Autoblogger- Start autoblogging like a pro with free autoblog plugin WP-O-Matic

Autoblogging is the term used to define the type of blogging in which autobloggers use plugins to gather content from rss or atom feeds and post them in their own blog in a timely manner to keep it updated with fresh content without the hassle of working. But the problem is that most autoblogs look like what they are- automated scripts pulling in content and pasting and nothing more. They don’t look like sites which are managed by real humans and updated with original content. They just lack the charm of a well maintained site and become mass of useless information.

Now, I will not claim that I can teach you to make an autoblog like a regular blog. But if you read this whole guide, I can assure you that you will be able to set up an autoblog yourself and make it look a decent one. Lets get started.
How Autoblogs Work?

Autoblogs basically use a plugin which uses Cron Jobs to fetch content from RSS or Atom feeds you specify and post them in the blog in form of excerpts with a link to the main article. You can also post the whole content if you like.

What do you need?

• Hosting (Preferably VPS if using many autoblogs)
• Domain
• Wordpress Installed

Plugins:-

• WP-O-matic
• Platinum SEO or AIOSEO
• Simple Tags
• Thumbnails for Excerpts
• Wordpress related Posts
• Advanced Excerpt
• Maxblogpress Ping Optimizer
• SEO Smart Links
• Sociable
• Global Translator
• Google XML sitemaps
• Banner Plugins like Administer, Adrotate or Advertising Manager
• Adsense plugins (I don’t recommend adsense on autoblogs)
• Unique Article Wizard

Step-1: Get your hosting, preferably VPS because shared hosts tend to freeze accounts for spike in CPU usage due to cron jobs. If you are starting it casually Shared hosts will do too. Add domain and install Wordpress 2.6 for now. Install all the plugins listed above. Choose a good looking theme.

Step-2: Decide on your source of content. I suggest Article Directories as copying them are legal and does not infringe copyright. Using blog rss feeds are unethical and I don’t let others use my rss too. Infact, I got someone’s account frozen by contacting the host for using my feeds. But if you find a Creative Commons Blog you can easily use their feeds as you will be linking back to them. Also try using Amazon, Ebay or Clickbank product feeds too.

Step-3: If you are going to use full content from rss feeds then skip this one. If not (recommended) then do this. Go into the them editor and select main index template.php. Find the part which says “the_content” and change it to “the_excerpt”. Go, to the Advanced Excerpt plugin and modify the excerpt length to suit your liking.

Step-4: Add the feed in WP-O-Matic and set it to pull 1 post from each feed at a time. Try around 3-4 feeds and place the about 6 hours apart. Thus you will be updated with a post every 6 hour. You need to set up cron jobs to do this automatically.  Setting up cron job is demonstrated in the plugin itself. What you need to do is add a line like this -/usr/local/bin/php /home/my_username/public_html/blog_folder_name/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cron.php to your crontab in Cpanel. Try fetching posts to see if it works fine. Now, you are set with the content.

Step-5: Create around 10 categories related to your niche. Activate all the plugins. Go, to Simple tags and deactivate the related posts option. Now, go to posts section of WP and add activate autotags. Add as many related keyword as you can in autotags as they will be used as tags by “Simple tags” on your auto gathered contend. Also activate thumbnails for excerpts with will fetch an image in the post as a thumbnail and link to the original post.

Step-6: Set up options for Global translator, Maxblogpress ping optimizer, Sociable, Sitemaps. Set up Wordpress related posts to display posts based on tags or categories. Add your ping list to Maxblogpress ping optimizer. Configure Unique article wizard. Go to SEO Smartlinks options and set it to link between posts based on tags and categories only.

Step-7: I don’t recommend adsense on autoblogs but you can use Easy Adsenser for it. Better use banners and affiliate links of related Clickbank products and CPA networks. You can use Adrotate, Ad-Minister or Advertising manager. If you don’t want to use plugin, just paste the code in a text widget in the sidebar.

Step-8: There are some problems with duplicate posts in WP-O-Matic. Here is how to fix it until next update.

1. Open up wp-includes/post.php in your favorite editor
2. at approx line 703 you will find the following line :
   if ($post_name_check || in_array($post_name, $wp_rewrite->feeds) ) {
3. After this insert a new line of code :
   return 0;
4. save (you did make a backup, right?).
5. All done.

Credit for this fix: Linuxil

Thats it. I think now you are well equipped to start an autoblog. Good Luck.

P.S.- Don’t make your blog a mess of copied content. I do not endorse copying content from other blogs. I recommend you take content from free sources like Article directories.
WP-O-matic is free but current version does not work above WP 2.6 well. The new version is stated to release soon though. And the new version will have image thumbnailing too.

P.P.S.- Don’t even think of pulling my posts. If you want to just link to me thats fine. LOL

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