From Del.icio.us to WordPress: How to automatically post daily links

Published on 11/15/2005 in Blogging, Hacks, Productivity and Web 2.0. Comments Tags: .

How to: Daily del.icio.us posting
UPDATED: Click to enlarge screenshot of del.icio.us’ new layout with numbers to show where to click first

Like most A-list bloggers, I like using this little trick to ensure I get get more daily posts on my blog. Instead of simply posting every cool link I find onto my blog (which would result in a ton of daily posts), I compile all my links using del.icio.us and through some dark magic, have my links automatically posted on my blog every night at 10.30pm (well, almost every night). Once you learn this tip, you’ll appear to blog frequently, which is a good thing if you’re lazy like me.

Affirming this, Steve Rubel unleashed his Ten Blogging Hacks today and mentioned this as Hack #2. I personally believe that this is the most important hack of all and if you have time for only one, let it be to “Automatically Post Your Daily del.icio.us Links”. Of all the hacks mentioned, this takes a one time effort to setup, but benefits you on the long run by giving you an additional post everyday. Since Steve mentioned it in passing and linked to instructions for TypePad users only, I thought I’d do WordPress users the favor…

How to get del.icio.us links posted on your WordPress blog everyday:

  1. Sign up or Login to your del.icio.us account
  2. Start bookmarking and tagging favorite web pages. I recommend using the “post to del.icio.us” bookmarklet on this page by dragging that bookmarklet directly onto your bookmark toolbar. The “post to del.icio.us” button allows you to post your current page to del.icio.us, and allows you to enter tags and a brief description of the link.
  3. In del.icio.us, click Settings and look under Blogging, then click on the link that says “daily blog posting”
  4. Click “add a new thingy” and some obscure form appears
  5. Enter the following into the form, and enter your relevant details in the [boxes]
    job_name : WordPress Daily Post (or any title you want)
    out_name : [Your WordPress Username]
    out_pass : [Your WordPress Password]
    out_url : http://[Your Blog URL]/xmlrpc.php
    out_time : 4 (the GMT that you want the post to happen. 0 = 8pm EST)
    out_blog_id : 1 (might not matter to WordPress)
    out_cat_id : 1 (Regardless, it’ll probably post to the default WordPress category)
  6. Hit “Submit Query” and you’re done!
  7. Simply wait for the magical moment when you links magically appear on your blog!

From now on, simply add bookmarks to del.icio.us everyday and you’ll have a decent post every night. Ultimately, you’ll turn your collection of del.icio.us bookmarks into something visibly useful on your blog. After all, your links and your blog both probably define who you are, so you should really harness this powerful synergy.

Hat tip to mspecht from the WordPress Support Forum.

UPDATE 1: If you’re wondering why my link posts look different, it’s because I’m using a more complex way of doing this. It involves Yet Another Daily Delicious (YADD) hack for WordPress and a Cron job every night. Don’t get me started…

UPDATE 2: I haven’t forgotten about Blogger.com (or Blogspot) users! I’ve posted specific instructions for you in the comments. Try it and let us know if you’re successful.

UPDATE 3: Now featured on SlackerManager.com under Habit Seven of The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users





  • Very nice trick! But is there any way to get it to work on Blogger? I've googled it but it seems like nobody's got it working yet...
  • haha, but you're suppose to blog!! lazzzzyyyy!
  • heather: Who are you? My mother? :P

    Hazyl: Found this blogspot tip via videoblogging.info. Try this and let me know if it works...

    Basically follow the instructions on my post but at the last step where you fill out the fields, enter the following:

    job_name
    Daily Delicious Post (or whatever you want)

    out_name
    Your Blogger username.

    out_pass
    Your Blogger password.

    out_url
    Your blogspot url

    out_time
    Hour in GMT that you want to have this post.

    out_blog_id
    Your Blogger blog ID. See how to find yours here

    out_cat_id
    This doesn’t work in Blogger. Put any number here.

    Click “Submit Query”. You should be setup to post daily to your blog.
  • Thanks, Kevin, i'd almost got it right... but do you know how to change wrong ones?
  • Chrish: Wrong ones... can you tell me which ones you're referring to?
  • Kevin, do you know if there's anyway to edit the "thingies" once you've saved them?
  • It should be at the same place you edited it at, which is at
    http://del.icio.us/settings/ [your delicious username] /daily
  • Thanks for the info, I've linked to it from my blog!
  • But del.icio.us have done the job yet : look in help

    http://del.icio.us/help/linkrolls
    and with CSS style, you have also...
    http://del.icio.us/doc/feeds/js/styling
  • Hmm,is this a new feature? I have mind working through as RSS feed. This looks great!
  • Nice :)

    Although I think my new Kiwi theme is doing a pretty decent job with del.icio.us. I guess the RSS subscribers will be kinda left out.
  • Thanks - I was looking for ages for this info - nothing on the del.icio.us site.
  • This wonderful tip is now part of the Absolutely Del.icio.us Tools Collection http://pchere.blogspot.com/2005/02/absolutely-d...
  • Thanks for pointing out this trick and YADD. My only problem so far is that while I can sling some mad tags, I just don't really tag enough stuff in one day to justify a daily link list. If there was a way to make one or the other of those things weekly, that would be awesome.

    - BC
  • Bryan: Yeah, it almost demands that you post a lot of links daily, around five a day. With the YADD hack you can: Simply set your cron job to weekly instead of daily!
  • The blogger tip in comment #3 doesn't work for me. I get a "405 Method Not Allowed" error in del.icio.us. Did anyone report success with this?
  • Mike: No one seems to have any success posting daily links onto Blogspot. Will keep a lookout.
  • My previous message got cut off. Basically every time there is a " the script inputs a \. It screws up everything, including external links. Why?
  • Kevin - It does work with Blogger, but you have to follow the instructions on videoblogging.info to the letter, as follows:

    job_name - anything

    out_name - Your Blogger username.

    out_pass - Your Blogger password.

    out_url - http://www.videoblogging.info/tools/translator/

    out_time - Hour to run (GMT)

    out_blog_id - Your Blogger blog ID.

    out_cat_id - Put any number here.

    Note the out_url entry - this takes your del.icio.us output, then posts it to your blogger account , using your ID, username, and password. I don't like to rely on a third party to process and post my daily bookmarks, but as long as the guy doesn't mind doing it, it'll work until blogger adds that functionality internally. But it DOES work - my links showed up on my blog tonight. Click on my name to go to my blog to see the entry.
  • Mike: Thanks for the successful follow-up report! :)
  • I've been using this method for daily posting since 9/9/04 (some 400+ entries now) and people frequently ask me how to do it. Now I have somewhere to send them - thanks!
  • persempre
    With blogg.de I'm getting :

    Fetched 1 items.
    metaWeblog.newPost fault was: Incorrect parameters passed to method: Wanted boolean, got int at param 5)
  • Neural_Overload
    I was wondering if you could be more specific with the gmt, for example, i live in gmt of -8 would i put 8 or would -8 work too?
  • Neural_Overload: Sounds like it should be GMT -8
  • Hey, thanks for the tip. Very nice!
  • I posted how I do this with blogger and rss via email. It's a little odd but it works. Here is a link to the how-to:
    http://techlifeblogged.blogspot.com/2005/10/how...
  • Brian
    Do you know of anyway to allow this to work with LiveJournal?
  • Thank you for the thorough instructions
  • BillyG: Since the del.icio.us system needs to post to a blog, not a static page, you'll either want to create another blog and make it look as a sub-page, or try your hand at tweaking some code to make a linkroll appear as you need on the page.
  • I found the trick very interesting and will apply it to my secondary blog, which is the behind-the-scene of the main blog. Thank you to share. I wait for this automatic posting, now !
  • Jonas
    Thanks for the great tutorial. How do I get this to work with Typo?
  • very genious!!!! i love this article dude.. it helps me a lot. Nice to see a seo guru like u. i hate to post blog everyday...bcoz of my english. nice post keep it up.
  • Thanks for the post Kevin. Very useful!
  • Tim
    I have searched my delicious right hand side of the page looking for "Experimenta" and I am not able to find it.

    What are you referring to? I am embarrassed because something tells me I am looking right at it and not seeing it.

    Thanks
  • Tim: Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've updated the tutorial with a screenshot showing the newer del.icio.us interface. While I was at it, I added some numbers to indicate where to click first and what to enter. Good luck! :)
  • tom
    Really good job. a good trick i wiil try now !
  • Any idea on how to change the headline for each day when it posts to your blog? Right now the default is "links for 2007-02-03" or whatever the date is... Is there a way to change the headline to just the date or if I want to call my links something other thank "links"?
  • You can make the daily blog posting work with Blogger using FeedBurner. Check my instructions on http://blog.virtualcrux.com/2007/02/how-to-enab...
  • having a hard time to make del.icio.us work properly on my site (www.voipscale.com). css problem?
  • Jack
    Grt way of posting links daily....is there any way out regarding editing a link..... hope to check back soon...till then have a review of these cards on father's day Free Father's Day ecards
  • I just started using this and it's great. Thanks for the detailed explanation on how to post del.icio.us bookmarks to a blog!
  • Anyone know if there is something similar for my diggs for the day?
  • Andrei
    Great article. Here is a hint. http://Yuxt.com let you import your delicious account and watch video continuously.
  • Andrei: That's a good find! I'm always on the lookout for online video services / mashups. :)
  • Jonson
    Doesn't this make your blog junk? So random. Unless all my bookmarks were spot on target.

    If I saw a blog that had this, I would not read the blog at all.

    Is it really important that you blog every day? Do search engines prioritize every day bloggers? I'm sure if you didn't blog for a few weeks then the search engines would return other sites with more recent posts above yours, but that just means search engines prioritize recent posts, it doesn't mean they prioritize quantity. I have no knowledge about any of that - that's just what makes sense to me. Am I wrong?

    Thanks,
    Jonson
  • nice one!!! can i add it also even not to a blog...?
  • […] theory.isthereason » From Del.icio.us to WordPress: How to automatically post daily links (tags: Automation Blogging_Hack Productivity) […]
  • Why didn't I think of that? Thanks for the idea!
  • Great tip, Kevin

    Is it possible to post links of specific tag only?

    Regards from Portugal.
    Lino Oliveira
  • Lino Oliveria: That's a great question. Not everything we bookmark we'd also want on our blog. There may be a way through a blog plug-in to manage your del.icio.us postings. I can only think of a long workaround for now, that's to create a second del.icio.us account just for your blog. Does anyone have a better idea?
  • nice tricks! keep it up!
  • Great, thanks for all the cool tips... I've been scratching my head for ages for this info.
  • Hi, I received a “405 Method Not Allowed” error in del.icio.us. Can you please help? Thank you! Regards, Octav.
  • I had been using this trick successfully for a few months and all of the sudden it does not work anymore... has Delicious changed anything that would have made this stop working?
  • Thanks for sharing this cool tip for publishing daily del.icio.us bookmarks to blog sites. By any chance you know if blogspot.com / blogger.com has xmlrpc interface URL. How can you find it out? Thanks in advance.

    Phoenix2Life's last blog post..Top Tools for Learning : Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
  • Steven
    The function seems broken at the moment. I'm not getting updates on my blog since days. Delicious-support isnt answering and the also removed some options fo the daily blog posting, like time etc... Any clue what up there?
  • morgan
    Since the update to delicious, WordPress users need to use Postalicious
  • i do understand importance of daily post..!!!

    But it always work like...writing a quality post takes lots of time..so its very important that you should write post when you feel like...and to go on your post on daily basis....you should use filler post..!!!

    filler posts are post..which consistes of more video or images..and less text...or any industry news...!!!

    So that will help in making your blog update and continuous
  • Thanks Kevin nice tricks!

    <abbr>Volkan Y?lmazs last blog post..Links for 2008-11-17 [del.icio.us]</abbr>
  • Thanks. Really a nice trick.

    <abbr>FeRHaDs last blog post..Albert Einstein’den Özlü Sözler</abbr>
  • I use the same trick for my digg n delicious posts both :)!!

    Not to forget for my secondary blog :P

    <abbr>p@r@noids last blog post..Increase your Internet speed using open DNS</abbr>
  • Thanks dude ;) I'll try this with my blog soon ;)
  • So cool! I will start using right now!
  • your post was useful to me - and more helpful than delicious itself whose helpdesk was uanble to work out what was going wrong. Thanks. One last question - is there a way to categorize the link post?
  • Sarah, ironically instead of having links auto-posted, I personally have it sent to my draft, where I like to add relevant images and sort my link posts before publishing. As you can see, it's a manual process. It's a pain, which is why I get lazy and haven't done link posts in a while. I've not found anything to automate this process, BUT would love it if you find anything that solve our mutual problem! :)
  • Very nice post! And this is extremely helpful. Thank you.
  • celix44
    The blogger tip in comment #3 doesn't work for me. I get a "405 Method Not Allowed" error in del.icio.us. Did anyone report success with this?
    sbs
  • CP
    Kevin,
    I'm trying to get this up and running on m blog but keep getting this error.
    "Failed due to General Exception: Curl returned non 200 HTTP code: 408. Response body: | General Exception."
    Any Ideas?
    Thanks
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