Is it possible to remove the date from the free Wordpress blog (wordpress.com)? Is it possible to edit the template? And yes, I have my own domains, I just want to build a few backlinks. Thanks
You can't edit the code there. I found this out the hard way when I was helping Amy Ravit Korin of www.interactiveamy.com at WordCamp Chicago back in June. (I think she eventually moved on to a self-hosted version of WordPress because of it.)
Yes you can remove the date from all posts/pages/archive php files either manually or with the Date Exclusion Plugin (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/date-exclusion-wordpress-plugin/) For manually removing the date, simply open up any of the /wp-content/themes/yourtheme/ files that contains the date and find and remove all instances of <?php the_time('F jS, Y'); ?> Code (markup):
Oh duh, thanks Dan, jumped the gun there a little bit... Well, yeah, maybe it's time to get yourself an actual domain, Bob25. If the free wordpress.com 'blogs' are just acting as backlinks for your main sites, I wouldn't worry about the dates. On the contrary, if you are frequently updating your content these dates could be beneficial and show google that your content is frequently updating/changing.
Actually you can do it on the wp.com site. If you have the CSS upgrade, many of the themes put the displayed date and time within a specific div. You can hide the div via the CSS editor. That would be theme specific though and requires the upgrade which is a paid option. Still would be within the permalink url of the Post though. Many other free wordpress hosting sites that run Wordpress multiuser allow you to set the permalinks. (All mine do.) That's something you'll have to research yourself though. Hope this helps, -drmike Former wp.com support forum moderator until I saw the light and got the hell out of there.
Thanks for the replies. Since it's mainly for the backlinks and not actual traffic I guess having the date isn't that big of a deal, even if I could find the upgrade button I think that might be overkill. Just thought there might be an easy solution like blogger. FYI it's for some greyhat linking that supposedly works better on 2.0 sites, I have a number set up on real domains, but just testing which way is better. Thanks
You cannot upgrade or add any plugins, etc. on wordpress.com blogs. yOu need to live with what they provide.
Actually that's not correct either as VIPs can do so. You just have to be accepted into the program and shell out a fortune: http://en.wordpress.com/vip-hosting/ Normal endusers can't do so though. With the CSS upgrade you stand a chance at hiding stuff. Examples: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/show-pages-in-sidebar-but-not-on-header http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/tags-below-message But as noted in one of those, you stand a chance at hiding other portion of your site.
Pricing begins at $500/month per blog with a one-time setup fee of $600, but may be flexible depending on your circumstances or number of blogs.