-Amazon” site dedicated to a specific niche. I have been posting some thoughts on this over at my blog and have lots more to explore and discuss when time allows. I would love to get some feedback and examples from you and your followers as well. Thanks again for providing such great insights. Take care.

    Jay

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #7, 12 August 2009 at 11:07 am
  • Matt Ohms said:

    Originally Posted By Jay
    …I would love it if we could add a thread to this topic about turning commenting on or off. The guide says to turn it off. I do not agree. There are some tremendous benefits of tapping into the social network by allowing visitors to comment and share reviews via twitter, digg, etc. I think that by allowing this you are automatically enabling your site to have fresh, new, FREE content added as site visitors enter into the mix with their thoughts and feedback – especially if you integrate the rating and ranking element. I think of it as a “mini-Amazon” site dedicated to a specific niche…

    Jay

    I agree! I think allowing comments adds another dimension to your site. Also, the rating and ranking element is a GREAT idea! With user feedback the visitors to your site develop more TRUST, which will add up to more sales for YOU!

    Matt

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #8, 12 August 2009 at 12:18 pm
  • Keith James Lock said:

    I think posts should be used over pages because of all the reasons that you stated. However, I disagree that both are equally effective in the end.. well, I shouldn’t say that, I don’t know what you mean by “effective”.. but as far as submitting RSS feeds (even for each category) the SEO benefits may prove to be more effective in the long run.

    As for leaving comments on or off. I do both… I read, and can understand why, that when leaving comments on and you rank for a certain keyword, over time, as more comments are added and the post becomes diluted, the post may not rank for that keyword any longer.. any thoughts on that?

    Plus, having to deal with all of the crap comments that come floating in is a pain when you are juggling several sites.

    But, as Jay said, including the ability for someone to review and rate the product is a wonderful idea and I do that on some of my bigger sites.. I’ve been discussing this aspect of it a lot on my blog lately…

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #9, 12 August 2009 at 12:59 pm
  • Jeff Jones said:

    Mark,

    This was an issue I was fighting with and I’m glad to see how it plays out. When I looked at Kelvin’s all-page format I cringed at all the intermediate pages I was going to have to hand build.

    You’re exactly right…learning how to do something once and move on is a major landmark for anybody wanting to make money online, myself included.

    If I understand you correctly, as long as you build a category for each of the brands you feature, have a product review category and post each new product review under both of these categories, readers will have two pre-built pages to find your reviews on, correct?

    That way, you’ll also have an easy navigation point by putting a categories widget in your sidebar as well.

    Very cool!

    You’ve just saved me tons of time.

    Keep up the good work!

    Jeff

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #10, 14 August 2009 at 8:47 am
  • Nadiya said:

    I read thru the above which is great as I now have a clearer understanding . . . which then brings on more questions . . .lol

    I do believe that posts are much better than pages for my purpose- I do have a site that I built with the pages version and it took me a while so I will continue with it in this manner and any others I will do it Marks way

    Pages vs posts for rss inclusion – I understand that the rss feed only picks up posts and that you need a plugin for posting pages, now when I look for the plugin I search for RSS plugin for posting pages, and I get pages and pages of posts that tell me how to post Post pages but not posting WP pages . . .its like tongue twister in my head so hopefully it makes sense – is there a specific name for that plugin :)

    For SEO purposes (Pages vs Posts)

    For WP pages – there are no tags that we can use – I would use the all-in-one-seo plugin and use the keywords to promote

    For WP posts – I would have the advantage of both the plugin as well as the tags

    Does one have more power than the other (WP tags vs the SEO plugin keywords)

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #11, 19 August 2009 at 1:40 pm
  • Paul said:

    Hiya Mark
    I am just starting to learn Wordpress after using BANS for a while as things dont look good for that platform in the long term. I am really struggling getting my head around this Pages and Posts business. At what point do you veer away from the N1Way guide and use posts instead of pages? I hope this question makes sense to you, I cant seem to figure it out.
    You say that the WP Categories are automatically generated pages of the review posts but when I try they dont seem to be generated automatically. I am obviously going wrong somewhere as others seem to have no problems.
    Should I set up my site using the default theme first? build the pages, then the categories of my brands and then post each review using the posts button?
    Its making my head hurt! lol
    I hope you can help, but a massive thanks for your site and articles anyway, its great.
    Thanks
    Paul

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #12, 9 February 2010 at 2:14 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @Paul – It can be confusing for sure Paul… but give a few good attempts and before long, you will be building sites in no time at all!

    This post is a bit old… so I will update it with my current method.

    I use a category / post structure more than anything now. Depending on your site needs, will dictate how you form your categories.

    For review sites – that are focusing on different brands of products, I ALWAYS use 2 main categories: “Reviews” and “Guides”. So… if it was a site about computers..

    Reviews (Main cat)
    - Gateway (Sub)
    - Dell (Sub)
    - Hewlett Packard (Sub)
    - eMachines (Sub)

    Then… my product reviews would go into their respective brand categories.

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #13, 9 February 2010 at 3:30 pm
  • Paul said:

    Thankyou Mark
    Thats great, I’ll carry on practising. Thanks very much for all your help and for responding so quickly.
    All the best.

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #14, 9 February 2010 at 4:00 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @Paul – NP at all Paul…

    I rarely blog at this site anymore… since A&K announced they are selling BANS and N1Way. Try visiting my other site, TheNicheStoreBuilder.com, for more info…

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #15, 9 February 2010 at 4:10 pm
  • CoolGames Guide said:

    What theme did you use for the golf putter guide website?

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #16, 13 February 2010 at 7:03 am
  • Janet Fernandez said:

    @Mark – My BANS stores are broken and I tried getting into the forum but my old username/password combos no longer work. No register button on the forum… no answer to my support ticket. Word is that BANS is dead and my years of building my stores is for naught. Say it ain’t so!!!

    FYI: my eBay links all lead to “this item is no longer active”. I’ve visited other BANS stores and some are saying this as well.

    Any help, encouragement would be so much appreciated.

    Thank you,
    Janet

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #17, 2 June 2010 at 10:36 am
  • Mark (author) said:

    @Janet Fernandez – Hey Janet, BANS sites still work for now, but it IS definitely just a matter of time.

    There are some changes that MUST be made, but none are official or from the guys at BANS, they are user edits.

    I have not made any of them, since I migrated away from BANS long ago, to phpbay or amazon. It is what it is…

    Try this link for the new forums: http://www.nichesitebuilding.com/forum/index.php and the forgot password feature does for sure work, I just had to use it myself! :-)

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #18, 2 June 2010 at 10:43 am
  • Janet Fernandez said:

    @Mark – I tried the forgot password, forgot user name, none of them are recognized and there is no register link. this is why I opened a support ticket which has not been answered.

    On an ebay community forum, I read a suggestion to not cloak the links, so I went in and changed that. Now my ebay links go to ebay instead of to “this item is not active”.

    But can’t download the patch because I still can’t get into the forums. Argh.

    I will read up on phpBay. I’ve been a BANS user for years, too bad about it.

    Thank you!
    Janet

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #19, 2 June 2010 at 11:52 am
  • Mark (author) said:

    @Janet Fernandez – Hey Janet, I hear ya for sure on the BANS loss. It was SUCH a GREAT product!!

    The only fix I know if is inside the forum… from Sonjay.

    Reply – Quote
    Post Comment #20, 2 June 2010 at 12:12 pm

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