I actually have an autoblog that pulls from some friends' sites with their permission. The intent with the site was to have staff writers but I got busy and wanted to get some traffic to the site so I set it up on auto. To avoid Google's duplication issues I only show an excerpt of each post and then link back to the original blog. Great for the bloggers. Not so good if you want to build traffic on your own site. I never wanted it to be a permanent autoblog and I will eventually change it to original posts and make it a challenger blog when I finish the degree I'm working on.

Having said all that, the site has been live for a year and has a PR of 0 and Alexa of 9 million. Maria is absolutely right. Autoblogging doesn't work well because people connect with the personal side of things. Autoblogging is just too, well, automated.

That's interesting. Matt. Autoblogging sounds like it works well for other bloggers, but is not so great for building traffic to your own site. Thank you for sharing.

Having said all that, the site has been live for a year and has a PR of 0 and Alexa of 9 million. Maria is absolutely right. Autoblogging doesn't work well because people connect with the personal side of things. Autoblogging is just too, well, automated.

Glencap said:

Michelle (Making Sense of Cents) said:

I must be dumb, but what exactly is autoblogging?

Autoblogging is an automated blogging system. instead of writing the content and posting it yourself, you can automate the content from other blogs and link them your blogs. If you use Wordpress, you can install the plugin, and content from another blog can automatically be posted to your blog. That the best explanation that I can give. Maybe someone else can explain it better. It sounded unethical when I first heard about it, but needed to know more about it so that I could really understand its worth. And, now I know for sure that it's really not worth it.

Oh ok thanks for the explanation!

My pleasure, Michelle.

Thanks for starting this thread Glencap; I think many people--including myself--learned a new thing.

It's my pleasure. I learned something new myself, and I appreciate your kind feedback.

Michelle (Making Sense of Cents) said:

I must be dumb, but what exactly is autoblogging?

Autoblogging is an automated blogging system. instead of writing the content and posting it yourself, you can automate the content from other blogs and link them your blogs. If you use Wordpress, you can install the plugin, and content from another blog can automatically be posted to your blog. That the best explanation that I can give. Maybe someone else can explain it better. It sounded unethical when I first heard about it, but needed to know more about it so that I could really understand its worth. And, now I know for sure that it's really not worth it.

Oh ok thanks for the explanation!

Autoblogging is a 'contradiction in terms' I think. I don't find having content scheduled far in advance very helpful either - ( think people know that you are 'not there' and get bored. Blogging is fun when it is an almost real time signal sending (well, this is what I think anyway).

 

Maria

That's a good point, Maria.

I must be dumb, but what exactly is autoblogging?

Autoblogging is an automated blogging system. instead of writing the content and posting it yourself, you can automate the content from other blogs and link them your blogs. If you use Wordpress, you can install the plugin, and content from another blog can automatically be posted to your blog. That the best explanation that I can give. Maybe someone else can explain it better. It sounded unethical when I first heard about it, but needed to know more about it so that I could really understand its worth. And, now I know for sure that it's really not worth it.

Maria

As someone whose content has been stolen and "spun" through autoblogging plugins, I have to tell you that I think it's a HORRIBLE idea and very offensive. Autoblogging is stealing content, no matter how much some people defend it.

When someone steals my content, I report them to their hosting provider. Whether that results in any consequences, I don't know. But I hope it does.

BIG THUMBS DOWN on this one. Generate your own content - don't take it from others.

I'm sorry to hear about your stolen content from autoblogging. You've convinced me that it's not such a good idea after all. Thank you for sharing your experience.

It is a TERRIBLE idea if you want your blog to grow and care about your site.