How properly create a blog template for wordpress?

Question

I imagined that it is pretty easy to do: just take everything what is in index.php. Add

<?php
/*
Template Name: Blog
*/
?>

at the top and you all set, but in my case it is not working. I copied everything what was in my index.php, created template-blog.php and added through new page as "new". And this is the result I get: http://bellated.us.lt/new/ (testing page)

It's seems like the blog loop is starting, but it do not go through as it should. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

<?php
/*
Template Name: Blog
*/
?>

<?php get_header(); ?>


            <!-- BEGIN #content-wrap -->
            <div id="content-wrap" class="clearfix">

                <div id="content-top">&nbsp;</div>

                <!--BEGIN #primary .hfeed-->
                <div id="primary" class="hfeed">

                    <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>            

                    <?php $post = $posts[0]; // Hack. Set $post so that the_date() works. ?>
                    <?php /* If this is a category archive */ if (is_category()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php printf(__('Visi &#303;ra&#353;ai i&#353; %s', 'framework'), single_cat_title('',false)); ?></h1>
                    <?php /* If this is a tag archive */ } elseif( is_tag() ) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php printf(__('&#302;ra&#353;&#371; &#279;ym&#278;s %s', 'framework'), single_tag_title('',false)); ?></h1>
                    <?php /* If this is a daily archive */ } elseif (is_day()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php _e('Archyvas', 'framework') ?> <?php the_time('F jS, Y'); ?></h1>
                     <?php /* If this is a monthly archive */ } elseif (is_month()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php _e('Archyvas', 'framework') ?> <?php the_time('F, Y'); ?></h1>
                    <?php /* If this is a yearly archive */ } elseif (is_year()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php _e('Archyvas', 'framework') ?> <?php the_time('Y'); ?></h1>
                    <?php /* If this is an author archive */ } elseif (is_author()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php _e('Visi &#303;ra&#353;ai pagal', 'framework') ?> <?php echo $curauth->display_name; ?></h1>
                    <?php /* If this is a category archive */} elseif (is_search()) { ?>
                        <h1 class="page-title"><?php _e('Paie&#353;kos rezultatai: ', 'framework'); echo '"'.$_GET['s'].'"'; ?></h1>
                     <?php } ?>

                    <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

                        <!--BEGIN .hentry -->
                        <div <?php post_class(); ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">               
                            <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="<?php printf(__('Permanent Link to %s', 'framework'), get_the_title()); ?>"> <?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

                            <!--BEGIN .entry-meta .entry-header-->
                            <div class="entry-meta entry-header">
                                <span><?php _e('pagal', 'framework') ?></span> <?php the_author(); ?> <span><?php _e('&middot;', 'framework') ?></span> <?php the_time('Y/m/j  H:i'); ?> <span><?php _e('&middot;', 'framework') ?></span> <?php the_category(', ') ?> <span><?php _e('&middot;', 'framework') ?></span> <?php comments_popup_link(__('Komentar&#371; n&#279;ra', 'framework'), __('1 Komentaras', 'framework'), __('% Komentarai', 'framework')); ?> <?php edit_post_link( __('', 'framework'), '<span class="edit-post">[', ']</span>' ); ?><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" data-text="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?>: <?php the_title(); ?>," data-count="horizontal">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>


                            </div>

                            <?php /* if the post has a WP 2.9+ Thumbnail */
                            if ( (function_exists('has_post_thumbnail')) && (has_post_thumbnail()) ) : ?>
                            <div class="post-thumb post-lead">
                                <a title="<?php printf(__('Permanent Link to %s', 'framework'), get_the_title()); ?>" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail('archive-thumb'); /* post thumbnail settings configured in functions.php */ ?></a>
                            </div>
                            <?php endif; ?>

                            <!--BEGIN .entry-content -->
                            <div class="entry-content">
                                <?php the_content(__('Skaityti toliau &rarr;', 'framework')); ?>
                            <!--END .entry-content -->
                            </div>

                        <!--END .hentry-->  
                        </div>

                        <?php endwhile; ?>

                    <!--BEGIN .navigation .page-navigation -->
                    <div class="navigation page-navigation clearfix">
                        <?php if(function_exists('wp_pagenavi')) { wp_pagenavi(); } else { ?>
                        <div class="nav-next"><?php next_posts_link(__('&larr; Senesni &#303;ra&#353;ai', 'framework')) ?></div>
                        <div class="nav-previous"><?php previous_posts_link(__('Naujesni &#303;ra&#353;ai &rarr;', 'framework')) ?></div>
                        <?php } ?>
                    <!--END .navigation ,page-navigation -->
                    </div>

                    <?php else : ?>

                    <!--BEGIN #post-0-->
                    <div id="post-0" <?php post_class(); ?>>

                        <h2 class="entry-title"><?php _e('Ups, puslapis nerastas', 'framework') ?></h2>

                        <!--BEGIN .entry-content-->
                        <div class="entry-content">
                            <p><?php _e("Atsipra&#353;ome, bet puslapis, kurio ie&#353;kote nerastas.", "framework") ?></p>
                            <?php get_search_form(); ?>
                        <!--END .entry-content-->
                        </div>

                    <!--END #post-0-->
                    </div>

                    <?php endif; ?>

                <!--END #primary .hfeed-->
                </div>

                <div id="content-btm">&nbsp;</div>

            <!-- END #content-wrap -->
            </div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Answer 1

Remember: custom page templates are still static Pages, so the default Loop for a custom page template will be the post content of the static page to which the template is assigned.

You need to add a custom query to the template, in order to query anything other than the default query.

Refer to the Codex documentation for creating a custom template for a Page of Posts.