My last post, Submitting Your Blog to RSS & Blog Directories, talked about automatically notifying blog directories whenever you post on your site. This is a great way to get the word out there!
WordPress actually has this functionality built into its inner code. Not only that, but your posts are automatically sent to one of the most popular blog directories, pingomatic.com.
So, the good news is that you are already doing without knowing it! Congratulations! The not-so-good news is that you are not letting even MORE directories know about your post! Rest assured – I will help you out with that one.
First, I am going to suggest that you install a plugin to help with this. This is not truly necessary, but it helps (and I will point out where and why).
Step 1 – install and activate the plugin, cbnet Ping Optimizer. You can find this when you search when adding a new plug-in. Remember to activate it.
Step 2 – Under Settings, you will see a new entry for cbnet Ping Optimizer. Click on the link to edit the settings of your new plugin.
Step 3 – You will see the lonely entry I mentioned before for, pingomatic.com. Rather than submit to only this site, add the following list to your list (note – you will see this list includes the one that is already there – include it only once):
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2/
http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/RPC2/
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC/
http://blogsearch.google.ae/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.at/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.be/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.bg/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.ca/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.ch/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.cl/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.cr/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.hu/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.id/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.il/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.jp/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.ma/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.nz/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.th/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.uk/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.ve/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.co.za/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.ar/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.au/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.br/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.co/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.do/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.mx/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.my/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.pe/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.sa/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.sg/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.tr/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.tw/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.ua/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.uy/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com.vn/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.de/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.es/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.fi/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.fr/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.gr/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.hr/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.ie/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.jp/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.lt/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.nl/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.pl/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.pt/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.ro/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.ru/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.se/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.sk/ping/RPC2/
http://blogsearch.google.us/ping/RPC2/
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://feedsky.com/api/RPC2/
http://hamo-search.com/ping.php/
http://ping.bitacoras.com/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogoon.net/
http://ping.blogs.yandex.ru/RPC2/
http://ping.fc2.com/
http://ping.feedburner.com/
http://ping.kutsulog.net/
http://ping.myblog.jp/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php/
http://ping.snap.com/ping/RPC2/
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2/
http://rpc.bloggerei.de/ping/
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.reader.livedoor.com/ping/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2/
http://wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2/
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php/
Remember to click Save Settings.
You are all set! The next time you create a post, all of these directories will be notified of your new content!
If you are still reading this and you remember one of of the things I mentioned was that this plug in is NOT required, let me tell you why! While still in your dashboard, check out Settings / Writing area. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a section, Update Services. All the entries we put in the cbnet Ping Optimizer are also listed here. If you don’t want to install the plugin, you can simply paste in the list above into this area and the same thing will occur – everything you post, everyone gets notified.
The reason I like the plugin is that it keeps track of when the directories are updated and if any of them failed!
You can see from above that some of the entries failed. Not to worry… When I see the same servers failing every time I post (after about 7 posts), i will go in and delete it from the list. If it fails once, it may just mean that the server is down or something else is going on.
Let me know if you have any questions about this. I don’t want to write tooooooo much about this 😉
Thank you Paul, this is so awesome! 🙂
Good luck with it, Denny!
Thanks Paul, I had this installed already some time ago, never thought about it any more. Thanks for showing me the value of it..
Olga – you can now update your list!
Hello Paul,i am in the process of constructing a blog and i found this information you provided very useful !! Thank you and all the best.
Great, Michael! Let me know if you have any other questions! Best of luck with the new blog!
I never knew this was there. I am adding to my list today! Thank you for telling me this.
Paul,
Thanks for a great series of posts! I just installed it as you said, I appreciate your guidance.
-AJ
AJ – remember to check the logs every so often to see if any of the servers are no longer active.
Paul you always provide such good content that I would never otherwise know about or know how to do! I am doing this right away! I will take all the exposure I can get!
Great tips, thanks Paul
Thank you! (installed) 🙂
This is great information Paul. Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge.
Glad you are enjoying it, Julia! And, hopefully you are applying what you think is appropriate for your site!
Thank you for this information. It is really helpful
You are very welcome, Carol!
Just did this and every one of the directories returned a “status code not 200” error. What gives?
Asad – When you ping one of the entries in your list, the server responds with an HTTP status code that provides info on how the request went.
An http status code 200 means SUCCESS, so if you get a message that says status code was not 200, that means the request for the file failed for some reason. Sometimes a better response is provided and you can tell what the issue was. The message you are getting just says something went wrong.
With that said, I typically do not check the ping log very often becuase I expect some failures every now and then. Servers are never up 100% of the time. Network errors occur. Etc.
I checked my log and found a few failures for my recent post. Perhaps I will update this list over the weekend to see if any of these are no longer in service.
Thanks for the note!