Something Needs to Change

XOn3CljIt’s rare for me to upload more than one blog post in a single week, but I haven’t been feeling super talkative lately. Usually, you can’t get me to shut up, but my mood has been $hit lately. If you read my previous blog post, My 10 Favourite Feelings Tag, you may have thought that I am as happy as a clam. At least, I was feeling happy until yesterday. And as much as I want to complain and vent about everything that is wrong in my life right now, I rather not ruin your mood too. Being pessimistic is like a disease and all it takes is one pessimistic person to infect us all 😷 The stuff that I am dealing with is very personal and bothersome, and this topic is not open for discussion. Please do not ask me to elaborate in the comments section below ↓ or try to convince me that things will get better with time. Well yeah, things usually do get better eventually. This thing has been bothering me for a few years now and it’s incredibly frustrating. I though that I would have made some progress by now, but instead, I haven’t made much progress at all. Like a hamster running in a wheel, but never reaching its destination. ‘Stuck’ is how I would describe my life right now.

Stuck in the middle

Lately, I have been thinking about revamping this blog. I have yet to figure out how to turn secondary pages into blog posts. I feel like the majority of my readers end up missing most of my poetry and recipes because these sections are categorized under pages rather than blog posts. I want my current pages to show up on the home page, but at the same time, I want them to show up as previews under the parent pages. I currently use the free version, so I am not blessed with plugins and unlimited features. It’s just the basics.

Does anyone know if there is a way to add blog posts to pages so that you can see blog post previews on the pages themselves? Is there a way to categorizes blog posts on these pages? Am I making any sense?

Over the next few months, I am going to transfer my secondary pages to blog posts so that they will actually show up in the WP reader, which is where most of my traffic comes from. When I first started blogging in 2016, having secondary pages made the most sense because it allowed for visitors, mainly people who were not WP bloggers, to easily navigate my blog. However, I want to expand my recipes, poetry, and student life ツ sections, so having secondary pages isn’t the best option anymore.

Secondary pages, sometimes referred to as daughter pages, will appear under their parent pages. These secondary pages are different than blog posts.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, did you know that these pages even existed on my blog? If you answered no, then this is why something needs to change.

Thanks for stopping by!

great-vibes.regular (1)

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Published by Hilary Tan

I am currently in the process of finding my inner goddess as I search for inner peace, find mental clarity, develop mental toughness, and crush goals. Come join me on this journey so we can live our best lives!

109 thoughts on “Something Needs to Change”

  1. stevescountry says:

    I know what you mean. I had a lot of these pages too, but people never looked at them so I got rid of them finally and turned some of them into blog posts so they would be seen and read. It seems people don’t usually check out secondary pages, only blog posts, maybe it’s just a “time” issue with people. I must admit, I’m bad that way myself, thinking I will come back and check them later but then forget. Sigh. No idea how to do what you were suggesting. I have been thinking about making changes to my blog as well, just takes so much time and I’m not quite sure about all I want to do yet. Hope you get things figured out.😃😺

    Liked by 7 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Hi Steve! I apologize for the very delayed response on my end. Thank you for commenting; you are the first to comment! I always wondered why pages don’t show up on the reader. I cannot blame you for turning them into blog posts. In the beginning, I wondered why everyone was posting poetry and recipes in the reader. In the beginning, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me but I get it now. Perhaps people only use the WP app and check the reader because of convenience?

      I would love to share my recipes with people but noticed that hardly anyone was reading them, unless I hounded them 😐 Something definitely needs to change. I was unable to add previews based on categories and such, mainly because I have free plan and with that has limitations. I bet you would be able to fully customize your blog because you have a paid plan – you are lucky! 😊

      Liked by 2 people

      • stevescountry says:

        I started with a free plan but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work for me, so I thought of a personal plan but that still wasn’t going to work so I opted for the premium plan. Mainly I just needed the extra space because I use so many photos. But a person can do so much more with the premium plan and there are so many more themes to choose from and different themes do allow you to do more with your site.
        I think most people don’t look at the extra pages due to time. It can be hard enough to keep up with regular blog posts, which is my problem right now, so extra pages just get passed by. It’s best to turn them into posts and then people will read them. I want to make some changes to my site, perhaps this winter when I’m inside more.

        Liked by 3 people

      • Hilary Tan says:

        Before I used Flickr for photo storage which worked great until they started charging for the service. I find it hard to display photos on my blog, as I’m the type who prefers photo albums and being able to organize them. I like photo galleries. Do you have unlimited photo storage with the premium plan?

        If I were to buy a plan, I would need a way to cover the monthly expense whether that’s through a job or some passive income. Haven’t quite figured it out yet as the blogging market seems very saturated. Blogging keeps me sane though which is why I use it, even if I’m limited to the free version for now.

        Liked by 2 people

      • stevescountry says:

        Now with the new block editor they have different photo blocks such as galleries, that part of it is nice. I get 13GB of photo storage which isn’t much so I shrink my photos before using them. To get unlimited storage you need the business plan which I would like to get but it’s too expensive. The premium plan is only $10/month, worth it for me.
        I enjoy blogging, it’s a nice hobby for me. Rats, it’s already dark and I forgot to bring the bird feeders in. Better do that before the bear shows up. Have a nice evening Hilary!

        Liked by 2 people

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I feel like you would benefit with a platform that allowed for original quality photos, unlimited storage. Flickr has that but there’s a monthly fee. However, you wouldn’t have to compress your photos and you can directly link them from Flickr to WP. I highly suggest looking into this option so you won’t have to jeopardize your images.

        I’ve been wanting to get bird feeders but I’m not sure if the landlord would want that. I’ve always found bird feeders fascinating. Even my grandmother has a bird feeder. She makes her own nectar which she uses to attract hummingbirds.

        Liked by 2 people

      • stevescountry says:

        Flickr is a thought but I’m not sure I want to add anything else right now, maybe once my health returns to normal and I can get caught up with things again. Right now I’m having trouble keeping up with blogging.
        You should check with your landlord about feeding birds, it’s a great thing for relieving stress and helping with depression too. Yep, I make my own hummingbird nectar too, better for them than the store bought kind which has some kind of preservative to give it a long shelf life. These little birds don’t need that.

        Liked by 2 people

  2. V says:

    To be honest, I didn’t know those pages existed. But also to be honest, I typically only read posts when they appear on my deed. I don’t specifically seek out and go to the website link of a blog to read posts. So that could be why I didn’t know they existed? I’m sorry 😦

    Liked by 7 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Hi Vee! Sorry for the very delayed response on my end. By the time I log into WP to reply to comments, I’m already falling asleep at my computer desk. I really need to work that! 👩‍💻

      Thank you for being honest – it seems like the blog posts are more popular compared to the pages. I would love to expand on poetry, recipes, and survival guides. There’s a lot more to add and the pages are starting to look disorganized. Once the daughter pages are uploaded as blog posts, I hope that you’re able to take time out of your busy day to read them. 😊 Thank you for commenting!

      Like

  3. Michelle says:

    You’re in my thoughts and prayers and I hope things get better for you soon!

    I thing switching the pages to posts makes a lot of sense. You can use the categories “recipes” and “poetry” and add them to your menu. Then write the posts under their matching categories. Hopefully that makes sense. Lol

    Liked by 7 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      I hope things turn around as well. I get even more impatient and stressed out with each passing day 🙇‍♀️

      Is the menu the home page itself, or the entire menu? My parent page headings are home, about me, contact me, poetry, recipes, smoothies, and student life. Ideally, I’m hoping these posts will still show up under the home page (blog posts) but also show up under the parent pages, either in categories or as previews that ppl can click on. Right now, these posts are stuck as secondary pages. Sorry if I’m confusing you more 🤭

      Like

      • Michelle says:

        The menu is just the menu, it’s what’s at the top of your page that people click on to find your posts and pages. You can edit and customize it under “appearance – customize”.
        When you create new categories you can add them to your menu that way. 🙂
        If you change the pages to posts then they will show up on your homepage. I had a hard time figuring out the difference between pages and posts when I first started blogging.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I didn’t know you could turn pages into posts, or that there was an option to do so. That’s interesting because all this time I have been adding categories under blog posts but didn’t connect them to the menu. Thank you for explaining it to me, Michelle. 😊 I wish there were tutorials for this stuff because I find it really confusing, especially for beginners. I started blogging 4+ years ago and still struggle with the basics. 👩‍💻

        Liked by 2 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Yeah, tbh it’s been driving me crazy. Wish there was a simple way to figure it out. I think most people who are able to categorize things have paid domains and use plugins. Some themes allow for extra customization so it could also be theme restriction thing. Beats me! 🙇‍♀️

      Liked by 2 people

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I’ll keep searching for answers. If I can’t figure it out, I’m going to make a table of contents on the main pages and links for the blog posts. At least that way, the posts will still be searchable as blog posts rather than secondary pages. I’ve seen a blogger do this and she has 45,000 followers. She has the same theme I do so I’m guessing it could be a theme restriction. Then again, I really don’t know. 🙇‍♀️

        Liked by 2 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Yes, I think your blog is what I am referring to. I would have to double check. Essentially, I’m hoping to find a way to categorize blog posts under the main page headings so it’s one page with previews or categories that readers can click on. I’ve seen ppl use previews (snippets that you can read and click on for more info) which works really well. I’ve also seen others use categories for recipes which readers can click on for more info.

      Did you use a special plugin to make it that way? If not, is there a special tab that I need to activate? I use the Sela theme for this blog.

      Liked by 2 people

      • popsiclesociety says:

        I’m not so sure but I believe it depends on the blog theme…I don’t have any plugins…I’m using Rosalie theme…
        Basically I have categorized my posts in recipes, discovering our food…and I have also created pages for the categories that I want so people can easily find them from the main page if they want….

        Liked by 1 person

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I have categories but don’t know how to organize blog posts using categories. The only option I have is to use parent pages and daughter pages. I looked everywhere for options but couldn’t figure it out. Can you add these categories to pages? If so, is that how blog posts get added to categories on these parent pages?

        Like

  7. ashok says:

    All the best Hillary. All of us go through such phases off and on. I am sure you will figure out your life sooner or later.
    If we take life too seriously it sucks 😝
    Love and blessings 😊🤗🌹

    Liked by 3 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      I’m really impatient. I’ve been patient for a few years and now, and when I feel like my life is sort of getting sorted out, I get stuck again. Time is not my friend right now. Time makes me even more impatient. 😣 Trying to take things one day at a time but it’s difficult. I guess this is my cry for attention haha

      Liked by 1 person

      • Hilary Tan says:

        Is it okay to be angry at God? Because I’m often angry and frustrated at God. Praying to God is surprisingly therapeutic though 🙏💕 I practice gratitude on a daily basis as well, even when I’m frustrated. Thank you for your well wishes. I appreciate that you want to shine your light my way 😇

        Liked by 1 person

      • ashok says:

        Hilary God is the nearest of near and dearest of dear. We can always fight with Him as His child or even as a friend.

        If you are practicing gratitude, even in adversity, all shall work out well.

        You know spiritual journey is like walking on a razor’s edge. And falling down is a must if we want to scale new heights.

        All the very best my friend. Keep your faith.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I used to think that quitting something hard would lead to the thing I wanted, which was peace of mind, contentment, and stability. Turns out that quitting something hard did not lead to any of these things. I learned to keep going and to not give up, even when things do not make sense. I don’t think that I will fully ever feel connected from a religious standpoint but I do my best to keep an open mind. Miracles do happen, but we gotta believe. Thank you for your words of encouragement, Ashok. 🙏💕

        Liked by 1 person

      • ashok says:

        Entirely my pleasure Hilary.
        Whatever I write or say is not at all from religious point of view. I was never in tune with organised, orthodox religion.
        Many years back science and spirituality came together to me through the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.

        You do remain in my prayers Hilary 😊🙏

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Eliza says:

    I only read blogs in the reader.
    Is there no way of having a category – only one category – show up on a page. Maybe through widgets or something.

    Sending hugs and strength…

    Love, light and glitter

    Liked by 2 people

  11. ceponatia says:

    I’m in the process of a site redesign as well so I can’t help you with any tips yet; I’ve been wondering the same thing as you regarding previews. I had no idea you posted poetry and recipes, lol. Guess I should stop relying on the wordpress app as much.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Good to know that my questions make sense. I wish this kinda thing was more straight-forward on WP. Yup, now you know that I write poetry and have an obsession with healthy food recipes! Fun fact: I’ve only had one poem published in a book, back when I was in Grade 3. 😅

      Like

  12. CARAMEL says:

    I read 95% of posts in WP Reader. I very rarely visit anyone else’s site. The only exception to that is when I go through the list of Pingbacks on SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY or on SHARE-YOUR-WORLD.

    I am sorry you have something eating at you. I don’t want to quote any cliches – not being a fan of cliches at all, but I do hope it doesn’t suck all the joy out of life for you. There is just so much wonderful. I know from my own experience that when I have had challenges they can be like dark clouds that block out the wonderful. It can take a while for my skies to clear, and even when they do clear the clouds tend to roll back in another day. I am grateful for the abundance of wonderful though.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      I noticed that most people only use reader (hey, it’s convenient) which is a problem since people end up missing my recipes and poetry. I too am guilty of mainly using the reader to read people’s blog posts 🤭

      I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy so things don’t get worse. I’m doing my best to avoid triggering stuff given the state of my mental health right now. It’s hard to see the good when there’s a dark cloud. I try my best to practice gratitude every day which helps; I find that it’s better than nothing at all 🌺

      Liked by 1 person

  13. kachaiweb says:

    I’m sorry you’re having a difficult time; it just sucks being stuck.
    I post mostly on mental health but have some recipes as well on my blog. I just post everything through the reader. Categories are included in the theme, I just had to figure it out to put them on top of the page. I thought every theme would have the option to use categories. Maybe changing your theme could be an option although it can be a lot of work (just guessing here).

    Liked by 4 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Change my theme? Nah, I’m really attached to my current theme. It’s been my theme since Day 1. I thought we made our own categories? I have categories but idk how to link them to pages. Then again I never knew what the purpose of categories were, since I mainly use tags for blog posts.

      I’ll look into this more and see if there is an option to add categories to parent pages. I had no idea that these categories played such a key role on pages! Your advice is helpful, thank you 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      • kachaiweb says:

        Ah now I see what the problem is. I depend more on categories than on tags. I tried to look your theme up but so far no luck.
        I hope someone can help you out with this, as I don’t have a clue how to display my pages into categories.
        I do agree on what you commented though; that WP could have been more straightforward in it’s usage. But then again, I’m also on the free plan so … I’m not complaining (much).

        Liked by 1 person

      • Hilary Tan says:

        WordPress may have deleted the Sela theme so I’m not sure if it’s still available for bloggers. All this time I’ve been using both categories and tags not knowing what their purpose was for. I’ve been adding daughter pages to the main pages for poems and recipes, but it’s gotten to a point where I want to add more recipes and poems, without it looking cluttered.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. seaofwordsx says:

    I also have to change some things on my blog but I find it difficult because it frustrates me when I don’t know how it works. I read the posts on the reader so I don’t know lovely. I’m here for you and I feel you 💖

    Liked by 3 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Omg same! 🙋‍♀️ I’m super frustrated but happy that I finally voiced these frustrations. It’s been bugging me for a while. I would love to add more recipes and poems without adding to an already cluttered-looking list 😂Hopefully we can figure this out together! 🙏🏻💕

      Liked by 1 person

  15. PoojaG says:

    I had no idea that you had any of these pages because I usually look at your posts through my reader and pages don’t show up on the reader only blog posts do. Also what do you mean add blog posts to pages? Do you mean like excerpts of posts on pages?

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Yes, excerpts of posts that would appear under the pages on the main menu. Sorry if I’m not making any sense. I wish there was a way to organize things in a less cluttered, more coherent way. Eg. poetry and recipes could show up as blog posts as well as under their designated page/menu sections.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Hilary Tan says:

        My backup plan is to use links on the parent pages and make it similar to a table of contents. Not sure how to turn pictures/gifs into clickable links but I’ve seen people do this too. As for plugins, plugins are only available with paid plans, sadly 😓

        Liked by 2 people

      • PoojaG says:

        And the paid plan the plugins come with is a total rip off to be honest. Yeah you can add them as parent pages- that would probably be the best solution. For the images/gifs you just need to paste the image as you would any other image you add to the blog and then click the insert link thing and change the link from the media file to the page you want. I don’t know if that explained it well but hope it helps. Also don’t use the block editor I don’t think it lets you add the link properly. I use the classic editor on the wp-admin site and it’s so much easier to use.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Hilary Tan says:

        I heard that WP is switching to block editor permanently which I hope isn’t the case. Classic will be available for paid plans only. So far I’ve only used classic so I really hope this isn’t the case. And if it is, I guess I will be teaching myself how to use the block editor too, to add to the headaches. Oh WordPress…🙄

        Liked by 1 person

  16. wifeblah says:

    Hi did you find an answer?
    Do you mean something like this? This is my “page” for my videos where all my blog posts with videos are “Also” posted because they are under one “Category”. Do you mean something like this? https://wifeblah.com/category/youtube-videos/

    If you want to know how I did that here’s the screenshot inside the WP-Admin https://www.screencast.com/t/ZPkpMSS0

    The thing is if our WP Admin looks different then it must something to do with the template that you are using.

    Take care. Hope you’ll get the changes that you need. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Thank you for your very very detailed reply with links! The screenshot is very helpful too, as I am a visual learner. I have yet to play around with the pages as I took a break from WP for a couple of days (still answering comments and visiting blogs during this time). There’s a poem I want to upload so I will test it out when I upload it 😊💕

      Like

      • wifeblah says:

        Got it Hilary. 🙂 At least you have time reading blog posts lately, that is what I really want to do badly. It’s just when im on my days off I have to clean the house and do the laundry and help out with chores. 😦 Looking forward to your upcoming poem.

        Like

    • Hilary Tan says:

      2. Yes, something similar to your video previews. Ideally for the poetry section, I was hoping to have poetry previews as well as a subsection for the parodies 😄 I will play around with it some more, seeing that there are things I missed. Thanks again!

      Liked by 1 person

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Update: I checked and sadly, I don’t have the same customization options on the free plan. Your screenshot is much more complex than what I have, nor do I have the same dashboard. *sigh* I guess these are the limitations of having a free plan. I dream of the day when I can buy a domain and have unlimited options at my fingertips! 🙏💕

      Liked by 1 person

  18. mindbeautysimplicity says:

    I feel you on the revamping process. I’ve started out as a free plan because well I don’t have the money right now as I lost my job due to the virus stuff. But I do plan to eventually change things up within the year hopefully. I’m sorry you are feeling down lately. It never helps when people simply just say get better or you’ll be fine within time. It’s a slap in the face sometimes when people say that like it’s easy to switch off. I wrote a rather personal post that’s sitting in my drafts but I want to post it maybe Monday. Being vulnerable on here is scary. Haha

    Liked by 1 person

  19. K E Garland says:

    I use my pages more so to house links to other places/publications, etc. I’m not sure if anyone’s answered directly, but I’m pretty sure if you want your work to appear in the reader, it has to be a blog post, not a page?

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Yes, blog posts will appear on the reader. Sadly, the sub-pages/daughter pages of parent pages do not show up on the reader like I had hoped. Technically my sub-pages are no different than blog posts, so I will be turning them into future blog posts. Thank you for stopping by and commenting, K E Garland 😊

      Liked by 1 person

    • Hilary Tan says:

      I was able to figure out the issue once I upgraded. Having the “column” editing option was the thing I needed that wasn’t included in the free WP plan.

      Like

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  23. buddy71 says:

    i’m too lazy so i only have the minimalist of a (free) blog. one page and i post whatever. i pretty much post for me but do enjoy when people visit or follow. but i may not follow back if their blog is not of an interest to me. but i may pop in at times to see what is happening, lol.

    sending you good vibes as i know what nursing school is like and i’m sure it is even worse during the pandemic.

    yes i knew you had other “pages” as they are in a menu at the top of the page and i have clicked on them, but i mostly do not have an interest in any but what maybe some writing and photos. sorry. i do check in on you from time to time.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Hey Buddy71! I appreciate your honesty. I’m not sure if you are following my blog or not…. haven’t really checked who is following. Lately, I have been so busy with school that I haven’t had time to write or upload blog posts ☹️ Over the next 3 days, I have 3 12-hour shifts. If I’m not at the hospital, I’m sleeping 😴

      Are you a nurse? It’s nice connecting with ppl who have experienced nursing school. It’s an animal that not many understand unless they’ve gone through it themselves.

      Like

      • buddy71 says:

        i am not a regular follower, but i check in every once in a while to see how you are doing in school. yes i am a RN,*i no longer need to work) and we have had a brief talk before about nursing, but that was some time ago. stay safe and learn as much as you can. just remember, grades do not equal learning.

        Liked by 1 person

    • Hilary Tan says:

      Thank you! 🙂 Eventually, I did manage to figure out the issue by upgrading to a premium plan. It was surprisingly an easy fix and my pages actually make sense now. I wish I didn’t wait so long to upgrade the blog.

      Like

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