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How To

What happens to all of the Images found by MyCurator?

You may find that your  Media library is filling up with images as MyCurator finds articles for your content curation.  MyCurator not only pulls in the full text of an article, it also collects the images found in the article.

MyCurator only stores one image per article in your media library, usually the first image it finds. All of the other images you see in an article are just links, they aren’t stored in the media library. Still, that may be a lot of images stored if you get a lot of training posts per day.

Fortunately, MyCurator always deletes images for any Training Posts that you do not make into a live WordPress post. Training Posts are automatically deleted after 7 days (you can change this in the Options Admin tab) along with the stored image. So while you may see a lot of images in your media library, it doesn’t grow forever, ending at about your average amount of Training Posts per week.

If you would like, you can turn off image capture by clearing both of the Image capture options in the Basic tab of the Options menu item.

Categories
MyCurator

MyCurator Version 2.1.4

The new version of the MyCurator content curation software for WordPress adds some key new features.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed, articles are getting published in multiple places all around the web.  We’ve added a new filter to remove articles with duplicate titles within the same Topic.  This will catch duplicates that show up on different websites or with slightly different URL’s but are really the same article.  The new option is in the Curation tab and is named “Remove Duplicate Titles Within Same Topic”.  The option should be checked after the update is installed, but you can clear it if you feel you may be missing some content that happens to have the same title.

In rare cases, the memory requirement to check titles across all training posts may cause the background process to stop.  This should only happen if you have 1000’s of Training Posts and your host only allocates a small amount of memory to your site.  You can clear this option if this is the case.

The second major addition to this release is the ability to add a start and end date to your Topics.  If you have a business or pro plan, you can now add Topics and schedule when they will be active.  This allows you to selectively generate content for specific categories.  Other minor fixes include removing the old featured image from your media library when you use the click-copy feature to add a new featured image, as well as some cleanup of PHP warnings that have caused some problems for clients that run their site with debug on.

Categories
MyCurator

New MyCurator Cloud Process

 

We have updated the cloud process to work more efficiently and to handle more requests from clients.  The new version will only work with MyCurator version 2.0 or newer.  If you are still using an older version of MyCurator, then you will need to upgrade your plugin to access the cloud services.  No changes need to be made to your API Key or any other account information.

 

Categories
Content Curation

Build a Process to Get More Ideas for Great Content

This is an excellent article on a specific process to generate ideas  and content on a regular basis.  While oriented towards finding new ideas and writing posts, I think many of the steps work great for content curation too.  Building lists of ideas, gathering content and then regularly posting is the essence of a sound content marketing process.

We are constantly inspired by the amazing work of others, and we owe a lot to the deep thinking and amazing resources that are readily available within the industry.

“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” – W. Somerset Maugham

This quote about writing and inspiration could work just as easily for idea curating and inspiration. We’ve found that inspiration strikes because we are consistent in our methods for finding it. We’ve erected the lightning rod. Now we wait for lightning.

Categories
Content Curation

Content Marketing Plugins

This is a great post highlighting 5 great plugins that give you a complete content marketing post.  Of course MyCurator is used for content curation, but creating an editorial calendar, distributing posts to your social media netowrk and highlighting related articles and links on your blog are all key components of an integrated approach.  I’ve used most of these plugins and am going to be checking out CoSchedule as it looks like a nice tool for scheduling social media posts.  Thanks to the folks at Kinsta.com for the article!

See the Article at Kinsta.com

Categories
Content Curation

Your First Decision: Be a News Aggregator or a Content Curator?

This article highlights a choice you need to make early – do you just aggregate news or do you curate content?  As the author points out, just aggregating news for an audience does work for some niches.  It can also work if you set out to build an aggregation site from day 1 and brand it that way consistently.  Trying to be Techmeme probably won’t work, but working in a well defined niche that you promote and market consistently, can be successful.

Content curation is probably the best way to go for most of us though.  Providing value through selectivity, filtering and your own comments is a compliment to your blog or site.  This author also reviews the key points of curation.

MyCurator is the best WordPress plugin for either path.  Its range of features allows you to do straight aggregation or focus on curation.

With sharing information, there are two paths to take – you can be a news aggregator or you can curate content. The key message here is you have to be consistent – no waffling between being a news aggregrator and a content curator. Pick one.

There are some outlets, like member associations, nonprofits and those that specifically brand themselves as such, where news aggregation works. For the rest of us, content curation is the better path.

Categories
Content Curation

6 Keys to Efficient Content Curation

A good introductory article to content curation.  Creating an efficient process is key to making it repeatable and consistent.  Using MyCurator rather than bookmarks and other tools makes for the most efficient process for your WordPress blog.  MyCurator provides all of the techniques and processes mentioned by the author in one complete package for your WordPress site.

Think about your friend who always has the best book or music recommendations. You trust she knows what you’d like, so you seek her out for advice. And when she has something to say, you listen.

What do you get out of it?

We’ve already mentioned that a reputation for sharing quality, relevant content can earn you trust among your audience of prospects.

It can also help you maintain a steady blog and social media presence without forcing you to write tons of new stuff every week.

Flickr Creative Commons image courtesy of Patrick Gage Kelley.

Categories
Content Curation

Real-Time Content Curation Boosts Digital PR & SEO

It should come as no surprise that Google loves content, especially hyper-fresh content. Over the past two years or so, Google has increasingly displayed this kind of content in its search results. Of course, it can be difficult to consistently publish a fresh stream of content that satisfies both users and search engines. One great solution is to curate real-time content as it pertains to your industry and the goods and services you offer. 

How Real-Time Curation Works and Digital PR Benefits

Let’s say you are the Internet content strategist at a restaurant with mango items on the menu. In the last few days, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered that a sample of Pacific Organic Produce organic mangos was contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Mangoes sold in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Jersey since mid-April may be contaminated.

As the restaurant’s online content strategist, you should curate from multiple, trusted sources about this important news item (as it unfolds) that your readers likely want to learn more about. Both Food Safety News and Tech Times, for instance, have written about the incident. It’s quite likely that both sources have some information overlap as well as some key differences. A talented and seasoned wordsmith can effectively combine the most important points from several credible sources to present an objective story to readers.

Did the restaurant use those mangoes in its dishes since mid-April? Perhaps the restaurant used different mangoes than the Pacific Organic Produce organic ones that were impacted. By presenting an objective presentation of the facts and this useful editorial commentary, the restaurant is ultimately helping and satisfying its audience. 

The SEO Benefits of Real-Time Curation

As mentioned, Google does have an obsession with fresh content created around the trending topics of the day, as it’s likely that searchers are concerned about these matters. 

What’s more is that a recent Bruce Clay case study on curation revealed that a content piece that presents objective information from expert sources —and includes  outbound links to these source pages —along with editorialized commentary,  can rank higher in search for relevant queries. 

The inclusion of outbound links is very important, as authorities are generally understood to link to fellow authorities. This practice indicates that the content strategist or Webmaster understands what an authoritative source on the Web is and acknowledges this by linking out.

In addition to just that one piece of content performing well in search results, the entire site benefits with this type of content. The combination of authoritative language on timely topics, outbound links to highly reputable sites, and editorialized commentary on specific topics builds genuine thought leadership that translates to higher rankings, greater search visibility, and trust earned.

Google’s recent Hummingbird update enables Google to better process conversational search questions. Reading between the lines—it means that search marketers should also become more conversational in content pieces.

By becoming effective publishers and storytellers, brands can invigorate their digital PR and SEO campaigns.

Guest Post by Rish Tanna at Seasoned Wordsmith

Categories
MyCurator

MyCurator Update for WordPress 3.9

MyCurator has been updated to Version 2.1.3 for compatibility with WordPress 3.9.  The only change was to make some formatting changes to the Image Pop up when you click on an image within the Saved Page meta box while editing a Draft or Published post.  If you encounter any other issues with WordPress 3.9 and MyCurator, please contact us.

Categories
Content Curation

Reach a Larger Audience with your Content Curation Using Bookmarking Sites

Generating content for your site is just the first step in building traffic with Content Curation.  You know you need to also broadcast to social media that you have new content, whether it is curated or not.  This article also makes a great case to add some bookmarking sites to your outreach program.