In a lot of WordPress sites’ sidebars, you’ll probably see the monthly archive links make an appearance. These are a list of links that categorize your post by month. If you want to get more specific, you can even group the posts by week or even day. Unless you’re using widgets, these lists are output using the wp_get_archives function. Here are some examples:

• <?php wp_get_archives(); ?> – Lists the monthly archives (no parameters needed, it’s monthly by default)
• <?php wp_get_archives('type=weekly'); ?> – Lists the weekly archives
• <?php wp_get_archives('type=daily'); ?> – Lists the daily archives
• Bonus: <?php wp_get_archives('type=yearly'); ?> – Lists the yearly archives

So what’s the problem? Well, depending on the site, monthly archive links aren’t very useful to your visitors. I mean, how many times have you visited a site and said “Hmm…I want to check out some posts written in January 2008″?

Probably never, and these links waste valuable space in your sidebar (or footer, whatever) that could be occupied by more useful links.

In this post, we’ll go over how to insert the following into your WordPress theme, including a widget alternative (if available):

• Popular post links (three separate methods)
• Featured articles/links using the Blogroll
• Recent post links

There are a few methods to get a link list of popular/useful posts. Here they are:

Read More

As a follow up to Massive Free PSD Giveaway #1, here’s giveaway #2. Once again, all the PSD designs are designed by Anto that he had laying around. We figured they could come in handy for something, so here they are.

Be sure to click on the image for a full-size Lightbox preview.

See the rest after the jump…

Read More

Some of you may have noticed the new ladder image labeled “Underground” in the top right corner of the site. I’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a while, basically it’ll be a new section of the site with primarily paid content/access.

What is the “Underground”?

Inside I’m planning on having a few things:

• Private forums where you can ask for WP/HTML/CSS help directly from me.
• Exclusive WordPress themes and tutorials coded and written by me, respectively.

Best of all, you’ll be able to buy individual themes and tutorials a la carte, or get an all access pass for the whole kit and kaboodle. Forum memberships will probably be a low monthly fee.

When will it launch? Aiming within a couple months, but an official launch date has yet to be determined.

New Newsletter / Mailing List

In other news, I’ve been meaning to start a mailing list for a while (that’s not directly tied to my RSS feed). I finally started one with MailChimp and it was actually way easier than I thought. I’m still learning more about it but the basic set up was pretty painless.

In the newsletter I’ll announce any news regarding Theme Lab, share any cool WordPress tips I come across, and other stuff. You can sign up using the form below.

Just the e-mail is required. You can enter your name too if you want the emails to say “Dear Your Name” at the top, but not necessary. Don’t worry, I won’t spam.

After confirming your e-mail address you’ll get the download link to the free WordPress theme below.

Read More