Post to WordPress

Terry S asked, “How do I post to WordPress when I’m on the road? I need an easy way to post to WordPress from my Blackberry when I’m on the road. Can you help?”

There are many ways to post to WordPress, but I found you the perfect WordPress plugin for posting through your Blackberry. WordPress has a built in tool for posting to your WordPress account, but it is unsecure. I’ll tell you how to use it and then introduce a secure way to post to WordPress.

WordPress Post Via E-Mail Tool

This is a great tool except that if someone figures out your email, they can post to your WordPress site as well. If you choose to use it, you would need to follow these steps:

• Click on Settings in your left side bar in WordPress
• Click on the Writing link in the left sidebar
• Scroll down till you see the title Post via e-mail
• Create a random email address as it states in the description Ex. 38ZMSwbI@newthinktank.com
• Enter your Mail Server, Port, Login Name, Password and Default Category you wish to associate with these posts

Now every time you send an email to this address, it will post directly to your WordPress site. Again, if someone gets this address, they can post to your WordPress account as well.

Post to WordPress Securely

There is a plugin that will allow you to post to WordPress securely. It’s called Postie. Postie will only except posts that come from specific email addresses. This makes it much more secure. Here is how you’d install Postie:

• Login to your WordPress account
• Click on Plugins in your left sidebar
• Click on Add New
• Search for Postie
• Click on the Install Now link that is displayed
• Click on OK, when you see the popup labeled, Are you sure you want to install this plugin?
• Click Activate Plugin, once Postie is installed
• Click on the link labeled, enter your email settings for it to work

How to Set Up Postie

• Set up an email account, that you’ll only use to post to WordPress
• Enter your port number for your web server. It’s probably 110
• Enter your mail server address. You can get this from your web hosting company
• Enter your userid
• Enter your password
• Define how often your WordPress system will check for a new email
• Let the option labeled, Delete email after posting, set to yes
• Click the Save Changes button
• Click the Test Config button
• Scroll down the page that opens and check that you see the line, Connect to Mail Host Yes
• If there is a Yes, then everything is set up

Securing Postie

• Click on the User tab, in the Postie Plugin page
• Make sure, Allow Anyone To Post Via Email, is marked as No
• In the box next to the words, Authorized Addresses, type in the email address you will be using
• Click save changes

Setting Up Postie Message Defaults

By clicking on the Message tab, you can define the default:

• Categories
• Tags
• Title
• Whether to allow HTML, in the message
• Many other options

Inserting Images with Postie

You can also define how images are handled. Click on the Image tab to define:

• Whether to automatically insert image gallery
• Whether to post images at the end of your post. I set this to no
• I use the WordPress default for the template
• I leave every other setting here, set to the default

Inserting Video and Audio

You can also insert any video and audio, that is attached. I use the medium_widescreen option for displaying video. If you choose simple_link, only a link to the video would be displayed. These options are totally up to you.

Defining Attachments

You can also attach files such as:

• Word
• Powerpoint
• Excel
• Pdf’s

If you click the Attachments tab, you can define what the icon’s will look like that link to these files.

Further Help with Postie

If you click the Help tab, you’ll find step by step directions on other ways to post to WordPress, with Postie.

Another Way to Post to WordPress

You can also automate your WordPress posting using a tool called WP-o-Matic. I wrote an article on it, Make Money Online : Automating WordPress Posting

Also you can copy articles from one site to yours using a tool called Press This. It can be found under tools, in your WordPress left side bar. Here is an article on Press This, Posting Articles with Press This.

That’s All Folks

I hope you enjoy this plugin. It provides a secure way to post to WordPress. If you have any questions or comments leave them below. If you want your specific question answered in a future article leave it below as well!

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