How to Enable Front-End Guest Post Submissions in WordPress

Running a WordPress blog can be time-consuming – especially if youre doing it all on your own. Aside from your many managerial tasks, you also need to  come up with new ideas and publish posts consistently. If youre feeling overwhelmed, enabling guest post submissions in WordPress can be just the thing you need to give your blog a boost.In addition to providing you with more content that you can use on your site, guest posts are an excellent  way to increase engagement online. If you treat your contributors respectfully, they may continue submitting content over the long-term – which is ideal for you and your website.In this article, well explain what guest post submissions are, why they can help you, and how you can enable them on your WordPress website. Lets jump right in!Three awesome things you can do with  guest post submissionsA lot of popular WordPress blogs feature occasional content written by outside contributors. These are commonly referred to as guest posts, and it makes a lot of sense to take advantage of them if you have the chance. Lets discuss why.1. Grow your editorial calendarDepending on the size of your operation, it might make sense to schedule your posts in advance just to keep things in order.  In other words, you might need an editorial calendar.Scheduling your content in advance might seem unnecessary, but it can come in handy to coordinate the efforts of your contributors. Furthermore, it can help you fill in gaps if one of your own pieces  is running behind. Keeping the flow of content steady is crucial, particularly for growing blogs.And if you dont believe me, just look at Huffington Post, the biggest blog on the web. Its reported that they publish an astonishing 1600 to 2000 posts per day. This is an extreme example that posting frequency is key. Dont worry, though, you dont need to go near that number.(No. of posts published per day; chart by Visualizer Lite.)Enabling guest post submissions in WordPress i s one of the simplest ways to keep  your calendar full. The more content you receive, the further in advance youll be able to schedule posts, and the more backups youll have in case something goes wrong.2. Find new contributorsGuest submissions should always be welcome, but youll want to rely on regular contributors to shoulder the brunt of the work whenever possible. The more familiar writers are with the style and content of your site, the less micromanagement theyll need. That means you can spend more time focusing on the big picture instead.One of the best ways to grow your organizations roster is to look for talented voices among your guest contributors. Once youve located someone with potential, you can add them to your multi-author website. Its not often youll find a perfect fit, but it doesnt hurt to keep your eyes peeled!3. Foster a sense of community around your siteOne of the keys to a successful WordPress website is building a community around it. Making sure that your visitors know their opinions and voices are being heard is crucial to keeping them engaged.Furthermore, users who feel engaged will be more likely to give you useful feedback, which can help to improve your content in the future. One of the best ways to ensure that members of your community feel appreciated is to give them the option to contribute to your site as if they were part of the core team.Enabling guest post submissions in WordPress can help you do this. Of course, youll still need to vet all the content that makes it into your editorial calendar – at least for new contributors  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ but the effort is well worth it. Furthermore, setting up this feature isnt complicated at all. Lets talk about how to do it.How to enable front end guest post submissions in WordPress (in 2 steps)For this tutorial, well be using the Frontend Publishing plugin, since its the most straightforward tool  available. Frontend Publishing Author(s): Hassan AkhtarCurrent Version: 2.5. 2Last Updated: May 25, 2019front-end-publishing.2.5.2.zip 96%Ratings 58,831Downloads WP 3.6+Requires Once youve installed and activated the plugin, you can insert a guest post submission form on any part of your website using the following shortcode:[fep_submission_form]Before you do that, however, there are two important steps you should take.Step 1: Set up restrictions for your guest postsAfter installing the plugin, a new Frontend Publishing tab will appear on your WordPress dashboard. Clicking on it will send you to the plugins settings menu, where you can configure restrictions for your guest posts. This will enable you to weed out low-effort submissions without having to check each of them personally.Using this menu, you can set restrictions on the  minimum  and maximum word counts for the title and body of any submission, as well as for its author biography:Furthermore, you can limit the number of links that appear in the submitted content and authors biography. This can a be a good policy so users dont abuse the opportunity to link out to multiple  external sites.With that out of the way, lets move on to configuring permissions.Step 2: Configure the permissions for your contributorsAside from enabling you to receive guest post submissions in WordPress, the Frontend Publishing plugin can handle some basic permission settings. For example, you can make it so that specific user roles wont have to be manually checked before publication:Should you decide to promote some of your guest authors to more permanent contributor positions, these settings will enable them to publish content directly. This isnt a decision you should take lightly, so make sure to carefully vet any new contributors before giving them more permissions than necessary!Okay, with all that taken care of, you can now enjoy your new form for guest post submissions in WordPress. Again, all you do is use the [fep_submission_form] shortcode anywhere within any pages or posts content. Heres what it looks like for me:ConclusionGuest posts offer you a fantastic way to grow your editorial calendar, court new long-term contributors, and even foster a sense of community within your site. Wed go so far as to say theyre a slam dunk idea for any website that can attract submissions in the first place.Furthermore, WordPress makes it easy to set up guest post submissions using the Frontend Publishing plugin. All you need to do is configure some basic  rules for your submissions (to weed out low-effort posts) and set up permissions for your contributors.Do you have any questions about how to set up front end guest post submissions in WordPress? Let us know in the comments section below!