Alternatives to WP-O-Matic?

[dou9las]

I saw this great thread and those referenced on it: Who have success with automated Wordpress blogs?

For the moment, I need a *free* auto content plug-in for WP 2.8.5. Apparently, WP-O-MATIC was everyone's favorite (and free) plugin for this purpose, but that is not compatable with my version of WP, and it appears that it is no longer being supported.

I checked out autoblogged and caffeinated content, and at the moment, don't have the budget for those.

I also saw Feed Wordpress, which is compatable up to 2.8.1, which is close but not there yet.

Philosophically, I have no problem paying for a good plugin, just really can't at the moment, so I am hoping there is a free one I can get started with.

[greenovni]

it seems like the best one, at least free is omatic. Why not downgrade your WP version to a compatible version?

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by greenovni

it seems like the best one, at least free is omatic. Why not downgrade your WP version to a compatible version?

I thought of that but I have never done that before actually. Is there an automatic way to do that routine, or would i have to do a re-install of WP manually?

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by dou9las

For the moment, I need a *free* auto content plug-in for WP 2.8.5. Apparently, WP-O-MATIC was everyone's favorite (and free) plugin for this purpose, but that is not compatable with my version of WP, and it appears that it is no longer being supported.

Don't believe everything you read
WP-O-MATIC works fine with all versions of WP from 1.5 right up to currently.
It hasn't been supported for a year or more but it's easy to figure out with very few problems.
WP-O-MATIC has features with true Bl*ck H*t potential that even the paid software doesn't have.

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Don't believe everything you read
WP-O-MATIC works fine with all versions of WP from 1.5 right up to currently.
It hasn't been supported for a year or more but it's easy to figure out with very few problems.
WP-O-MATIC has features with true Bl*ck H*t potential that even the paid software doesn't have.

Well alrighty then!!! Thanks for that helpful summation!

I have had my site broken several times by un-compatable plugins (redirection being a big one) and I just wanted to prevent any big surprises.

It took me hours to figure out how to restore the site after I upgraded to 2.8.5 with redirection activated. (now of course, I realize I can proably just go in via FTP and move all plugin folders out and it would restore the site, but still it was a moment of panic...)

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by dou9las

I have had my site broken several times by un-compatable plugins (redirection being a big one) and I just wanted to prevent any big surprises.

It took me hours to figure out how to restore the site after I upgraded to 2.8.5 with redirection activated.

Which redirection plugin did you have problems with?

Past problems with incompatible and 'dodgy' plugins now means I keep a 'Dummy' blog for test purposes. Before I add a plugin or upgrade WP installations on my real sites I always test on my 'Dummy' blog first.

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Which redirection plugin did you have problems with?

Past problems with incompatible and 'dodgy' plugins now means I keep a 'Dummy' blog for test purposes. Before I add a plugin or upgrade WP installations on my real sites I always test on my 'Dummy' blog first.

That's a great idea, I think I'll begin doing that.

The plug-in was actually called "ReDirection" and used on the recommendation of PotPieGirl (one week marketing plan etc.) It does work great...except the part about it not yet being compatable with 2.8.5.

Luckily for me, I found a blog post discussing the issue at length, which allowed me to get my blog live again.

[VegasGreg]

Yet Another Autoblogger (YAAB) is what I typically use instead of WpOmAtic.

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by VegasGreg

Yet Another Autoblogger (YAAB) is what I typically use instead of WpOmAtic.

I just found out about this a few minutes before seeing your post. I will look into it.

Do you feel it works better than WPOM?

[dou9las]

Most of the threads I have found on WPOM don't really talk about frequency of posts.

Although duplicate content may not be a problem if mixed in with a good bit of original content, if WPOM is fetching 1 (or 10, etc.) blog stories to post every hour, over time, this is going to look very unnatural to the SE's

...Although, if it is set to use the original item date and not the date of the re-post, maybe that solves it, or at least helps.

Also - If I do set 1 post per day as a frequency...Does WPON know not to keep going out and grabbing the same post? I have seen some talk about getting duplicate posts with this plug-in, so I am just wondering if this is an issue...

[VegasGreg]

Originally Posted by dou9las

I just found out about this a few minutes before seeing your post. I will look into it.

Do you feel it works better than WPOM?

I found it way easier to set up and make adjustments than WPOM. But if you are doing any "totally techie" type of stuff, I think WPOM can be altered in more detail.

Any time you are scraping content for the total basis of a site, it never looks natural. IMHO it is better to mix and match several different sources. Not sure of the duplicate post issues. I am sure it can happen.

[InternetMarketingIQ]

Have you wondered why wp-o-matic was not updated? Do you come across many autoblogs in your every day work?

Autoblogs are pipedreams. All the time and effort can be put to much better use. It's not like you just set them up and money comes pouring in. But good luck, one more distracted person is one less traffic competitor.

Maybe the vending machine business is a better alternative. You just set them up and the money pours in. I've never in my life met a single person who owns vending machines but I see them from time to time.

[Michael Taylor]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Don't believe everything you read.

I'm vexed.

[Powertreb]

My experience is that WP-Omatic and Feedpress both work fine with all versions right up to 2.8.5

Never had aproblem with them. I also use Redirection, and I'm not sure how or why it broke your blog. But it works like a charm. It may have been another plugin that was not agreeing with Redirection at that moment.

You can also try AFlinker. It turns keywords or phrases that you have into automatic links that you can cloak in the same spirit as Redirection.

AFlinker is also free.

[davtom]

Pretty Link works well, and as an added bonus will also track the number of clicks and the number of uniques. I have it working with WP 2.8.6.

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

Autoblogs are pipedreams.

Interesting observation. Is this from personal experience? Have you actually set up any autoblogs?

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

Have you wondered why wp-o-matic was not updated?

Probably because the guy got fed up with the 'freebie' mentality associated with Wordpress that everything should be 'free'. Developing this type of software is resource intensive... Or he is so rich now from his own autoblogging that he's retired

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

Do you come across many autoblogs in your every day work?

In certain product areas...yes
Recently there's a lot more in IM because of the pretty good WProbot. Typically autoblogs are very evident in P*rn and G*mbling although often they are cloaked.

All the time and effort can be put to much better use.

erm...what time and effort? The key word here is 'Auto'

It's not like you just set them up and money comes pouring in.

Successful autobloggers have dozens or even hundreds of autoblogs generating income. Visit a Bl*ck H*t forum and you may be surprised.

[DogScout]

Now that Google has been testing Hadoop for 2 years, I believe you will see auto-blogs and other sites using black hat techniques de-indexed and/or penalized faster. Even gray hat stuff will come under scrutiny. Even white hat ways to get around stuff will be ignored by them.

I am sure you have seen sites with teeny tiny font list of 'keywords' in the footer (or header). If you inspect the properties, they are using H1 tags set to 6 or 8 font size to list them. It gets around the fact that most SEs ignore meta keyword lists. These are not even cloaked in most cases so 99.9% of the time even pass human review unless they take the time to inspect the properties. (Which they rarely do). Because they are not cloaked, everything is 'technically' in line with Google's 'rules'. But SEs hate this technique.

Now with Hadoop, the bots will have time to inspect CSS files more closely and when they find an H1 tag with a font size under 12 or so, it will raise a red flag. (Even though no cloaking is going on, the practice is just a way to get around inappropriate keyword stuffing). Google is famous for penalizing 1st and asking questions never. Though in this case, they may decide to just ignore whatever ranking the keywords would help with since it is technically white hat.

Lately many auto-bloggers are finding their auto-blogs de-indexed at much faster rates than just a few months ago. (Mentioned in this forum). As Hadoop is used more and more, it may become impossible to build auto-blogs faster than Google can find them.

Caffeine is basically just making Hadoop system wide. Once that happens, the game changes completely. With Hadoop, Google has enough computing power at it's disposal to run several worlds of governments. Outwitting that kind of computing power will take an unusual amount of creativity. Personally, I see the day of auto-blogging and a ton of other techniques becoming useless. Even many that are technically up and up but that get around something Google has found useless in it's quest to deliver relevant content such as tiny H1 tags. In many cases, they won't penalize or de-index, they will just stop counting H1 tags under a certain size, in the example I give.

(Build a suspicious back-link campaign with 1,000 back-links using the same anchor in a week, Google, just ignores the back-links. No de-indexing, no penalization, they just ignore them. That way you can't hurt your competitor by back-linking 2,000 using the same anchor, Google will just ignore them and everyone stays at the same rank.)

Auto-blogs will be even easier for a bot to detect without having to refer the site to a human.

This is my personal opinion only. By January or February you can say, You heard it here 1st, folks.
Lol.

[JustVisiting]

Originally Posted by DogScout

Now with Hadoop, the bots will have time to inspect CSS files more closely and when they find an H1 tag with a font size under 12 or so, it will raise a red flag.

Will robots.txt still keep the nosey little buggers at bay?

Disallow: /*.css$

[Paid Surveys]

I love the design of wordpress but gave up my wordpress blogs a few months ago due to excessive spam even with IP banning software. I'm so much happier with javascript and html or PHP

[sloth456]

I just use feed wordpress plugin, not much documentation but I found it a tonne better than WP-o-matic because it actually retrieves the full post after finding it through the RSS feed rather than just copying the RSS feed direct like wp-o-matic, this is especially useful considering most blogs don't publish full feeds.

[DogScout]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Will robots.txt still keep the nosey little buggers at bay?

Disallow: /*.css$

Google ignores robot texts from what I can tell. It uses them to return results (pretending it doesn't follow disallowed paths), but otherwise it is like placing a "don't press this button" in a kindergarten class.

[Adam Carn]

I just upgraded my Wordpress and now I can't access WP-O-Matic from the admin section.

Adam

[dou9las]

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

Have you wondered why wp-o-matic was not updated? Do you come across many autoblogs in your every day work?

Autoblogs are pipedreams. All the time and effort can be put to much better use. It's not like you just set them up and money comes pouring in. But good luck, one more distracted person is one less traffic competitor.

Maybe the vending machine business is a better alternative. You just set them up and the money pours in. I've never in my life met a single person who owns vending machines but I see them from time to time.

I have to assume this was directed at me since I was the OP.

Not sure if you saw this reference:

Originally Posted by dou9las

Although duplicate content may not be a problem if mixed in with a good bit of original content, if WPOM is fetching 1 (or 10, etc.) blog stories to post every hour, over time, this is going to look very unnatural to the SE's

Just FYI, on the blog I just now began to experiment with WPOM, I have busted ass writing all unique content, quality reviews, video reviews, acquired and assembled killer bonuses to provide incentive, and have a lead capture with 8 week newsletter that I am developing into a 52 week (1 year drip) newsletter.

If you think I started this post because I was looking for the equivalent of a "vending machine" model involving installing a plug-in, walking away, and then expecting affiliate commissions in return, then you'd be wrong.

That's not the mentality or work ethic that I bring to IM, and although I can't speak for everyone on this thread, I think its a fair guess that most of them aren't looking for a push-button magic bullet solution either.

Original content is and always will be key. But it just so happens that the SE's also want to see near constant activity, relevant within the theme of the site, which is not easy if you have 20 to 100 niche blogs (not that I do yet, but that is the goal.)

That's the piece of the puzzle that autoblogging can provide (and I yes I know that people are out there pushing "set and forget" models with autoblogging, but I for one would not take that approach.)

[billspaced]

Originally Posted by JustVisiting

Don't believe everything you read
WP-O-MATIC works fine with all versions of WP from 1.5 right up to currently.
It hasn't been supported for a year or more but it's easy to figure out with very few problems.
WP-O-MATIC has features with true Bl*ck H*t potential that even the paid software doesn't have.

It does work great even with the latest version of WP (3.something at this point). HOWEVER, the duplicate post issue is still present and I cannot get the thing to use tags (automatically).

The plugin's author seems to have left the scene, so there is no support and no upgrades.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by dou9las

I saw this great thread and those referenced on it: Who have success with automated Wordpress blogs?

I checked out autoblogged and caffeinated content, and at the moment, don't have the budget for those.

*Hint* My niche blogs include one license for autoblogged. I have a developer's license.