Professional WordPress: Design and Development, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11

Content Aggregation

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Getting your content noticed
• Importing various sources into your WordPress site
• Using WordPress to cache remote content
• Understanding different advertising methods to monetize your website

When we began writing this book three years ago, “content aggregation” was viewed as a set of mechanisms to keep your WordPress site updated with information scattered across a rapidly growing number of social networks, and to feed WordPress content updates into those same networks. Sometimes WordPress was the source, sometimes the destination, but the focus was on moving content around — and in so doing, a bit of advice was overlooked in Chapter 1, namely, that sometimes context is as important as the actual content. “Content aggregation” is about how and where you want to direct your audience, and for what purposes.

A brief look at what’s changed between editions sets the context for this: Facebook has reached close to a billion users. Twitter sends hashtags in trending motion, and most large content sites have vanity URL shorteners to supplant bit.ly. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are the somewhat lopsided three legs of search.

There’s one invariant over time: your WordPress site represents the sum total of your expertise, personal brand, curated content, and design. It is the thing you put in a registration form field labeled “Personal Website” or “Business Website,” and that distinction may help shape the way you manage content aggregation. ...