set it and forget it: automated wordpress sites for busy (or lazy) people
TRANSCRIPT
Set it and forget it: Automated WordPress sites for busy (or lazy) people.
OR How to syndicate RSS feeds inside of WordPress
Introduction
• I’m Brent Morris or Brent the Closet Geek in the podosphere. I’m been a podcaster since late-2005
• I’ve done a bunch of podcasts on and off• The prime reason I’ve ever stopped is laziness
about posting new content• I wanted to automate publishing new content
on my personal site closetgeekshow.ca
Introduction
• Currently doing 4 shows semi-regularly– The Closet Geek Show • closetgeekshow.ca
– The Anger Core • theangercore.com
– The Showhole • theshowhole.com
– Gapage: Conversations with Ken and Brent • gapages.blogspot.ca
Introduction
• I tried a bunch of different plugins and techniques to do this idea
• Settled on using WordPress with the FeedWordpress plugin.
• Today I’ll show you how to set it up and configure it. Once configured, you barely need to touch it.
• Every time an added feed updates, so does your website.
Search for ‘FeedWordPress’ in directory
If you are using the CLI the plugin name is ‘feedwordpress’
Activate FeedWordPress
Click installed plugins on left
FeedWordPress is now ready to go
It’s in Syndication on the left
It’s also available on the dashboard
Let’s add a new feed
Click Syndication
Syndicated Sites is the default Settings page
You paste RSS urls in the box on the top right
FeedWordPress shows a preview of your feed’s contents
Click Use this feed to confirm it
RSS Feed is now added to the site
Click Configure settings to customize how it is used by Wordpress
You are now in the Feeds & Updates section
You can make default settings for everything you add or individually
There are several types of settings
Feed, Posts, Authors, Categories
IMPORTANT
REMEMBER TO SAVE BEFORE SWITCHING SECTIONS
Save Changes is at the top right & bottom left of each settings page.
Feed section controls overall feed settings
Feed Information lets you customize for feed updates sync
with Site Settings.
Feed section controls overall feed settings
Update Scheduling lets you customize how often feed is polled.
IMPORTANT
Remember to change the Updates setting, it defaults to manual.
IMPORTANT
You should not poll feeds at a rate greater than 60 minutes without
permission from the author
Feed section controls overall feed settings
Updated Posts lets you customize what happens if the feed item
content changes
Feed section controls overall feed settings
Advanced Settings lets you customize timeouts and how
removed feed items are handled
SAVE YOUR CHANGES
Posts section controls how feed items are posted
Syndicated Posts lets you customize what happens with each
new posts or update
Posts section controls how feed items are posted
Links lets you customize whether each posts links back to the source
URL
Posts section controls how feed items are posted
Formatting lets you customize how relative URLs are used.
Posts section controls how feed items are posted
Comments & Pings lets you customize where comments
happen on your site or theirs.
Posts section controls how feed items are posted
Custom Post Settings and Custom Post Types are advanced settings
that we can skip over.
SAVE YOUR CHANGES
Authors section controls how post authors are handled
Syndicated Authors lets you manage whether feed authors are created on your
site or matched with existing authors
If you create a new author for each post, you may find your authors list in
WordPress is out of hand very fast.
IMPORTANT
SAVE YOUR CHANGES
Categories section controls item categories and tags
Feed Categories & Tags lets you manage whether new tags, categories and formats on your site sync up with syndicated sites.
Unless you control the categories and tags list in the site being syndicated, your own site’s tags and categories may get out of
hand very fast
IMPORTANT
Categories section controls item categories and tags
Categories lets you assign your own categories and tags regardless
of syndicated site’s.
SAVE YOUR CHANGES
Return to Syndicated Sites page
Update your feed manually
Syndicated posts will be added to your blog using the settings we just
made.