Wordpress website already built

I have an issue... I already built out a website in Wordpress. The design is custom designed and I cut it up and built it out using Artisteer. It's now a full wordpress website.

The problem is, I have to build a splash/lander page as the home page..which is completely different then the built out home page.

Not sure where to start from here. Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks,
Drew

 

There is probably two easy ways to do this. (Not easy if you know nothing about Wordpress/PHP scripting). If you know nothing about the Wordpress background then you will need a developer.

The splash page will act as the home page, so you will need to create a unique front page template. This is a good reference.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

Or the developer will create a unique template specially for the home page, then in the Admin area create a page which you can then choose to have front page. You will need to assign the created template to the page you create:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Page_Templates

 

Would a plugin like this one work...http://wordpress.org/plugins/vr-splash-screen/

 

thanks for the responses.

none of those things will work. i'll have to cut up the design, and create a homepage.php file. then create the page in wp-admin and then go to settings ---> reading and opt for that page to be the home page.

 

Yes. That is what I said you will do. I don't think there is any other option. You will some how have to create that page and let wordpress know to use that page. If you want the page template to be completely different from the current theme then you will to create a unique file for it. I don't think homepage.php will work. The file titles that will work as home page are:

front-page.php
home.php

Have a look at this: http://codex.wordpress.org/images/1/18/Template_Hierarchy.png

Or create any file in the theme directory and add:

/*
Template Name: My Custom Page
*/

...now in the Admin area you can create a new page and choose "My Custom Page" template as the template, then assign it as the home page in Options/Reading. If you know nothing about PHP then you will not be able to do this.

 

JUST add a index.html in your root with the custom page

 

There are 2 ways of doing this:

Have your main landing page, then have a link at the bottom (or top) which links to your wordpress blog?

So your landing page would be: yoursite.com

Your wordpress blog would be set up on yoursite.com/blog

or

you can just have your main landing page on one domain & link it to your blog (which is on another domain)..

Az

 

after looking again,

this is the best I found for you as did the guy above me .

http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

- Joseph

 

Issue has been resolved. I created a homepage.php file and structured it accordingly.

After I created the homepage.php file, I created a new page in wp-admin and called for that new template.

It was actually pretty easy to do...not sure why I was flipping out ...but it's all good now! Thanks for the feedback guys...it definitely helped!!

 

Thanks for reporting back! I am glad you got it solved, Its not that bad, once you get the hang of it