The bloggers can be treated as alone wolf who can write articles as often as they can. But with the passage of time, your site expands which gives rise to the demand of regular content. It is practically not feasible to write a fresh content every single day.
So, what can be the next step? Inviting others to contribute to your blog can work effectively in the above context. Multi-author blogging is not a new concept nowadays with WordPress as there are plentiful tools available that make your site even more interactive. It involves adding those features that can add points to the satisfying experience of readers as well as authors.
If you will run your blog with a large number of authors working on it, it is a tough chore to maintain all the processes. To solve this issue, we come up with a sorted list of best WordPress multi-author plugins that can ease you by supporting in different activities such as reading new posts, scheduling articles and registering new authors.
With their help, you can handle publishing, staff management and related activities.
Let’s check the list:
Edit Flow
Edit flow eases your task if you have issues in time management. It gives you a content calendar in reach where you can specify the current stage and publishing time of the posts. You can also leave the editorial comments within the back-end section along with publishing the posts on the specified day.
There are 5 basic stages that you can follow while putting some customization if required. These are Assigned, Draft, Pitch, Pending review and Waiting for feedback.
This plugin is like a complete package or management system for the websites made in WordPress. You have the flexibility to use reminders and custom post statuses so that editorial process will run better.
Edit Flow plugin helps display the editorial calendar so that the posts under progress are clearly visible and one can easily manage publishing schedule.
Pros and Cons
The drag-and-drop calendar of Edit Flow is the prominent feature to move posts over the visual interface to see the post status at a glance.
When the loopholes need to be listed, the first thing that obstructs is the heavy nature of plugin. One more fear factor for the users is that they might lose some of the posts in case plugin is being deactivated. Moreover, it offers a restrictive environment with few controls.
Content Progress
This plugin gives an easy way to showcase the progress of a post during the editorial process. You can flag posts by using varied labels like "Add Media" or "Needs Scheduling" direct from the WordPress post listing.
The plugin has the ability to automatically identify empty posts. Moreover, editors as well as author can even post comment for a specific post. You can use shortcodes to list the progress on the front-end side of your site.
To communicate within the groups, you can add notes to each post. In parallel, this workflow plugin renders a quick way to scan the finished documents in date.
Pros and Cons
The plugin comes packed with the four shortcodes needed to generate front-facing lists of the pages. These are empty, partial, incomplete and needs_review.
The last updated version is 1.3.13. Earlier version has less scope to manage content editing workflow with the fewer controls.
Post Status Notifications
The most common issue with the multi-author sites is that those who are running the website need to log in to the WordPress panel to check if any fresh draft has been added by authors.
This plugin improves the current situation by sending an email notification to the admins whenever a new post has been posted. In the same way, authors are also notified when their post is being published.
The plugin works inherently well with the websites that accept user-submitted content with access granted to the multiple authors.
Pros and Cons
This plugin ensures better communication with a refined editorial workflow for those articles submitted for review and even subsequently published by admins.
The email notifications sent for every individual post make sure that published posts are not waiting for the reviewers who otherwise need to be checked manually by WordPress admin for those posts that are in the pending review status.
This plugin automatically detects the author of a post and lists their profile within a WordPress widget. This widget can be displayed on a specific single post or archive templates.
Multiple options for personalization includes the ability to work on the author’s avatar size as per the custom specifications. Moreover, the widget’s name can be replaced with the name of current author which is being displayed.
The Meks Smart widget works well for the sites that contain themes with no author boxes. It is easy to configure and does not produce individual settings page.
Pros and Cons
The widget makes the finest use of the styling of your theme to make it work in compliance with the website design. With utter functionality, it included everything you want to embed in the author box, but nothing spare.
Its lightweight nature makes it compatible to integrate seamlessly with the existing WordPress website. There is no negative point unless your theme already contains an author box.
MB Frontend Submission
If you want to allow anyone to post content to your site, the plugin called MB Frontend Submission makes it easy for you. It allows folks to post content through front-end using a form.
You need to simply add a shortcode to a post, page or widget and the form will come into right place. There are few controls that allow users to add content and one can specify if the submitted content is published automatically or placed in draft status.
Pros and Cons
The best part is, this plugin gives the ease to the users as they don’t need to access the back-end of your site. Rather, they can submit posts from the front-end. The posts are collected from the users without creating an account.
A fair amount of anonymous traffic which is not yet registered to your site might restricts the users to post content. It can be a security approach or a miss of chance otherwise.
This widget gives every writer the credit they deserve. The major loophole in most of the blogs is that they do not emphasize more on their writers. Combating the same, Author spotlight supports your writers by providing them some extra privileges. It highlights their pictures with a short byline on the site only.
The writers can also add their website and social media links to promote themselves. As an added benefit, widgets can automatically recognize the logged-in writer.
As a complete package, Author Spotlight can be treated as an author bio widget meant for the sidebar of your blog. It is easy to customize title, more articles text, profile character limit and read full profile text for the widget.
Pros and Cons
The greatest advantage of the widget is its ability to automatically detect the current authors of the page or post being displayed. You only need to drag and drop the widget on the sidebar. If you want to display a custom photograph along with the Author’s profile, a plugin called User photo is necessary to be installed.
Without this, the widget fall-back to showcase the Gravatar linked to a user. Likewise, if you want to deal with the multiple authors, a plugin Co-Authors Plus is used with Author spotlight to display all the author profiles one below other.
Sum Up
The list of handy plugins that we have mentioned helps you to a great extent in creating streamlined content. You will feel relaxing as an editor as your burden is little bit lighter now. Cherry on the cake, you do not need to worry about the duplicate content or overlapping topics. And above all, you are open to give your writers all the credit and worth which they deserve. So, boost your blog and reap the benefits.
About the Author
This post has been penned down by David Meyer who is an expert web developer and writer at CSSChopper. He has great interest in creating informative articles related to the WordPress and its reliable themes and plugins with plentiful features. He has an aim to make people aware of WordPress platform at a broad scale.
How to Display Author Bio in WordPress - P2 - Using MB Views 
How to Display Author Bio in WordPress - P1 - Using Meta Box and Bricks 
How to Create Contributors Lists for Posts
https://wordpress.org/plugins/restrict-author-posting/ the restrict author posting plugin has been discontinued and is no longer available
Hi Edward, thanks for your comment. I have removed the plugin from the post.
Because of your post, we are able to manage many writers, thank you very much.
Your suggestions are really helpful, keep it up.
I've found one more WordPress plugin to manage multi-author websites which is User Activity Log Pro. This simple but effective plugin works great for monitoring and tracking users' and team members' activities very easily. Its core features like display activity, custom event log, display user details, filtering option, sorting option, password security, user role selection, and much more are really fabulous.
You hit the nail on the head. I have filmed upwards of 50 weddings in the past 15 months, and I have used almost every single site you mentioned on here. Fun fact if you have been using songfreedom, they are cutting their frequent users a break and only charging something like $330/yr for the next 3 years. Music Bed is the go to site for me. Artlist needs to get better stuff right now I think its kinda stuck in the corporate stuff that premium beat is. Solid list you built here Matt, and great last name .