The Custom Query String (CQS) Wordpress plugin is not that well known, but it is a powerful plugin offering functionality I have been seeking for ages on my blog. The plugin allows you to specify how many pages to display on different sections of your blog, such as 5 posts on your home page, 10 posts on your archives, 30 posts on your search results, etc.
In the Wordpress Options Reading screen there is a section where you can set the number of blog posts to display.
This is all well and good, but this setting will apply to every page on your blog. This isn’t very intuitive. Let’s say for example I want to display 5 blog posts at most on my home page. I can set this by using the text box shown above. My blog home page will look fine, showing the last 5 posts, but it doesn’t take into account the archives or search results pages.