You Got To Love That Wordpress Timestamp
Right now, as you’re reading this, I’m about to land back in Vancouver. I have set this post to go live at 8:00PM PST on Sunday night using the Wordpress Timestamp feature. I first wrote about the Timestamp back in March but I haven’t truly experience how great a feature it is until I went traveling to Montreal and Quebec City.
The Wordpress Timestamp allows you to set a time in the future for post to go live on the blog. I had a whole bunch of posts Timestamped and ready to go live at different times of the day and throughout the week. This help to maintain a high level of posts on the blog while I was checking some great food. A non-updated blog is a dead blog. Readers expect your blog to be updated, even if you go on vacation. If you can’t get enough guest bloggers to take over for you, then you’re next best bet is to use the Timestamp.
I’ve been using the Timestamp since discovering it and now very few of my posts are truly “live” postings. I normally keep a backlog of three to four posts in Timestamp to keep a constant flow of content. However, for my trip to Toronto, I had over a dozen posts timestamped and ready to go. If you never used the Timestamp feature in Worpdress, I highly recommend it. I will be making great use of the Timestamp again in June when I go to Taipei.
- Posted in The Net, Wordpress
- 43 comments what's your take?
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Is the smart ping pluging still needed?
Reply to this commentThat is a very good tip for Wordpress users. I personally use that feature often, because sometimes you write something about 3-4 post during a day and sometimes it may take days to write anything. By timestamping posts I am able to keep somehow constant feed of my post.
Reply to this commenti agree. it’s important not to post all 3 or 4 written posts in one day and not post for another week — it helps you space out your posts. i love the time stamp, and even wrote about it too… it can be such a time-saver, and it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Reply to this commentIt depends on how much people frequent the site and how serious you are in making money, I think. Big blogs like John’s, for instance, thrive on frequent multiple DAILY blogs. Sponsors/ads and readers alike rely on these blogs to come up with relevant content and ultimately generate traffic. Meanwhile, timestamp makes it easier by deferring your stocked-up posts; it ensures that you DO have material when you need some.
Reply to this commentGood advice. This is particularly important to those of use who blog a continent or two away from our primary readers. I live in the Philippines and the vast majority of my readers are US and Canadian. If you check your server logs (and you should) you’ll see that most visitors come during day and early evening hours where they live … which is often middle of the night for me … so if I timestamp a blog post for say 8 am in Eastern time and one for 5 pm Pacific, I have fresh content for almost all my active “reader” day.
@ James and others concerned with “time of ping”. WordPress “pings” when a post is uploaded not when it goes live so yes, you do need one of the several “ping control” style plug ins if the time of day the ping goe sout is important to you.
Reply to this commentThanks, I was wondering if they fixed it with the later versions. Any idea how the smart ping works with Live Writer?
Reply to this commentIt doesn’t really make sense that they wouldn’t ping when the post goes live. You shouldn’t have to have a plugin to do that.
Reply to this commentI didn’t even know this feature existed lol.
Will be using it in the near future for sure.
Thanks John
Dylan
Reply to this commentAlways saw it but never looked into what it did. I thought it would change the post date and time, not delay until that date.
Reply to this commentYes, the timestamp is great feature. I was in Vegas 2 weeks ago while my posts were being posted every couple hours. Anyways, cheers! MGD right now but…
Reply to this commentYeah, advance posting is awesome. I wrote my own simple blog in PHP a few months ago and added the same feature. You can draft it up and have it go live whenever you want.
I have mine set to actually generate the RSS Feed with the updated posting only after the posting goes live as well.
Reply to this commentYou can change the time of the post in blogger to be in the future as well but unfortunately it still put the post on the front page rather than waiting. I would use it all the time if it worked like the wordpress version.
Reply to this commentI love the timestamp feature, lets me post in my sleep!
Reply to this commentI second this one. I’m new to blogging and this feature doesn’t get as much attention as it should.
Reply to this commentI’ve got four years of posts written and set to be slowly released into the blogosphere.
Reply to this commentFour years — wow, that is a lot of posts alright. Timestamp would have to work overtime for you, Kumiko. LOL good evil tactics, I like it.
Reply to this commentmhmm there’s a pluggin for that? i usually use draft, i use draft for one month
Reply to this commenti’ll install it in my web couple of week from now.
it’s not a plugin. before you publish your post, just make sure to edit the time stamp for a future time. like if you want to post for tomorrow, just change the date from April 23 to April 24. it’ll show that it’s “published” in your dashboard, but it won’t actually post until the exact date and time you choose. this way you can line up as many posts as you want and control exactly when they’ll go live.
Reply to this commentThis is absolutely good to know, John; thanks for linking back to that March post as well.
Reply to this commentIt’s not a plugin, its built in! I started using ever since the last time you mentioned it and it’s been awesome, as i tend to write several posts at a time and before I had to save them as drafts and publish them periodically. Great advice!
Reply to this commentYour June trip to Taipei…is it for work or do you have family there as well? I’ve been meaning to take a vacation sometime in the summer, too; somewhere in Asia or Micronesia — can’t wait.
Reply to this commentIt’s for Computex, which is really just one big party.
Reply to this commentOooh, another Computex exhibit…bring forth the toys and gadgets!
Reply to this commentPerfect timing, as I’m planning a bunch of hiking this summer!
Reply to this commentI’ve already put up a bunch of posts for the next one month to be posted at fixed intervals. At first I never really cared about that feature, now its like my lifeline.
Reply to this commentMost all of the posts I make now are timestamped for a future date, all after reading your article.
Makes blogging a bit easier for me since I have a lot of free time one day and then none for a few days.
Reply to this commentTimestamp seems good, not for the blogger users
Reply to this commentWhy not?
Reply to this commentIt’s quite beneficial to bloggers, actually — John and a bunch of the commentators are living proof that Timestamp does work.
Reply to this commentShe means it’s not for blogger.com users I think.
Reply to this commentFunny thing is I’ve been wondering if there was a feature like this. I’ve just been too lazy to search for it … and was going to when I went on vacation.
Once again John comes through….
Reply to this commentHe reads minds, this one LOL. Perfect timing for a lot of us actually; thanks, John!
Reply to this commentDoes it still post to your feed as soon as you hit publish though? I thought I read somewhere that that was a problem with using the timestamp feature.
Reply to this commentNo, it waits until the time stamped, then posts.
Reply to this commentAlso, I use feedburner and it doesn’t post to my feed early.
Reply to this commentI’m a big fan of loading up blogs with several days or even weeks of posts. It would not be fun to have to write posts every single day.
I use a plugin that came with the top 10 wordpress ticks. it sounds like you don’t even need the plugin. the timestamp feature will automotically post as the specified time. that’s good to know.
Reply to this commentMy friend was telling me about the timestamp feature its actually amazing little tool. i should try it more often.
Reply to this commentI use it all the time. It’s awesome!
Reply to this commentTimestamp is *very* useful. Since my brother clued me onto it, I haven’t gone a day without posting. Sweet!
Reply to this commentI’ve never used it but will definitely start now!
Reply to this commentHope there is a tool like this for drupal!, I think is great, gives you the option to have at least a day no being in front of computer
Reply to this commentI use it more than ever now…since I try and update my site 3-4 times a day.
Reply to this commentI’ve been looking for this exact feature! Thanks man!
-Sam from MarketMatador.com
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