Select the featured posts you want to show at any time and include them in your theme using a widget.

Nelio Software

David Aguilera

With this WordPress plugin, you can define a set of featured posts easily. 
These featured posts can be added to your theme wherever you want via a widget.
The plugin is extremely simple, fast, and reliable. Once you have selected the 
featured posts, they are saved in a cache, so that the amount of database 
queries is kept to the minimum.
<blockquote>
Custom Templates 
 Version 2.0.0 let’s you define your own templates for displaying each related 
 post. Just create a directory named <code>neliofp</code> in your theme’s directory and 
 create the template you want to use such as, for instance, 
 <code>template-name.php</code>. When inserting the widget, specify that the template is 
 <code>template-name</code> and you’re ready to go!
Warning Remember to save your templates somewhere save before updating 
 your theme!
(In the directory <code>template-examples</code> you’ll find some examples).
</blockquote>
Featured image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/abulic_monkey/291689115/" rel="nofollow ugc">Abulic 
Monkey</a>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Featured Posts Selection Set the list of featured posts from one single 
place.</li>
<li>Powered by a Widget Use the featured images wherever you want by simply 
adding a widget.</li>
<li>Customization You can tweak a few details of the featured post list, such 
as the section title or the number of words in the excerpt.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Featured On</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://designcoral.com/wordpress/free-featured-post-widgets-for-wordpress/" rel="nofollow ugc">13 Awesome Free Featured Post Widgets for 
WordPress</a> 
(designcoral.com)</li>
<li><a href="https://neliosoftware.com/blog/set-collection-featured-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">How To Set Up a Collection of Featured 
Posts</a> (Nelio’s blog)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Related Plugins by Nelio</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://neliosoftware.com/content/?fp=wordpress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Nelio Content</a> | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-content/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li><a href="https://nelioabtesting.com/?fp=wordpress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Nelio A/B Testing</a> | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-ab-testing/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li>Nelio External Featured Image | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/external-featured-image/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
<li>Nelio Related Posts | 
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nelio-related-posts/" rel="ugc">Download</a></li>
</ul>
Featured image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/abulic_monkey/291689115/" rel="nofollow ugc">Abulic 
Monkey</a>

Nelio Featured Posts

The easiest featured post plugin I've come across. It's easy to setup, and the templating system was perfect for my needs. I would give this 5 stars except for some styling issues related to default styles from the plugin.

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