Are you looking to take your WordPress site to the next level by accepting guest posts and adding new writers? Allowing other people to contribute content to your site is a powerful way to grow your audience and publish more frequently. But how can you do this while still maintaining control over your site?
The answer lies in WordPress user roles, which allow you to grant specific capabilities to different types of users. In this in-depth guide, we‘ll dive into the Contributor role – the best way to allow others to write for your site without giving away full editing control.
What Is a Contributor in WordPress?
In the WordPress user system, a Contributor is a pre-defined role that can be assigned to new users to grant them limited content creation abilities. When you add a new user to your WordPress site, you can choose from five default user roles:
- Administrator
- Editor
- Author
- Contributor
- Subscriber
Each role has a set of specific capabilities that control what the user can and cannot do on your site. Here‘s a detailed breakdown of the Contributor role‘s capabilities:
What Contributors Can Do:
- Write and edit their own posts (but not publish them)
- Read all posts
- Leave comments
- View the dashboard (but with limited menu options)
What Contributors Cannot Do:
- Publish posts
- Edit or delete published posts
- Create new categories or tags
- Moderate comments
- Upload media files
- Edit others‘ posts
- Access plugins, themes, or settings
- Add new users
As you can see, contributors are quite limited. Essentially, they can write and submit their own posts, but can‘t actually make those posts public on your site.
This restricted level of access is what makes the contributor role perfect for guest bloggers. You can allow them to write drafts without worrying that they‘ll accidentally (or purposely) break your site or change your content.
When Should You Use the Contributor Role?
So when does it make sense to assign someone the contributor role as opposed to other user roles like author or editor? Let‘s break it down:
Reasons to Use the Contributor Role:
- You‘re accepting guest posts from new writers you don‘t fully trust yet
- The writer is only submitting a single post (not a regular team member)
- You want to review and approve all posts before they go live
- The writer doesn‘t need access to analytics, plugins, or settings
When to Use Author Instead:
- The writer is a paid member of your content team
- You want the writer to be able to publish directly and upload their own images
- The writer needs access to edit their live posts
When to Use Editor Instead:
- The person is a senior member of your editorial team
- You want them to be able to review, edit and publish others‘ posts
- They need access to manage categories, tags, and comments
In general, the contributor role is most useful for bringing new writers on board, especially for one-off guest posts. Using the contributor role allows you to accept guest posts safely and efficiently.
Tips for Managing WordPress Contributors Effectively
Now that you understand how the contributor role works, let‘s look at some best practices for onboarding contributors and managing them effectively:
- Create clear contributor guidelines. Before accepting guest posts, create a detailed page outlining your requirements and process for contributors. This should include:
- Acceptable topics and content types
- Minimum/maximum word counts
- Formatting and linking policies
- How to submit a post (Google Doc link, attachment, etc.)
- What contributors receive in exchange (byline, link, etc.)
- Set up an organized workflow. Implementing a clear editorial process will help you efficiently manage a large number of contributors. This should include:
- How editors will review and provide feedback on drafts
- Your typical turnaround time from submission to publishing
- Process for scheduling and promoting contributor content
Using a plugin like PublishPress can help you manage your editorial calendar and track the progress of each contributor post.
Don‘t publish under the contributor‘s account. To avoid giving contributors the ability to edit live posts, publish their posts under a generic account (like "Staff Writer") or your own admin account. You can still credit them with a byline at the beginning or end of the post.
Be selective with contributor account creation. Carefully screen potential contributors before giving them an account on your site. Require them to submit a draft or outline first so you can gauge quality. Only give serious, high-quality writers a contributor account.
Use the User Activity Log to monitor contributors. Keep an eye on what your contributors are doing by installing a plugin like WP Security Audit Log. This will allow you to track all contributor activity and catch any suspicious actions early.
By putting these processes in place from the beginning, you‘ll be able to successfully scale your contributor program without losing control over your site‘s content.
Customizing Contributor Capabilities
For most WordPress sites, the default contributor role works great out of the box. However, you may find that you want to customize exactly what contributors can do to fit your unique needs.
For example, maybe you want to allow contributors to upload their own images or be able to edit their posts after publication. Or perhaps you want to remove the ability for contributors to delete their drafts.
To make these changes, you‘ll need to use a role editing plugin. Some of the most popular options are:
- User Role Editor
- PublishPress Capabilities
- Members
Using these plugins, you can add or remove specific capabilities from the contributor role. For example, in the PublishPress Capabilities plugin, you can edit the contributor role and toggle on the "upload_files" capability to allow contributors to add their own media:
[Screenshot of customizing contributor capabilities]However, be very careful when modifying user roles. Giving contributors additional capabilities may open your site up to security vulnerabilities or accidental damage. Make sure you only grant the bare minimum capabilities contributors need to work effectively.
WordPress Contributor Statistics and Facts
Now that we‘ve covered the practical elements of using the contributor user role, let‘s take a look at some revealing statistics around guest blogging and multi-author sites:
- 60% of blogs write 1-5 guest posts per month (Orbit Media)
- 3% of blogs publish a new post daily (Orbit Media)
- 62.96% of readers perceive blogs with multiple authors to be more credible (Social Marketing Writing)
- 79% of editors believe that guest content is too promotional (Social Marketing Writing)
- The average word count for guest posts is 1151 words (Orbit Media)
As you can see, guest posting is a very common practice for blogs looking to increase their publishing frequency and credibility. However, editors do need to be wary of overly promotional content from guest writers.
Using the WordPress contributor role is the most secure and efficient way for sites to accept guest posts. Just remember these contributor best practices:
- Provide clear guidelines and expectations for contributors
- Set up an organized workflow for managing contributor posts
- Avoid publishing under the contributor‘s own account
- Selectively screen contributors before giving them an account
- Customize contributor capabilities only as needed
- Regularly monitor contributor activity for quality and security
By following this advice, you‘ll be able to harness the power of multiple contributors to grow your blog – without sacrificing control or quality.
Want to take your WordPress multi-author game to the next level? Check out our guides to creating a content style guide, automating contributor outreach, and incentivizing great guest content. With the right systems and practices in place, the sky‘s the limit for your WordPress blog‘s growth!
