Kinds of Automated Niche Blogs and Sources of Content
In the last post, on automated niche blogging, I said that I'd come back and talk about different kinds of automated blogs, and I'll try to do that here. However, keep in mind that there can be many different forms of niche blogging. What I'll talk about here are a few ways that automation is used now in vogue.
Keep in mind that no matter what sort of automated strategy you pursue, you must still do your business research so that it is focussed as narrowly as possible on your target niche audience. You also want to give thought as to how you will monetize it, and whether or not you'll collect subscriber emails. Again, there is probably no limit to how programming skill can be combined with blogging to automate and manipulate the presentation of content. What I'd like to discuss are four variations on automated niche blogging that can be put to use in a home business setting.
- owner generated content
- article content
- rss feed content
- data feed content
- other content: Amazon, eBay, Clickbank, Yahoo! Answers, etc.
Owner Generated Automated Niche Blog
This is what I call a blog for which you write and/or edit the content and then schedule the posting of the articles. For this sort of blog you write and schedule the posts in advance. Here you write anywhere from 50 to 75 (or more) short posts of 300 to 350 words and use the Wordpress publishing editor to schedule posting times. You can also use private label rights material or hire someone to write the posts for you. Wordpress has built into it the capability of scheduling post times in advance. However, there are also plugins that allow you to upload and schedule hundreds of articles at a time. Personally, I don't bother and just use the Wordpress scheduler, but who knows, maybe later on that will fit my own modus operandi.
Niche Blog Using Article Content
Content for this sort of blog is generally provided in one or a combination of two ways:
- through the use of a Wordpress plugin that pulls articles from an article directory (or directories)
- through the use of a plugin that allows you to upload and schedule posting times for your articles
RSS Feed Content
There are a number of plugins available that will publish rss feed content to your blog. Basically, you enter the feeds you want published into the software, and the plugin will publish according to whatever schedule you set. Some plugins allow you to edit feeds, and save feed contents as drafts for editing or pre-approval before publishing.
Automated Data Feed Blogs
This sort of blog uses a plugin that automates the publishing of data feed content. Generally speaking, the plugin converts the data feed into an rss feed that you in turn publish using an rss feed plugin. Blog publishers using data feeds generally run stores selling some sort of physical product. However, some people convert large numbers of articles into data feeds and publish them to their blog in that manner.
Miscellaneous Content Sources
Other sources of content used in automated blogs include reviews and comments pulled from Amazon, product listings from eBay, product listings from Clickbank, Yahoo! Answers, and I have even heard of one person who figured out a way to publish content posted in Yahoo! Groups. When using Wordpress, content is generally automated and published through the use of plugins designed specifically for Wordpress.
The point of running an automated niche blog will in part depend on your business model. Some businesses will simply not be right for automated blogging. Generally speaking, you want to publish and promote niche targetted content of sufficient quantity and quality that you keep visitors on the page long enough to make a decision that results at some point in payment to you. Examples of such behavior would be clicking on Adsense, watching a video, clicking through to an advertiser page, buying an affiliate product, or simply signing up to your subscriber list.
Well, its past time for me to hit the sack. I'll mention again that the examples I've mentioned here are just that–examples of a few of the ways in which automatic publishing is used with Wordpress. I'll also mention that I have a very low cost, six part video series that will introduce you to the basics of Wordpress blog automation.
Niche Blogging | Home Business Weblog Automation
The online world has been on fire with blogging since about 1999, and you may well ask, "so what, and what does this have to do with home business?" Before I try to answer that, I want to first mention that the word "blog" has its origin in the word, "weblog" and refers to the online logs, or journals written by Internet voyagers for their own personal use and use of their friends, associates, and random surfers. Some of these blogs, as they do these days, went "viral," becoming well-known and highly trafficked as if by magic. Well, the magic of word-of-mouth. As the blogging phenomenon developed and blogging software platforms became increasingly easier to set up and use, clever, entrepreneurial people started putting them to business use. Thus, the blog, like early online bulletin boards and message boards took on an expanded life as a way to sell stuff. Read more