This one goes in the "I learned something new today" file. Thanks to Alyssa at Designflair for asking the question that prompted us to seek out the answer. She's been an integral member of our Webify Meetup group.

Here's the setup. Alyssa wanted a WordPress-based website that had a static front, or home, page but with a link on that static page to the blog posts contained within the website.

In the past, this setup, while conceptually very simple, was not possible to do without installing two iterations of WordPress on the site: One for the static page, one for the blog.

(I could be wrong on this. This is how I have done it in the past. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I have no idea when this "workaround" that I'm about to explain came about.)

Think of the situation this way: You have a membership site with a ton of valuable content in the form of blog posts. You want a static webpage (not a popup) that acts as your salespage. Once somebody signs up for your membership program, they get access to the blog posts.

But the main thing you want is for people to see that static front salespage, right?

So, here's how you set up a static WordPress website with a link to your blog, step-by-simple-step:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard (duh.)
2. Go to Settings –> Reading and set the "Front page displays" setting to Static and choose your salespage as your Front page, like so:
   
3. Save.
4. Make a new page and call it something appropriate like blog. DO NOT ADD ANY CONTENT. Just save it as-is.
5. Return to Settings –> Reading and set the Posts page to the page you just made (in our case, blog), like so:
   
6. Save.

Now, when a visitor visits your home or index page, they will see your static salespage. Your navigation built into your site will have a link to your blog page. When a visitor clicks that link, he will be taken to your blog posts, as he would if you just had a simple blog.

You can also link to your blog posts by referencing the URL of that blog page, like so (in our example):

http://internet-marketing-muscle.com/blog

You can use this to send people directly to your blog without having to see the "sales-y" front page.