• You have created a Page where you have inserted a contact form that acts as your registration form, and have that linked in your main blog page. Make sure to call it “Registration Form” or “Join Now” to make it obvious to your visitors that is where they can go to provide their details.
• You have set up WP-O-Matic fully and that you have already set a specific time in your cron service so that the plugin can fetch content from your users’ blogs periodically and automatically.

STEP 4: REGISTER A NEW USER INTO YOUR BLOG AGGREGATOR

Now your blog aggregator is ready to accept its new batch of members.

Once a new registration comes in, you will first need to add the user details into the Users / Add New section in your WordPress dashboard. Another way to look at this is that you are creating a new user account in your WordPress blog. This step is needed not only to allow you to relate it to WP-O-Matic later, but will also be helpful as a way for you to keep their contact information in case you need to get back to them, as well as allow you to build a page that lists out contributors to your aggregator, like what I have done with mine.

I copy and paste the details of the registration into the following fields which are User name, First name, E-mail, Website and Password. I use the name that’s in the registration form as both the User name and First name, enter the actual URL of the Website (not the feed address) and key in a random password for the account. Before you click on the Add User button, make sure the new user has the Subscriber role and remove the check sign so that you WON’T send the password to the new user — it’s not necessary for them to have that.

STEP 5: ADD FEED INTO WP-O-MATIC

Actually, before you do that, make sure that the feed you’re going to enter is a valid one. I have, several times, encountered problems accessing their feed either because the address they registered is not valid or permissions were not properly set by the user for others to view the feed. If you encounter any error, you might want to check back with the owner, or depending on what policy you set for your blog aggregator, to ignore their registration altogether (although I would think that your users will appreciate if you e-mail them back telling them about your problem).

Now, go to Settings / WP-O-Matic in your WordPress dashboard, and click on Add campaign. Here are the minimum setup you should have in order to get the feed up and running in your blog aggregator:

1. In the Basic tab, copy and paste the user’s name as the Title.
2. In the Feeds tab, copy and paste into the Feed URL either the feed address, or the blog address of the user (good thing is, WP-O-Matic will automatically detect the feed address of the blog).
3. In the Categories tab, select the category in which the content of this blog should belong to. The Categories are whatever it is you have set in your WordPress blog aggregator under the Posts / Categories of your WordPress dashboard. If you have only one category, select that. If you need to add a new category, stop doing Step 5 for a while, and go add that new category first, then come back and start Step 5 all over again.
4. Skip the Rewrite tab. I won’t go into details of this one, but it basically allows you to replace words or automatically link certain words you specify in that option. I personally never used it, so you need to read the WP-O-Matic documentation yourself.
5. In this very important Options tab, you’ll only need to focus on a few fields:
   • Checking on the Use feed date checkbox will allow your aggregator to list the posts by the date and time the post was actually created by the user, instead of the date and time the post was fetched by the aggregator.
   • Select the Type of post to create to Published so that the fetched post will automatically be displayed in your aggregator.
   • Assign the Author to the user you’ve just created in Step 4 (in the dropdown box, the newest user added is always listed at the bottom so just scroll down), so that all posts will link to that user and it’ll be easy for you to manage/delete the posts in case you want the user removed from your aggregator.
   • Set the Max items to create on each fetch to whatever number you want, or 0 for unlimited number of posts to be fetched. I left mine at 10 because it’s a nice round number for me, not too many and not too few.
   • Yes, please put a check sign next to Post title links to source so that people will be brought to the user’s actual site when the title link of the post in your aggregator is clicked. Besides, that’s the whole point of a blog aggregator, isn’t it — to fetch posts from other sites, display them in yours, and have yours link back to them as a way to return the favour?
   • For Discussion options, change it to Closed and remove the check sign next to Allow pings. Again, this depends on your blog aggregator’s policy, really. If you want people to comment, then fine. But for me, I’d rather have those commenting done in the users’s own blogs since they are the authors. This also allows me to free up my time from having to deal with comment spams.
6. Go back to the top part of the Options page and click Submit. Ignore the rest, OK? Just trust me on this. Unless, of course, you want to complicate things more or really do have the time and resource to tinker with them. And don’t worry about setting the Frequency of fetching the posts, because you’ve already done so when you set up your cron service, remember?
7. Since this is a new registration, you may opt to manually fetch the feed by clicking on the fetch it now link.

… and now you have a full-fledged WordPress-powered blog aggregator!

Coming up next: Spicing up your blog aggregator. Stay tuned.

As mentioned in the previous in Part 2, you will need to install another important plugin before your WordPress blog aggregator is ready for action.

Simply put, the contact form plugin will allow visitors to your site to register their blogs for inclusion into your blog aggregator. There’s nothing wrong with asking them to pop you an e-mail, but contact forms make it more convenient for registrants and looks more professional, and you do want your site to look professional, don’t you?

You can install basically any type of contact form plugin that are available for WordPress. My recommendation, though, is to select one that not only allows you to receive an e-mailed notification of a new registration, but also has the ability to store those submissions into a database which you can refer to later via your WordPress dashboard.

My choice of WordPress contact form plugin is MM Forms, developed by Motionmill. I like the fact that not only does this plugin allow for creation of multiple forms, storing of submissions into a database and sending off e-mail notifications, but it is also AJAXed (thus avoiding having your site being reloaded) and provides CAPTCHA verification to lower spam submissions. MM Forms automatically stores the originating IP of the person submitting, which is useful if you have the inclination of blocking people off your site based on their IP addresses.

Again, the way to install a contact form plugin is the same with WP-O-Matic as well as any other WordPress plugins. As a recap, you install plugins by going to the Plugins menu and clicking on Add New. The you do a plugin search for MM Forms or use the keywords “contact form” to get the list of contact form plugins available. Click the Install link of your choice plugin, and you’re done. Again, everything should be smooth sailing if you use a reliable web hosting service such as WPWebHost (promo code WEBGRRRL30 gets you 30% off the actual price).

STEP 3: SET UP YOUR CONTACT FORM

There are at least three important information that you need to capture for your blog aggregator to make any sense:

1. Name of submitter/blog: It is up to you whether you want the author of the posts you’re grabbing from be the name of an actual person, or the name of the blog where the posts come from. In any case, this will be displayed as the Author of the post. I personally prefer using an actual person’s name due to the fact that submitters to my blog aggregator are allowed to submit as many blogs as they want, and I’ll just group them under one author. You will see my logic in the next few installments of this how-to.

2. E-mail address: You’ll need this for housekeeping reasons, e.g. sending confirmation e-mails, replying them in case their feeds don’t work, etc. And, actually, this is a must so that you can create their accounts. I know. What accounts? Confusing. But I’ll touch on that one too, later. Trust me.

3. Feed address: Geeks like me call it your RSS address, or ATOM address. Po-TAY-toe, Po-TAH-toe, it basically does the same thing – it is the location of a structured text file, called XML, which strips your web site naked leaving you with just the content. It’s like stripping off the dressing or sauce off, and leaving you with just the basket of fried chicken wings, and yet they still taste good, like chicken. You need to capture this information in order to grab their feeds into your aggregator. Duh.

You can request for any other information you want to capture in the form, other than the three things mentioned above. My advice is to keep your form simple and stick to just those three. Unless you have a phishing side of you that just couldn’t resist requesting people into submitting their usernames and passwords to you. I dunno. Your funeral.

Coming up next: Details on how I set up both WP-O-Matic and MM Forms to work for my blog aggregator.

Stay tuned.

The blog aggregator I manage, Giuk.net, focuses on grabbing information from blogs whose owners are geographically related to one another, and the main purpose of Giuk.net is to bring together these content as a form of social networking between those blog owners and users of the aggregator, without having to subscribe to each and every RSS feed or having to put effort to discover new blogs of such. You should have a similar idea on how your content can be used and by whom.

Now, on with the show. Brace yourself, because this is going to be one long post (more so due to my ramblings).

I’m assuming you know what WordPress is and how to set up. If you don’t, you can do a Google search for “how to set up WordPress” tutorials. This site is, after all, called Blogging Fu, a place where you take blogging to a whole new level. So no offense, but don’t expect too much newbie tutorials here.

(Update: This version of WordPress is the self-hosted version that you can freely download from WordPress.org, not the WordPress.com blog hosting service. No, you can’t create your blog aggregator at WordPress.com, no matter how much you beg for it.)

I’m also assuming that you have a web hosting account that can support WordPress. The optimum server setup should basically be Linux + Apache + PHP + MySQL + PHPMyAdmin. From there, you can run the 3-step WordPress setup (or use Fantastico if you have one in your hosting account) before your blog aggregator installation starts. Yeah, do a Google search on this too if you’re not sure.

(Shameless promo plug: Need a reliable WordPress hosting service? Go with WPWebHost. They’ll guarantee your WordPress site will run as smooth as silk on their servers. Take it from me, I absolutely LOVE their fast support! Use the coupon code WEBGRRRL30 when you register to get yourself a 30 percent discount!)

Once your WordPress is in place, you’re ready for this very important part.

STEP ONE: INSTALL WP-O-MATIC

I literally had someone I was helping online one sunny day, exclaimed “the hell??!!” to me via IM.

So, what the hell is WP-O-Matic?

Simply put, WP-O-Matic is a free WordPress plugin that pulls information out of a web site’s feed and adds it into your site as individual posts.

HELL YEAH!!

If nothing else, this would be the only plugin you need to add into WordPress for it to run as a blog aggregator (but there will be more, I promise).

If you’re running WordPress 2.8 or better, you can automatically install this plugin by going to the Plugins menu and clicking on Add New. The you do a search for the WP-O-Matic plugin and click the Install link. Once you have it installed and activated, you will need to go through a slightly lengthy (but clearly explained step-by-step) process of initially setting up the plugin.

This is where you should be concerned about what type of services your web hosting provider provides. Having a blog aggregator powered by WordPress would mean that you should have a function within your web hosting setting that can run a web server service called cron. Cron is a built-in service within a web server that can be used to automated the running of web scripts or commands within a specific time period you set, such as every 15th of the month, or every 30 minutes, or every Monday. What’s important here is for you to decide the frequency for your blog aggregator to automatically fetch the content of your registered users.

One important note: Although built into web servers (specifically ones running Apache), not all types of web hosting providers allows a cron service to run by their clients, or they block it altogether. They have their reasons, so go ask them why Basically, though, 99% of cheap or free web hosting providers will not have this option up. Luckily, my favourite web hosting provider, WPWebHost, specializes in WordPress hosting and has this option enabled (if you’re interested, you can sign up with them now and get a 30% discount off their regular price with coupon code WEBGRRRL30).

Coming up next: installing another important plugin to your WordPress blog aggregator, and step-by-step guide on adding content.

Stay tuned.

Okay, I can already imagine some of you going “duh! of course it is”. However, humour me for a minute and let me explain this to you in simple terms, for the benefit of those who really don’t know what a blog aggregator means.

Blog = a web log, or a chronology of news called posts, which are usually snippets of information with hyperlinks pointing to the original article or news.

Aggregator = to combine into a whole, quoting directly from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Therefore, blog aggregator = a collection of posts from web logs combined into one single site, i.e. another blog.

Why would you need a blog aggregator? Well, blog aggregators are used for numerous reasons, mainly to gather posts from the blogosphere concerning a specific topic, or blogs sharing the same theme. Do a Google search for the term “blog aggregrator” and you will see a myriad of aggregators, covering topics from music to education, from general RSS feeds to geographically-focused topics.

I currently run a blog aggregator called Giuk.net, which aggregates blog posts created by Sabahans (i.e. those who are from Sabah, a state in Malaysia’s North Borneo… you know, where the 1st season of Survivor was done). As an administrator of the site, here’s how I maintain the blog aggregator:

1) An interested blogger fills up the registration form online at the site. An automatic e-mail is sent to me.

2) I verify the information and any other requirements for the site to be eligible for registration (mainly the compulsory backlink to Giuk.net and some proof that he/she is really a Sabahan).

3) I enter their RSS or ATOM feed address into Giuk.net’s administration dashboard (which is really a WordPress dashboard).

4) The blog aggregator periodically crawls (i.e. visits and checks) the list of feeds in the aggregator and adds new posts into Giuk.net.

Here’s the thing about my blog aggregator –  not only do I have to do just steps 2 and 3 manually, but I also did the initial setup of the aggregator within just half an hour! It’s that easy!

Wondering how I did it? Make sure to tune in to my next Blog Aggregator how-to installment, where I’ll lead you step-by-step on how I did it with WordPress.