Bloggers obviously enjoy blogging but – there comes a time when everyone can use a brake even if they absolutely love what they do. Today I am going to talk about setting your Wordpress blog into a kind of “autopilot mode” where you can set it up so that it automatically publishes scheduled and pre written posts. This will help you get a few weeks of vacation from your blog and will recharge your batteries with new ideas which you can after the holidays. You also get more time to spend with your family, that’s what the holidays are for right?
Default Wordpress scheduled publishing
Most bloggers that use Wordpress already know about the post scheduling option. Most CMS platform have this feature as well, like for example I know Joomla has it.
In addition to explaining the obvious post scheduling option in Wordpress I am going to give you some advice on how to do it with Twitter as well. Twitter and blogging have become an inseparable couple and you should definitely be using it if you’re not already.
Wordpress post publish box
Every time you add a new post in Wordpress, you will see a standard “Publish” box on your right sidebar at the top – unless you have moved it somewhere from the default location. This box allows you to save your currently written text in a draft for further editing, preview your post, change your post visibility and tell Wordpress whether to publish your post immediately or at a scheduled date and time.
By clicking on the Edit link, you will be able to change the date and time when you would like your post to be published. Lets say you want to publish a post on the 25th of December at noon. You would set “Dec 25, 2009 @ 12:00″ and press the blue Publish button.
Shortening your post URL before it is published
After your post is published you will want to tweet it on Twitter as well. I don’t like to use auto-tweeting plug-ins for Wordpress because I always prefer looking at my post after I publish it and before I tweet it so that I am sure everything looks OK. Another reason why I don’t use auto-tweeting plugins is because I like to add hashtags to my tweets and customize them a bit every time.
Before your post is published, you know exactly what it’s URL address will be by looking at the permalink option above the post editing toolbar. You can also click on the “Edit” button if your permalink is longer to see it’s structure.
Wordpress permalink
In order to shorten your post address you will need a URL shortening service such as tinyurl.com, bit.ly or my personal favourite su.pr – the shortener that StumbleUpon uses.
Su.pr can also allow you to schedule a tweet right after you shorten it although it only has the option to schedule a tweet for within the next 13 days from the current day.
Su.pr URL shortener and poster
Scheduling tweets via Twitter browser clients
The best method for scheduling tweets and re-tweets would be various Twitter browser applications such as HootSuite and CoTweet. I am a big fan of CoTweet, I use it quite often to manage a few Twitter accounts that I own. What’s so great about it that it’s very simple without a lot of fancy features (unlike HootSuite) and allows you to have more than one person access and tweet from the accounts at the same time.
CoTweet "Post Update" box
Don’t forget that you CAN schedule more tweets about the same blog post. There is a fine line between marketing and spam and you have the right to advertise your content. Scheduling 1 original “New Blog Post: link” tweet along with 2 follow-up tweets about the same post only with hashtags and a different sentence structure is just fine.
Summary of the scheduling procedure
- Write a blog post
- Schedule the post for publishing
- Shorten the future post URL
- Schedule the tweet a few minutes after the post publish time that you have set
- Schedule a few more tweets of the same post (it’s link) with differently structured sentences and hashtags. (I usually write the first tweet as “New Blog post: link” second re-tweet is the same, third is “In case you missed it: link”, forth is “Read something about link”) Variety will make it look less like spam.
That’s about it! Repeat the process for every blog post you want to scheduel and enjoy your holidays! The only thing that you need to do is visit your blog once every few days and reply to some comments, let people know that you are still there.
The bad side of this method
It might look great and some people probably use scheduled publishing extensivly. But no matter how good your posts are and how great people think of them, it will hurt your credibility if they find out that your blog is just an automated robot. An automated robot that is programmed once a month with 5-6 posts and 10-20 re-tweets. Posting consistancy is important but so is social interaction with your readers.
Share this post with your bloging buddies and let them have some free time for these holidays as well! Have a great Christmas!
Dennis Edell (3)
Alison Moore Smith (2)
Agent Deepak (1)
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@Ileane
says
Gordon,
I agree, I never tweet my post from my WordPress.com blog either. Currently wp link shortener doesn’t add any stats and it’s not very flexible. I was using the su.pr shortener but found that it doesn’t send any stats back to WordPress (or trackbacks).
I love HootSuite and the ow.ly link shortener, but I haven’t tried CoTweet yet (since I only have one Twitter account).
The downside you mention can be an issue, especially for me since I like to reply to any comments within an hour or so (unless I’m asleep).
Thanks for the tips.
@Ileane
ileane´s last blog ..Searching For The Perfect Tweet
@McKnightikus
says
I totally agree with replying within an hour. It’s good to keep the conversation intensive and people might open up more if they see the discussion flaming up. When I tried HootSuite a few months ago it was very slow for me and crashed often. Do they still have the same problem? If not I might try them out again. It’s always good to have options.
@AgentDeepak
says
Gordon you should check the new feature of FeedBurner. It has introduced automatic tweeting with its own short URL and also allow hastags (use post tags) Also you can add extra tags or words. Save space for Retweet.
@McKnightikus
says
Yea I heard about that feature. I never got around to trying it because I haven’t started using Feedburner properly yet. Thanks for the tip!
I’d never use the tweet plugins, as I wouldn’t want every single post going through…just another way twitter gets clogged with crap.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – Pick My New Domain Names With A chance To Win $10!
@McKnightikus
says
Yea you are right about the clogging up. I mean, how hard is it to post 140 characters on Twitter after you write a post every once a week or even once a day. Ok maybe if you own multiple blogs and have a limited amount of time, then it’s useful.
@lionslinger
says
I will apply this tip only when necessary. I was a bit worries about the downside.
Hi Gordon!
Excellent time to make this post. I can say that everyone needs a break at least on the holidays. Scheduling is a great way to take some time off, and still give people stuff to read.
This is an excellent guide for beginners and definetly worth a tweet.
Bloggeri @Blog Guide´s last blog ..Introduction to Blog Communities – Beginner Guide
@McKnightikus
says
Thanks Bloggeri, I appreciate you support and I’m happy you like it. Do you have any other hobbies except blogging?
Nice little tips and it is defo one of the first tricks that people will have to learn when blogging. There is nothing wrong at all with scheduling blog posts and it is what most people do for exmple if they are out at work or something like that.
The only other thing you will have to do is manage expectations around things like replying to comments etc. If people normally leave comments and you reply and you suddenly go missing for a couple of weeks they are not going to be very happy and you may even lose them. The holidays are a tough time for blogging and sometimes it is best just best to be honest and put up a note saying you are going to be off for a week or something along those lines.
@McKnightikus
says
If you manage to keep up with your comments and moderate the community around your blog it’s perfectly fine to use scheduling. A lot of people use it but nobody ever notices right? I am going to try it as well just to look at it from the users perspective.
In my situation, someone would thank God for the scheduling option in Wordpress because I am traveling home from my College dorm room and my computer is here. I do not own a laptop or any smart phone from which I could post during the holidays. I’m luck though that my father has a computer at home and if it were any different, I would have to schedule some posts to keep the consistency.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion Niall. I love comments that make me think some things through or look at them from a slightly different perspective.
@FamousBloggers
says
Very nice, thanks for reminding us with this cool way of blogging and I wish you a happy and safe blogging flight
Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..Famous Bloggers Rock and Roll on Blog Engage
@McKnightikus
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Hehe I’m going home by train so I guess it’s close enough
Thanks!