Live Blogging WordPress Plugins for In-the-Moment Posts

Live Blogging WordPress Plugins for In-the-Moment Posts

Some things are just better live.

There’s an excitement and an energy that accompany live events. Political elections, sporting events, conferences, movie openings, TV shows, and even product releases all qualify as possible worthy subjects of live coverage.

The problem with blogging a live event with WordPress is that the system is not really set up for it. When you blog a live event, you need to move fast. Trying to create a new post or even update an existing post in a quick manner can be cumbersome and slow.

In addition, your reader doesn’t want to keep refreshing to see if there’s something new.

The Solution

Enter live blogging plugins.

Live blogging plugins let you turn a post into a quick and nimble Twitter-like display that will update automatically without refreshing for the reader and give the author an environment more conducive to quick posting.

Below we’ve collected the best live blogging plugins we could find. If you know of others, let us know in the comments.

1. Liveblog

The Liveblog plugin is a new plugin from Automattic. It’s a simple but effective plugin. Here’s what you get:

  • Post updates from the front-end of your blog
  • Drag and drop images into the blogging area
  • Make any post a live blog
  • Provides an area at the top of the post that stays at the top (good for intro/description)

And here’s what a live blog looks like in action.

 

Here’s what the posting area looks like.

 

One potential negative with this plugin is that it cuts off the updated entries on the homepage. It leaves the intro section but not the entries themselves.

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2. Live Blogging

The Live Blogging plugin takes a little more work to set up a live blog post, but it also offers you a few more options, such as automatic Twitter integration.  As the plugin author says, “If activated, the first 139 characters of each live blog entry will be posted to Twitter when they are made.”

Here’s a look at the live blog post.

In order to make an entry, it’s a little more complicated in the beginning than the Liveblog plugin. Here’s a quick look at the process of setting it up. (Once it’s set up, however, you can just keep entering new entries in the same editor without going to a new page.)

 

Here’s a look at the settings.

 

This plugin also cuts off the entries on the homepage.

And so there you have it — some nice live-blogging plugins that will definitely make your live blogging a better experience for both you and your visitors.

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