Most WordPress themes have at least one sidebar in them. Typically, sidebars are setup to be dynamic, meaning that you can add different things such as calendars, lists, etc. to them without having to manually know how to setup the html. These small programs are called widgets.
Setting up your sidebars
Fortunately, WordPress makes adding, altering, and removing widgets from your sidebars fairly simple.
To see what is currently in your dynamic sidebars:
- Login to your WordPress admin panel.
- Select "Appearance" → "Widgets".
- If you have an older wordpress version, you might have to select the sidebar you want to view to display sidebar information. Otherwise your sidebar display will look something like that above, showing the various dynamic sidebars available for widget placement.
- On the left side, you will see the currently available widgets. You can get more widgets by installing and activating wordpress plugins which have widgets.
- To place a widget in a sidebar, drag it to the sidebar you want it to show up in.
- To edit widget options, select the drop down arrow next to the widget in question while it is in your sidebar.
In the above image, the options for the Flexi Pages widget are shown. You can set the options you want and select "Save" to update the widget. You can also remove the widget or cancel your changes.
Once you have your widgets the way you want them, view your site and you should see them displayed.
Note: When you add a widget to a sidebar, the default widgets displayed in that sidebar disappear.
Note: For the Atahualpa theme, I recommend adding the following widgets to the left sidebar:
- Flexi-Pages
- Categories
- Tag Cloud
I also recommend adding a text widget to the right sidebar and creating a link to your store in it as well as a link to your newsletter if you have one. To link your Bonanza Store, you would enter something like the following into a text booth widget:
Visit our store for great deals on <a href="http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/YourBoothName" title="Your Booth Name">The-Types-Of-Items-You-Sell</a>.
You could, of course simply use the name of your store, but if you want better search engine ranking for your store, it is good to have links on keywords you want your store to be competitive for.
