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Newbie autoblog - needs your thoughts...

by Scooter2084
15 replies
After weeks of research, I decided to create my first auto-blog.

I looked at many of the existing plugins for Wordpress and decided that I none of them fit my budget so I decided to write my own. I based my plugin on using 4 different video sites, twitter search rss feeds, and using generic rss feeds. I think that it has turned out to be pretty good (I'm biased though...)

I picked a keyword phrase that doesn't have a lot competition to start with but the overall keywords that are associated with the site do have a lot of competition (we'll see what happens).

It's ranking on the first page of Google (low on the page) for the main keyword phrase - so I think I've done something right!

After testing for a couple of weeks, I think that I have a pretty good site. I haven't done much to drive traffic to it yet as I'm still tweaking it, but I think that I could use some experienced opinions on how it looks. I've tried to monetize it in different ways but, I'm open to other possibilities. Anything opinion is fair game because I need feedback. I plan on developing other similar sites in the future so any thoughts will help.

I've taken a lot of the ideas and techniques from the forum and applied them to the site. I can't thank everyone enough for the incredible insights this forum provides!

Lay it on me... I'm ready (I think...:confused

The site is in my signature.
#autoblog #newbie #thoughts
  • Profile picture of the author Joanne Greco
    I think it looks great! The only thing for me is that the featured image is blurry but that could be my eyes. *lol* You did a fantastic job.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scooter2084
      Thanks for the feedback - it's not your eyes... (no need for glasses)

      That is due to the fact that the images are not big enough for the featured section. The blog theme I'm using automatically re-sizes the images and most "preview images" from rss feeds are not big enough to fit in the feaured window.

      Do you think that it detracts from the overall site? It is one area that I don't like but, I'm not overly concerned with it...
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  • Profile picture of the author CMCarlin
    Nice looking site. So all content is automatically generated from various sources?
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    • Profile picture of the author Scooter2084
      Originally Posted by CMCarlin View Post

      Nice looking site. So all content is automatically generated from various sources?
      Yes, everything is either from an RSS feed or a specific API that I have pulled from. I wrote the software (WP Plugin) myself so I can modify things to look the way that I want...

      I also have put in a automatic attribution piece on some of the feeds as their TOS requires it.

      I realize that this is probably not the perfect way to blog but it was more of an experiment to test my software. I also have a way of doing a short word replace to help with making it unique but, I haven't implemented that part very extensively.
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      • Profile picture of the author mdcnet
        Great looking site! Im trying to learn this 'autoblog' thing to help me set up a few blogs over the next week (my first blogs that I will be monetizing, the first blog i set up Im going to hold off until I get the autoblogs running).

        Im just stuck at the point where Im not sure how to set up a blog for 'autoblog' and what program/plug-in I should install, and how.
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  • Profile picture of the author creativentrepreneur
    Originally Posted by Scooter2084 View Post

    After weeks of research, I decided to create my first auto-blog.

    I looked at many of the existing plugins for Wordpress and decided that I none of them fit my budget so I decided to write my own. I based my plugin on using 4 different video sites, twitter search rss feeds, and using generic rss feeds. I think that it has turned out to be pretty good (I'm biased though...)

    I picked a keyword phrase that doesn't have a lot competition to start with but the overall keywords that are associated with the site do have a lot of competition (we'll see what happens).

    It's ranking on the first page of Google (low on the page) for the main keyword phrase - so I think I've done something right!

    After testing for a couple of weeks, I think that I have a pretty good site. I haven't done much to drive traffic to it yet as I'm still tweaking it, but I think that I could use some experienced opinions on how it looks. I've tried to monetize it in different ways but, I'm open to other possibilities. Anything opinion is fair game because I need feedback. I plan on developing other similar sites in the future so any thoughts will help.

    I've taken a lot of the ideas and techniques from the forum and applied them to the site. I can't thank everyone enough for the incredible insights this forum provides!

    Lay it on me... I'm ready (I think...:confused

    The site is in my signature.
    Well themed site ... nice layout too ... You might want to include Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, Website Terms, etc. for your protection.

    All the best.

    Andy
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  • Profile picture of the author CMCarlin
    Well I'm impressed. The site looks pretty good and I just love the idea of auto-blogging.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Very Impressive! I think you did an awesome job and will be quite successful, actually!

      MissTerraK
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  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
    Hey, I think the site is looking pretty good. Like the second poster said though, the image can be a bit blurry, but overall you've done a great job.
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  • Profile picture of the author taberdude2
    You autoblog is very nicely set up. It has a nice clean design that is easy on the eyes.

    Are you planning on selling your autoblog plugin at some point? I would be very interested!
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    • Profile picture of the author Scooter2084
      Sorry to revive an old post.

      Thanks everyone for the compliments! I've been tweaking it a little hear and there and it seems to run pretty smooth. It's been getting fairly decent traffic with not much effort!

      Now it's time to make another one and see what happens...

      Those that asked about the blurry images - that is due to the fact that video sites don't all give you a large preview image size to work with and the theme that I'm using auto-sizes the image to fit the area thus making it blurry. (Maybe some code tweaking is in my future...)

      @Deanna- I don't have any plans to sell the software as of yet. I still need to assure it all works as designed. Besides I'm not sure that we need another auto-blogging software out there as there are many good ones already available.
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  • Profile picture of the author fredjr1978
    Wow, looks fantastic! This autoblog idea is new to me, so you have given me something to read into and learn. Thanks so much for sharing and even teaching me..
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Kohler
      You did a great job. Despite the blurry images, it really does not take away from the format or presentation of the material. Well done!
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      • Profile picture of the author Scooter2084
        Thanks for all the compliments and encouragement!

        Blog #1 (Awesome Guitar Player) is doing well and now I'm on to the next one!

        Thanks to the warrior that is giving my plug-in a try... feed back is a good thing!

        Here is the second blog -- Vital Internet Security

        Lay it on me....

        Update about the first auto-blog... (I wanted to see what it would do with minimal marketing). I have not been pushing much traffic to it but, it is getting about 30 - 40 unique visitors a day.

        All I'm really doing with the first blog is pushing twitter traffic to it via twitterfeed which is auto-posting every new blog entry. I am getting a really decent click through rate - I think...

        I'm only following about a thousand people and the click through rate is at about 4% which is not bad... conversions are much lower.

        I know, I know... it's not hard to get 4% click through but, for no work promoting or advertising I think it is promising.

        Let's see what the next one does... Give some feedback. Thanks!!
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