One of the things I wanted to include in the blog redesign was a “Favorite Posts” area in the sidebar. I feel like we’ve done a lot of DIY projects and recipes that tend to get lost otherwise, and showcasing the ones we like best is a good idea to make them shine a little bit more.
I was so sure there would already exist a plugin out there that would have what I was looking for… that is, an easy way to mark my favorites and display them with thumbnails, as a grid, in the sidebar. Bonus if I could had several widgets, one for each category. And extra points if I could link the widget title to another page (e.g. the category archive page or the complete projects page in this case).
I quickly realized there was no plugin that could do all the things I wanted. So I decided to create my own. And today I’m sharing it with you. You can download it and use it on your blog if you want. Check out how it works on the sidebar to your right – you might have to scroll down – I have one called “Best DIY projects” displaying favorite home-improvement posts and another one with “Our favorite recipes”.
Here’s what the widget looks on the WordPress back-end:
Check out this page for more info on how to install it and how to make it work. I hope you like it, and if you have any questions, let me know.
This is such a great widget! I think I’m definitely going to try it out (after I pick out my favorite posts!).
I’m glad you like it Kristen! Let me know if you have any issues.
I think it is such a great idea to show case your diy projects. I just made a couple of pages like that myself. Still need to do a diy too. I don’t use Word press (I use Web by Pixel content management system), but I know that most do, so they will love this gem of information
Now I just have to tour your diy projects – again 
Yeah, I hope it’s useful to someone
I love this idea and plan to have a similar thing in my sidebar – either my favourite or “most pinned” or something like that. Do you think this could work on Blogger too?
I’m so sorry, I have no idea how Blogger works
I started blogging back in 2007 in Spanish with a basic WP account and have used WP since…
Nice work! I love the look of this! If we weren’t redesigning, I’d add this ASAP. I think we’re going to have a thumbnail gallery on our project page with a similar setup. Wow though, you can write plugins! Majorly impressive!
I’m happy to hear you like it! It’s a very simple plugin though, maybe with time I’ll add more features.
This makes me want to redo my blog even more! I use wordpress, but I have yet to figure out how to do things like this. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m happy to share in case anyone else finds it useful.
This is awesome! All I have to do is blog for another year to get enough “favorite” posts
Thanks Nicole, glad you found it useful
If you’re having issues with being able to favorite a post and it never shows in your favorites page, try this solution: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-24?replies=10
worked perfectly for me!