By default you have to manually make posts unsticky by unchecking the sticky posts check box from WordPress admin screen. Wouldn’t it be easier if sticky posts i.e. featured posts go automatically unsticky after a set interval of time?
Before to start, first thing you should know is what actually a sticky post is? Sticky Post is a WordPress feature introduced in 2.7 update, the features allows you to make any post featured by sticking it to the top of the page. It is a check box option on WordPress admin area dashboard Posts -> Add New screen (In the Publish panel under Visibility).
When checked, the post is placed on the top of the front page of posts, it gets fixed there, no matter how many new posts are published.
Earlier we have discussed about turning posts sticky and creating sticky posts for category pages in WordPress. Now today, in this lesson you will learn about automatically expiring sticky posts after a set interval of time.
Expire Sticky Posts is an awesome WordPress plugin that allows you to set an expiration date for featured posts. Once a post will reach its expiration date, it will no longer be sticky on your website.
Start by installing ‘Expire Sticky Posts’ plugin in WordPress
Upon activation, visit your admin area dashboard and you will be noticing that the plugin has added a new option ‘Sticky Expires’ inside ‘Publish’ metabox.
Simply click ‘Edit’ and it will open up a field where you can enter an expiration date for the sticky post. By default, expiration date is set to ‘never’.