How I Use The Caffeinated Content Plugin
Caffeinated Content is a great WordPress plugin for use along with your niche sites. I have been experimenting with it for several months now and just love it.
This plugin can pull content from Yahoo Answers, YouTube or Article site using the keywords you specify. This is awesome to have in your arsenal if you are having a writer's block.
I mainly use it for pulling content with Yahoo Answers. There are times I will pull in YouTube videos and possibly articles, but I mostly grab content from Y Answers.
I must stress to you that this is a very powerful plugin and like any other software, must be used responsibly if you want your site to remain indexed in the search engines. That being said, the following are my best practices for using it to pull content for my sites from Yahoo Answers.
Caffeinated Content Plugin
Caffeinated Content will pull in the questions and answers (if you choose to include the answers) along with an image.
Once you have it uploaded to your blog and have activated it, you are ready to begin using it. Simply click on the Write tab and you will see a new addition in the row of links which says - Caffeinated Content Management. This is what you will want to click on.
The first thing it asks for is the keywords for getting the content. I usually have the best luck with using only one word. Definitely no more than 3 words or it will not pull decent results.
The next section asks where you want to pull your content from. I choose Yahoo Answers.
If you have categories specified on your blog, the next section asks you which category you want these posts in.
I do not choose for it to automatically generate tags for my posts. I will go in and add these manually.
I usually leave the max questions to pull at 20-30. It is just easier for me to manage that way.
You have the choice to include the Answers which are the responses to the question. These end up being your comments if you leave them.
I do NOT auto approve the comments and posts. I prefer to check them all manually. The plugin may pull a question that does not fit with your blog. Likewise, the answers may not always be appropriate.
I choose not to leave a link to the comment author's names.
Next I choose a start date and end date. I usually start back as far as I can and then move forward to more recent times. I don't want to miss any questions or answers that might be relevant for my site.
I leave the Post Template and Comment Template at their default settings.
Once done with the settings, I click Go and the plugin goes out and very quickly grabs the content. Since I chose not to auto-approve anything, it all gets saved as Drafts that will be posted whenever you choose to publish them.
However, before publishing, I highly recommend going into each post that has been pulled in and cleaning it up. There is a link that comes at the end of the question. Delete it. Likewise, you will want to correct any spelling, grammar and capitalization mistakes. As well, if you do not like the image the plugin pulled with the post, then delete it as well and either add your own or leave it off.
Now is a good time to browse through the comments for the post so that you can add more content to the question as well as rewrite the comments and answer it yourself. If you are answering it yourself, delete the comments. As well, you will want to include any affiliate links or links to pages in your niche store in the post.
That is pretty much it except for logging in either every day or every few days and clicking Publish for a post or two. Though it may sound complicated from what I've said, it is actually very quick, simple and easy. One of the main things I love about the plugin is that it allows you to enter niches you know absolutely nothing about.
You can leave the content exactly as the plugin pulls it into your blog if you want. However, you stand to run a chance of getting penalized for duplicate content. If you take literally a minute to edit each question, you will have a truly unique site where people will come back time and again to see what's new.
This is a very simplified version of how I use the Caffeinated Content plugin. If you would like to see more methods for using it or wish to see tutorials for it, please let me know.
To those of you who have asked me how I use it, I hope this helped. Do not be afraid to ask if you have more specific questions.
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Virginia | Dec 5, 2008 | Reply
Another great post. Thank you so much. And I would love tutorials. Yes. Yes.
James Wheelock from Eagle Springs (7 comments.) | Dec 30, 2008 | Reply
This plugin sounds really cool. How user friendly is it for a brand new person that hardly knows where the power button is on a computer.
James Wheelocks last blog post..Humble Real Estate For Sale Between 300000 And 400000
Melissa | Jan 3, 2009 | Reply
In all honesty, if you are familiar with WordPress and how to activate a plugin, I feel it is extremely user friendly. Everything is pretty much self explanatory. There is also a video or two plus a small manual that comes along with it.
James from Discount Codes (3 comments.) | Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
Nice. Is the rewriting feature any good? Building an MFA site with a decent article rewriter in the backend is an ideal way to build a large number of content packed sites
Jamess last blog post..Dixons Cashback
Melissa | Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
Actually, it does not contain a rewriting feature. This is something I do by hand myself. It really only takes a minute or so per post.
James from Discount Codes (3 comments.) | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
Ok. About half way down the page it states the plugin can rewrite and translate content. I was wondering if the output was any good or if, in fact, it came out in Chinglish!
Jamess last blog post..Boden Sale
Melissa | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
Hmm… I see what you’re saying on the sales page now. It didn’t have that feature when I first bought it and apparently, I obviously didn’t know it had been added. I have the latest updated version so I’ll check it out and let you know.
Btw, and I certainly do not mean anything bad by it, but that comment cracked me up.
James Wheelock from Eagle Springs (7 comments.) | Jan 11, 2009 | Reply
Is there an update on how well the rewriting feature works?
James Wheelocks last blog post..Humble Carnival
Melissa | Jan 12, 2009 | Reply
I’m sorry, not yet. I expected to be able to test it over the last several days, but time has not allowed me to do so.
I will do that a little later today and get back with you.
Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy (2 comments.) | Jan 25, 2009 | Reply
Melissa..
Just wondering if there are any copyright, or legal issues with scraping Yahoo answers, or any other content that CC gathers for your Word Press Blog?
Thanks..
Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy
Melissa | Jan 26, 2009 | Reply
I am not sure regarding Yahoo Answers, but it is one of the reasons I do not leave the content as it is. I rewrite the title and the question then combine the answers to form a complete article. If you have read some of the questions and answers on there, then you know that this needs to be done. When you think about it, it is really no different than reading several different articles you find and creating your own article using bits and pieces of information from each. In other words, I use the data from Yahoo Answers to give me the foundation or idea for an article. Then I take that information and expand on it.
When it comes to the YouTube videos, I make sure I view each one to see that it is appropriate for the blog. If it is, then I take a few moments to write a paragraph or two telling what the video contains, or I will write a review of the video. Whichever is more appropriate.
For the articles that can be pulled, these are articles which are listed in an article directory and can be re-printed just as they are. They were meant for syndication by the authors, as long as the appropriate credit is given to the author. To help avoid duplicate content with articles, I write a brief intro before the article as well as a closing paragraph at the bottom of the post.
It takes more work this way, but in the end the content is much more unique. I do know of others who use all of the information CC pulls in just as it is and have had success with that method. So far none of them have gotten into trouble with legal or copyright issues. However, I do not believe those sites will have staying power in the search engines. Google and others are much smarter than we think.
I hope this helps and don’t hesitate to ask if you have further questions.
cristin (1 comments.) | Jan 28, 2009 | Reply
iam having a hard time getting cc to work in my blog. i am filling out my api code and all of that and i keep getting debug mode on in pink after i try to run it and i am getting frustrated. just wondering if you could help
Melissa | Feb 1, 2009 | Reply
Hi crisitn,
I am sorry for not getting to you sooner. I have been away. I would be glad to help you get CC going on your blog. If you would like, you can send me an email at: melissa @ melissaeaton.com (remove spaces) and I will be glad to take a look and see what the problem might be.
Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy (2 comments.) | Feb 8, 2009 | Reply
Melissa..
Thanks for your detailed explanation. I am in agreement with you about making the content unique.
I appreciate your explanation on how to do so with Yahoo answers, articles, and Youtube.
Warmest Regards..
Robert C - The Wholesale Products Guy
Melissa | Feb 9, 2009 | Reply
You’re welcome. Thanks so much for stopping by!
The Vegetarian (1 comments.) | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for taking the time to write this article.
I would like to give you all a bit of information that might make using this plugin easier:
Instead of manually going through each post to change the link to your own you can edit a file:
go to the folder which contains your plugin file (eg yourblog.com/wp-content/plugins/caffienated-content or something similar) and then go to the folder called links.
inside this folder there should be a file called links.txt.Either edit this to include your own links or delete the links that are there.
Another usefull file to edit is in the “templates” folder.Copy default.p.txt and default.c.txt ,rename them keeping the p or c(for posts or comments eg newtemplate.p.txt) .This will change how your posts look.
The Vegetarians last blog post..Hippy Gourmet at Vegetarian House Healthy Brown Rice Dish
Chris from Joyce Meyer Books (1 comments.) | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
Hi melissa! Thanks for introducing to me the Caffeinated Content Plugin. From the name itself, it sounds really like an interesting one.
I’m gonna give it a try. Thanks!
Chris
Melissa | Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
You’re welcome. Hope you it works out very well for you. Would love to hear how you like it.
linklinka.com (1 comments.) | Feb 20, 2009 | Reply
Is it worth the purchase price, I know of a few other methods of getting automated content with articles and such that don’t cost anything. Also how is it on the server end? I have heard that it’s not very friendly and hosts are not a big fan.
linklinka.coms last blog post..Finding The Best Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Melissa | Feb 22, 2009 | Reply
Let me say this, it was worth the purchase price to me. I will agree, there are now other avenues to get some of the same content free and if you have those available and it makes sense for you, then definitely use them. Honestly, it’s actually very light on my servers. Every account I have it on is on a shared server and I have never had any problems at all. Most of mine are on Hostgator.
Rob Omeria | Feb 23, 2009 | Reply
I get 500 errors when I run this. I can’t agree this is as wonderful as you believe it is.
Melissa | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
I’ve honestly never had that problem, but am so sorry to hear that it seems to be causing a problem for you. If you don’t mind my asking, can you tell me what host you are using?
Rob Omeria | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
Hi Melissa
I’m on Dreamhost.
Melissa | Feb 28, 2009 | Reply
Hmm….. I’ve never heard of anybody having trouble with CC on Dreamhost. Not quite sure what could be causing those kind of errors. You might open a support ticket at Kansieo and talk to him about it. I’m sure he will be able to help you. Again, am very sorry to hear that.
Rob Omeria | Feb 28, 2009 | Reply
Thank you. For the record I don’t think it’s dreamhost either but I found a better solution that’s working for me. I’ve already lost confidence in Kansieo products.
Melissa | Mar 1, 2009 | Reply
Hi Rob,
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you but so glad you found a solution. Would love to hear how it all works out for you. Thanks.