Automation is the key to everything we do. To the extent possible we should try and automate routine tasks. Unfortunately, we can not automate brushing, bathing and getting ready; but we can at least automate computer tasks! J
In this post I want to share with you how I automate my blogging tasks and how you too can. In Part 1, I will share with you what I do to automate blogging tasks in WordPress and in Part 2, I will share with you what I do to automate traffic generation activities to the blog.
I will share with you some plugins and the overall strategy that allows me to blogging in WordPress blog. So, let’s get started.
Automating Twitter, Facebook and Buzz Announcements
Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz are the most popular social sites where people share “What’s on their mind” or about the latest site they are enjoying or their latest blog post. So, in case you don’t have these as a part of your blogging strategy, you should include them. They do help you in creating buzz about the blog post you have made and lets people know about what you are up to.
Now, let’s see how we can automate these tasks, rather than doing it manually by going to all 3 sites. You will need to use one plugin and one service to achieve this and believe me it’s very simple to do it.
You need to have Twitter Tools plugin installed on WordPress, it will automatically post to twitter when you post on your blog. I have written about Twitter Tools plugin in my top 10 wordpress plugins post. So, you have automated posting to Twitter.
The service you need to use is FriendFeed, this is also used as social bookmarking site, but you will use it for automating your posting to Facebook. Create an account with FriendFeed and go to Tools, you will have an option to connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Connecting here means allowing FriendFeed to post to both these account and get the latest posts from these accounts to post to FriendFeed, in short to keep all 3 accounts (FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook) in sync. Once you connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts at FriendFeed, it will get the latest tweet from Twitter account and then post it on to your FriendFeed and Facebook account. So, now you have automated posting to Twitter and Facebook without even logging to your accounts. Now, let’s see how we can automate posting to Google Buzz.
Login to your Gmail account and access Buzz. There is link available Connect Sites, where it allows you to connect other sites, connect Twitter to Google Buzz. This will allow you to post your latest tweet to Buzz. So, now you have automated posting to Twitter, Facebook and Buzz without even lifting a finger. Wasn’t it simple?
Automate WordPress Blogging and Backup
How do you normally publish your blog posts? Do you type the complete post and click Publish button to publish it instantly or do you the schedule them for future release? With version 2.5 WordPress introduced a new feature i.e. allowing us to schedule the post to get published on a specific date at specific time, similar to autoresponders. This is a very powerful feature.
Let’s say you are going on vacation for 2 weeks, but you still want to post on alternate days, so, type out your blog posts and schedule them for release on specific dates at specific time. You have already automated announcements to Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz, so, as soon as your automatically scheduled post appears on blog, it will notify the 3 accounts also.
Backup is another key aspect of your blogging tasks. If your blog is really important asset for you then you need to back it up daily, WordPress database backup plugin comes by default with WordPress, you just need to make the necessary settings, after activating it, and ensure that a daily backup is automated.
That’s it for this part. We saw how to schedule your posts in advance, how to automatically post at Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz and how to back up your database. In part 2 we will see how to automate social bookmarking and submission to blog directories and submit your content to other web 2.0 sites.
How to Automate Your Blogging Tasks – Part 1
Automation is the key to everything we do. To the extent possible we should try and automate routine tasks. Unfortunately, we can not automate brushing, bathing and getting ready; but we can at least automate computer tasks! J
In this post I want to share with you how I automate my blogging tasks and how you too can. In Part 1, I will share with you what I do to automate blogging tasks in WordPress and in Part 2, I will share with you what I do to automate traffic generation activities to the blog.
I will share with you some plugins and the overall strategy that allows me to blogging in WordPress blog. So, let’s get started.
Automating Twitter, Facebook and Buzz Announcements
Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz are the most popular social sites where people share “What’s on their mind” or about the latest site they are enjoying or their latest blog post. So, in case you don’t have these as a part of your blogging strategy, you should include them. They do help you in creating buzz about the blog post you have made and lets people know about what you are up to.
Now, let’s see how we can automate these tasks, rather than doing it manually by going to all 3 sites. You will need to use one plugin and one service to achieve this and believe me it’s very simple to do it.
You need to have Twitter Tools plugin installed on WordPress, it will automatically post to twitter when you post on your blog. I have written about Twitter Tools plugin in my top 10 wordpress plugins post. So, you have automated posting to Twitter.
The service you need to use is FriendFeed, this is also used as social bookmarking site, but you will use it for automating your posting to Facebook. Create an account with FriendFeed and go to Tools, you will have an option to connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Connecting here means allowing FriendFeed to post to both these account and get the latest posts from these accounts to post to FriendFeed, in short to keep all 3 accounts (FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook) in sync. Once you connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts at FriendFeed, it will get the latest tweet from Twitter account and then post it on to your FriendFeed and Facebook account. So, now you have automated posting to Twitter and Facebook without even logging to your accounts. Now, let’s see how we can automate posting to Google Buzz.
Login to your Gmail account and access Buzz. There is link available Connect Sites, where it allows you to connect other sites, connect Twitter to Google Buzz. This will allow you to post your latest tweet to Buzz. So, now you have automated posting to Twitter, Facebook and Buzz without even lifting a finger. Wasn’t it simple?
Automate WordPress Blogging and Backup
How do you normally publish your blog posts? Do you type the complete post and click Publish button to publish it instantly or do you the schedule them for future release? With version 2.5 WordPress introduced a new feature i.e. allowing us to schedule the post to get published on a specific date at specific time, similar to autoresponders. This is a very powerful feature.
Let’s say you are going on vacation for 2 weeks, but you still want to post on alternate days, so, type out your blog posts and schedule them for release on specific dates at specific time. You have already automated announcements to Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz, so, as soon as your automatically scheduled post appears on blog, it will notify the 3 accounts also.
Backup is another key aspect of your blogging tasks. If your blog is really important asset for you then you need to back it up daily, WordPress database backup plugin comes by default with WordPress, you just need to make the necessary settings, after activating it, and ensure that a daily backup is automated.
That’s it for this part. We saw how to schedule your posts in advance, how to automatically post at Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz and how to back up your database. In part 2 we will see how to automate social bookmarking and submission to blog directories and submit your content to other web 2.0 sites.
How do you automate your blogging tasks?
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