If you use a traditional blogging format, several posts show up on the main page of your blog. You can set the number of posts that display under Settings > Reading.

This setting will not only control the number of posts that show on the main page, but also on the category and other archive pages. The excerpts that display on those pages are not controlled by the More Tag. They show the excerpt you create for each post (or automatically create an excerpt for you by default).

While WordPress will create an excerpt for each post automatically, you should create your own excerpt for each post. This gives you the opportunity to write a custom snippet that compels visitors to click through and read the entire post.

You do this by typing in your preferred excerpt for a blog post just below the composition window, in a box labeled “Excerpt”:

Tip: use your keyword phrase in your excerpt

The excerpt is different than using the More Tag, and you can learn more about it’s uses here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Excerpt

In addition to creating custom snippets for your category and archives pages, the Excerpt is used in Aweber’s Blog Broadcast to give your email subscribers a snippet of what each blog post is about. Using a custom excerpt can dramatically increase your click-through rate from those email notifications.

How Many Posts Should You Display?

I currently have ClickNewz set to display the six most recent blog posts, but you should set yours according to what works best with your WordPress theme. Ideally you’ll coordinate it with the length of your sidebar. This allows you to balance the content on your main page and eliminate too much “white space” either in the content area or the sidebar area.

(Since my excerpts have been a bit longer than usual lately, you’ll notice more white space below the content in the right sidebar. Not ideal.)

If you are displaying full posts instead of excerpts on the main page of your blog, that page could get quite long if you have it set to display more than one. It’s best to use ~5 post excerpts so that you can give your visitors a quick view and a sampling of your most recent content.

Using the More Tag

# more – WordPress tag that breaks a post into “teaser” and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog’s home page you’ll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more…)), which when followed displays the rest of the post’s content. source: writing blog posts

The More Tag is used to control the way your posts display on the main page of your blog. You’ll find this tag in the menu bar at the top of your composition window. You can also type in the More Tag using this code:

(!–more–)

(you’ll need to replace the ( and ) with in the code above. So it’s a bracket, explanation point, two hyphens, the word “more”, two hyphens, and an ending bracket.)

There are two things consider when using the More Tag: how much content you want to display, and creating a lead-in to compel visitors to click through to read the rest of your blog post.

Since the More Tag is used only on the main page of your blog, this is a great way to offer new visitors a teaser of current posts and get them engaged enough to click through and read a specific blog post.

When I blog, I know that I am going to use the More Tag, and so I write my posts to lead into that More Tag. Here’s a recent example of a blog post as it showed on the main page here at ClickNewz:

The use of images before the More Tag will draw your readers eyes to the post, and a compelling statement or lead-in to your topic just before the More Tag will encourage them to click through and read the rest of the post.

Your blog post & page display formatting is important. Make good use of both Excerpts and the More Tag, and use them strategically to lead your visitors deeper into the content on your blog.

Best,

p.s. Want more great blogging tips? See http://www.probloggerworkbook.com

Original post by Lynn Terry and software by Elliott Back