How to Enable Anonymous Guest Posting on Your Blog

by Lindsay Liedke on Dec 19, 2018

Have you ever seen websites that allow users to submit posts or other type of content anonymously? Do you want to enable anonymous guest posting on your blog?

In this article, we’ll show you how to allow anonymous guest posting on your WordPress blog.

Step 1: Create a WordPress Form

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see this step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Next, you’ll need to install and activate the Post Submissions addon so users can submit blog posts on your website.

To do this, go to WPForms » Addon and find the one labeled Post Submissions.

Click Install Addon and then Activate.

Now you’ll need to create a new form.

To do this, go to WPForms » Add New, name your form, and choose the Blog Post Submission Form template.

WPForms will create a form for you.

You’ll notice your blog post submissions form has the following form fields:

• Author Details. This includes name, email, and author bio form fields.
• Create a Blog Post. This includes post title, post content, featured image, post excerpt, and category form fields.

You can add additional fields by dragging them from the left hand panel to the right hand panel.

Then, click on the field to make any changes. You can also click on a form field and drag it to rearrange the order on your user registration form.

Step 2: Enable Anonymous Guest Posting

Before you save the changes you’ve made to your blog post submissions form, you’ll need to enable anonymous guest posting.

To do this, click on the Name form field on your form. Then, in the left hand side of the Form Editor, find the box labeled Required and unclick it.

By doing this, anyone can submit your blog post submission form on your website without having to fill out the name form field.

Click Save.

If you want to learn more about how to customize your blog post submissions form, check out this article outlining how to allow users to submit blog posts on your WordPress website.

Step 3: Configure Your Form’s General Settings

There are many general settings to configure on a WordPress form:

• General Settings: Here you can change things like your form’s name, description, and submit button copy. You can also enable additional spam prevention features to keep your website secure from unwanted form submissions.
• Form Confirmations: Form confirmations are messages that display to site visitors once they submit a blog post for your website. WPForms has three confirmation types to choose from: Message, Show Page, and Redirect. To choose more than one form confirmation at a time, check out this helpful tutorial on how to create multiple form confirmations.
• Form Notifications: Notifications are a great way to send an email whenever a form is submitted on your website. A notification will automatically send to your once a form is submitted on your site. You can also send one to the site visitor that submitted the form and anyone else that needs to be notified of a form submission. To learn how to do this, read here about creating multiple form notifications.

Click Save.

Step 4: Allow Post Submissions

To allow anonymous guest post submissions on your blog, go to Settings » Post Submissions and turn Post Submissions “On”.

Next, make sure all the dropdown menu items match up to the form field title found above each dropdown menu. If you changed or added any new form fields, you’ll need to match them up with the corresponding custom fields for your posts.

• Post Title: the title of the blog post
• Post Content: the main body of the blog post
• Post Excerpt: a short summary of the blog post
• Post Featured Image: the image added to the beginning of the blog post
• Post Type: options include Posts or Pages, but can include custom post types as well
• Post Status: the status you want each blog post to be in when submitted. You can automatically publish all post submissions or require approval before being published to your website.
• Post Author: choose an author of the blog post. If you require users to login before submitting blog post submission forms, the signed in user will be assigned as the author. Since you’re allowing anonymous guest posting, if a site visitor doesn’t enter a name, the post author will remain blank.

Click Save.

Step 5: Add Your Form to Your Site

After you’ve created your blog post submissions form, you need to add it to your WordPress website.

WPForms allows you to add your forms to many locations on your website, including your blog posts, pages, and even sidebar widgets.

Let’s take a look at the most common post/page embed option.

To start, create a new post or page in WordPress and then click on the Add Form button.

Next, select your contact form in the modal popup and click Add Form.

Then, publish your post or page so your blog post submissions form will appear on your website.

To view post submission form entries after they’ve been submitted, check out this complete guide to form entries. You can view, search for, filter, print, and delete any form entries that people submit on your website.

And the great thing is, you can also use our Zapier addon to automatically save file uploads to cloud services like Google Drive, Basecamp, and Dropbox.

And there you have it! You now know how to enable anonymous guest posting on your blog.

To get more content on your blog, see our tips on how to get more guest post submissions. You can also get sponsored posts by requiring payment for post submissions.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today.

And don’t forget, if you like this article, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.