lupka

This plugin allows you to create a widget that will display the title/date/excerpt from random posts in a specified(or open-ended) date range. It can also be used outside of a widget to create custom loops of random posts within a date range. The following can be specified:
<ul>
<li>Number of posts to display</li>
<li>Whether or not to show dates</li>
<li>Whether or not to show excerpts</li>
<li>Excerpt length (number of words)</li>
<li>Start date and End date of posts to randomize</li>
<li>Whether or not to always use current date as end. (Allows you to include new posts without editing settings every day)</li>
<li>Option to use relative time instead (To chose from random posts from last week, year, etc.)</li>
<li>Category to choose posts from. (Example: Random posts from sports category in the past week. This is the original reason I needed a plugin like this. Comes in handy for the newspaper site I run.)</li>
</ul>
Please contact me if you run into any issues, either via email (lupka31@gmail.com) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/lupka) 
For latest FAQs/info visit: http://alexchalupka.com/projects/wordpress/random-posts-widget/

Random Posts Within Date Range Widget

Widget that displays the title(w/ link), date(optional), and excerpt(optional) of random posts within a selected date range.

Christoph

Redirect your visitors to
<ul>
<li>a random post</li>
<li>your last (latest) post</li>
<li>your first (oldest) post</li>
<li>the previous or next post</li>
<li>or a combination of conditions, for example a random post among your last 10 posts, or the latest post from at least 3 months ago, or the latest post of a specific author.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://chattymango.com/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Features</a> | <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/examples-wordpress-redirects-to-posts/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Examples</a> | <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a> | <a href="https://chattymango.com/?redirect_to=latest&cat=9&pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Latest Development Blog Post</a>
<h4>A magic URL takes you to the right post</h4>
This plugin provides a URL (link) that takes you directly to a post in single-post view. This post is determined by the query parameter ?redirect_to= and optional others.
While the URL remains the same, its target changes depending on the available posts at the time when somebody enters it. That means you can use the same static URL in a menu, with a button or in a newsletter and the plugin finds out the correct target.
Simply enter the URL of your WordPress site into your browser and add ?redirect_to=… to the end.
Possible values for redirect_to are:
<ul>
<li>last or latest – The URL will redirect to the last (latest) post.</li>
<li>first or oldest – The URL will redirect to the first (oldest) post.</li>
<li>random – The URL will redirect to a random post.</li>
<li>prev or previous – The URL will redirect to the previous post (by date).</li>
<li>next – The URL will redirect to the next post (by date).</li>
<li>custom – The post will be determined according to the mandatory parameter orderby and the optional parameter order.</li>
</ul>
You can also limit the scope of considered posts by additional filter parameters, such as &s=searchaword or &cat=2, or use an offset to go to the second latest or to the post before the previous. The parameter random combined with count and bias lets you pick the latest (or oldest) posts with a different probability than the rest.
<h4>Caching</h4>
The plugin offers <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/other-parameters/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme#Caching" title="plugin website" rel="nofollow ugc">caching of database results</a>.
<h4>Settings and Parameters</h4>
There is no settings page in the backend. You configure the plugin entirely through the query parameters in the URL.
Please find more information about parameters and troubleshooting <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" title="plugin website" rel="nofollow ugc">on the plugin website</a>.
<h4>Examples for URLs</h4>
Note: Replace “http://www.example.com/” with your own website location. Spaces are written as “%20”.
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest – redirects to the latest post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&pk_campaign=random – redirects to a random post and tracks the visit
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev – redirects to the previous post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&each_once=rewind – redirects to a random post, avoiding duplicates, and then starts over again
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev&offset=1 – redirects to the post before the previous post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10 – redirects to a random post among the 10 latest posts
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&bias=80 – redirects to a random post. The plugin picks one from the latest 10 with a probability of 80% and from the rest with a probability of 20%
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&offset=1 – redirects to a random post among the 10 posts that come after the latest
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&after=1%20month%20ago – redirects to a random post among the posts that are not older than 1 month
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&exclude=4,7 – redirects to the latest post, excluding the posts with the IDs 4 and 7
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&offset=1 – redirects to the second latest post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=custom&orderby=comment_count&order=DESC – redirects to the post with the most comments
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&s=iaido&default_redirect_to=12&cache=200 – redirects to the latest post that contains the word ‘iaido’ or, if nothing can be found, to the page or post with the ID 12; use a cache with a 200 second lifetime
<h4>Button</h4>
The plugin also provides a shortcode [redirect_to_post_button] to create a simple button. Some <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/redirect-button/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme#Shortcode_to_create_button" title="shortcodes" rel="nofollow ugc">parameters</a> are available.
A button that links to a random post is a great way to increase your visitors’ on-site engagement and therefore your SEO ranking!
<iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7kTnkBVpDA?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>
(video by WPBeginner)
If you find this plugin useful, please give it a <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/redirect-url-to-post/reviews/?filter=5" title="reviews" rel="ugc">5-star rating</a>. Thank you!

Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post

The plugin is easy to use and Works great. The developer provides super fast replies to support questions.

Works Great!

Automatically redirect to your latest, oldest, random, or other post through a custom URL

Random Posts Within Date Range Widget vs Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post