The forum can be found here.

query_posts('cat=3&paged=' . get_query_var( 'paged' ));

if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post()

// do your thing here

endwhile;

endif;

wp_reset_query();

You have to make sure you pass the paged parameter to query_posts(), using get_query_var(‘page’). This is all I was forgetting. You could set this to something like ’3′, which would only display the posts that would normally show on page 3 of your paginated archive. Or you could make it dynamic by using get_query_var( ‘paged’ ). This will set it to whatever page you might be on at the time, with the URL containing something like /page/2.

And I always reset the query. Often times I am calling on the post ID in the sidebar, so not resetting the query will mess me up. It’s a good habit to get into when using query_posts().

1) Change the default table prefix.

I always make it a point to change the default table prefix for the database. Anything other than ‘wp_’ helps database security. Although I would not recommend using the full site name, something like that would be too easy to guess.

2) Change the default ‘admin’ user.

You can’t do this from the admin section of WordPress, so you’ll have to edit the database using something like phpMyAdmin. Changing the default username to something not easy to guess also helps prevent any potential security breach.

3) Make sure your /wp-content directory and sub-directories each have an index.php file in them.

I know this is a standard feature with WordPress now, but I still come across sites from time to time that don’t have these files (for whatever reason). But having an index.php (even if it’s blank) will cause someone trying to access something like you’re plugins directory to call the index file, thus not revealing the file structure and any plugins you may be using. The 3 directories that really need this are /wp-content, /wp-content/plugins, and /wp-content/themes.

 // the_content(); 

The next thing to do is call php’s native substr() method. This will take a given string and strip out a sub-string, given the starting position and length of the sub-string. I use the WordPress function get_the_content() to return the post’s content, rather than printing it. This is an example of how I’m using this method on this site:

 echo substr(get_the_content(), 0, 160) . "..."; 

This basically takes the first 160 characters of a post (starting at position 0), echoes (or prints) it to the browser, and then adds three continuous periods (…), just to signal that there is more to the post. This is usually enough to get the first sentence or two. This will help keep the length on your index page down and you don’t have to remember to write an excerpt for every post. You can see this in use of the front page of this site – here.