Written on November 12th, 2008 at 09:11 am by Darren Rowse
How to Manage a Multi-Author WordPress Blog
More and more blogs seem to be transitioning to multi-author set ups and as they do I’ve been asked increasingly for information on how to manage these types of blogs.
If you have a multi-author WordPress blog then you’ll want to check out a great post at Hongkiat – 35 Tips Tricks To Manage and Handle Multi-Author Blogs.
The post is packed full of useful tools and plugins that will help make the task of managing more than one author on a blog a lot easier – enjoy.
Tags: Blogging Tools, Editing, Multi Author Blogs, Plugins, wordpress
25 Responses to “How to Manage a Multi-Author WordPress Blog” - Add Yours
Derek Clark
November 12th, 2008 10:40 am
Thanks for the tips, I have a multi-author blog and sometimes working out who is posting when can be a hassle. Lots of good ideas in there.
Stuart Foster
November 12th, 2008 10:53 am
Thanks for pointing me towards Hongkiat’s post. I am trying to add more authors to my blog and this was a great starting point for me. Thanks again!
Matthew
November 12th, 2008 11:31 am
These posts cover some things I’ve been looking for for a few days! Thanks :).
Ganesh
November 12th, 2008 11:43 am
I have never had a multi-authored blog. It can be fun to work together with someone. Team work is much better.
Those were some really nice plugins. I plan on using them in the future.
Luke smith
November 12th, 2008 11:47 am
Excellent tips as usual.
My blog at http://www.2blogpoker.com is a Wordpress blog which i’ve been meaning to change to a multiauthor blog but never got round to it.
The problem with the multi author thing is your going to get a lot of spammy posts so you’ll spend alot of time moderating.
Kiri
November 12th, 2008 12:05 pm
Hopefully I’ll get there soon enough so this info could come in handy, actually it’ll be a good idea to get some foreward planning in place.
Brian James
November 12th, 2008 12:39 pm
Thanks for sharing Darren. I’m going to be testing out the To-Do plugin.
About 6 months ago I started my multi-author blog. I was the lone writer for the first few months, but since then we have grown to a team of 20 plus from around the world.
A couple issues I ran into were:
1.) Editing articles. I chose to have my authors/contributors submit articles for approval. Proved to be a wise choice since some articles needed editing and image/media formatting. However, I ended up spending all my time editing articles and lost time to write my own. I am currently in search for a co-editor.
2.) Posting frequency. There are days when I have a large influx of articles pending approval/editing and then there are days when no one submits a single article. While I stress at least one post per day, not everyone is able to meet the quota which is understandable.
3.) Communication. I provide all my contributors with their own email address (theirname@ronebreak.com). I send emails out with available stories/events/concerts to cover and keep everyone updated on the progress of the site. The results of this are 50/50. I’m looking into utilizing project management tool such as BaseCamp. Is there a wordpress plugin that can turn the publishing platform into a project management tool?
The experience in starting RoneBreak thus far has been both rewarding and stressful. I have been very excited with the progress made but am looking to expand and grow. Revenue from direct ad sales are in the near future. With that said, anyone interested in contributing and taking on a co-editor role? Ad sales role? Help wanted!
Dubber
November 12th, 2008 5:08 pm
I’m getting a site not found. Do we have to start talking about a ProBlogger effect? :)
Ryan McLean
November 12th, 2008 5:57 pm
One day I want to have multi authors on my blog. Kind of like how you don’t really write on digital photography school anymore. This means less work and more time with family and other projects. I would definately love this.
uwak
November 12th, 2008 8:07 pm
thanks daren …for sharing the trick….I already watch…great info
Pat
November 12th, 2008 8:31 pm
Great tip. I’m in the process of setting up a blog for my wife that will have multiple authors although not myself as it will be in German – I’ll just have to fix the problems :-)
Tom
November 12th, 2008 9:34 pm
This is a good topic, thanks for making this post.I´m thinking of getting guest bloggers as well.New insights on a blog is always welcomed.
Harish
November 12th, 2008 11:48 pm
I have one multi-authored blog.Its more beneficial of having a blog like that.Team work wins always .So Its so useful if you are maintaining such a blog
Kimber
November 13th, 2008 12:54 am
I organize one multi-author blog
(linked above).
Each author is assigned a day.
The biggest issue is…
there are dependable bloggers
and not-so-dependable bloggers.
I’ve taken my posts out of regular rotation
so I ‘fill in’ when a post is missed.
I also was semi-forced to go with blogger.com
as that is what the volunteer bloggers know.
Warung Digital
November 13th, 2008 1:01 am
thank you for showing me those points, I don’t have this type of blog, but i will have some months later, thank you
dev
November 13th, 2008 3:31 am
i a hogkiat reader, never thought problogger will read his blog and link this great post ^_^
Rahul
November 13th, 2008 5:35 am
Now this is quite amazing. Hongkiat being featured in problogger.net
Congrats to Honkiat. Btw, I also really like the post. Really helpful for multi-author blogs like ours too.
Cheers.
JB
November 13th, 2008 6:27 am
Thanks for the link Darren. Hopefully my blog will one day be large enough to actually have more than just one author, ha.
Benito
November 13th, 2008 9:28 am
Thank you very much for the link Darren. I really need to look into this.
BloggerTests
November 13th, 2008 11:43 am
The biggest problem I had when managing multiple authors was assigning articles to specific authors.
- when I picked an author, the author would not always get the work back in a timely manner, while someone else could’ve done it immediately
- when authors picked the work they wanted to do from an email that I mailed out, I would sometimes get duplicates when people responded at the same time
- assigning people to cover specific time/date looked promising, but many authors are not dependable and some are afraid of the commitment
to solve these issues, we had a script developed for a few hundred dollars that would allow the authors to log in, see what work is available in real time and pick what they want. Whatever they pick, immediately gets removed from the “Available” list prohibiting others from picking the same topic. This simple script has improved workflow tremendously.
Adam Singer
November 14th, 2008 6:14 am
I prefer single-author blogs…the consistency and voice are what makes them special.
Multi-author blogs are kinda just magazines 2.0…
pro blogger
November 14th, 2008 7:22 am
It may harm having the same blog on different sites listed on different authors. Search engine would still give credit to the earlier and might penalize the latter. But if they are pointing to the same site, I don’t want to make some risks trying that.
Alain Raynaud
November 14th, 2008 11:11 am
We are just starting a service to share revenue from Google AdSense among multiple writers of a blog.
The nice thing is that it’s not a plugin, our servers do the ad rotation for you, so there is nothing to install on your site, it works with Wordpress, Typepad, or any web editing software.
Check us out (fairbloggers.com)!
jennine
November 17th, 2008 8:43 pm
oh thank you for this! we’ve just expanded to three authors on my blog, and i really appreciate this!
:)
Buz
November 19th, 2008 1:29 pm
Thanks for the link….the world of WordPress is never ending!
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