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What is a Contributor in WordPress?
Understanding WordPress Contributor Roles
Within the WordPress platform, a ‘Contributor’ is a specific type of user role with the ability to draft content but lacks the authority to publish it or alter the site’s configurations.
As your WordPress site expands, it’s crucial to grasp the various user roles and the permissions they entail. This knowledge is key to effectively managing your site’s growth.
When you require content from external writers, the contributor role is ideal. It allows them to draft articles without granting them the power to make them live on your site.
Contributors are granted the privilege to craft new posts and modify or remove their own submissions. However, once their content is live, they lose the ability to edit or delete it. This limitation makes the contributor role perfect for site owners who wish to have control over the content published on their platform.
Additionally, contributors are restricted from uploading files, meaning they cannot add images to their posts. They also lack access to the site’s settings, plugins, or themes, ensuring they cannot modify any site configurations.
Understanding the distinction between an ‘Author’ and a ‘Contributor’ is essential. Authors possess more capabilities within WordPress, such as the ability to upload files and publish their own posts. This role is more appropriate for regular team members, while the contributor role is better suited for third-party writers or guest bloggers.
Neither authors nor contributors have the ability to alter site settings, install new plugins and themes, or add new users. These functions are exclusively reserved for administrators.
Inviting guest bloggers to your site can be beneficial. It can introduce new viewpoints, expand your network, and increase the volume of content on your site. There are various methods for guest writers to submit their work, such as through a form on your site, via email, or by sharing a document. You can also add them as contributors so they can input their content directly.
To attract guest bloggers, consider creating a ‘Write for Us’ page and making it easily accessible on your site. This can be done by including a link in your main navigation, such as in the header or sidebar.
For more strategies on attracting and managing guest bloggers, check out our comprehensive guide on the subject.
At some point, you may be curious about which writer’s posts are most popular. To track this, you can enable author tracking on your WordPress site.
While the default user roles in WordPress are suitable for most sites, there may be times when you want to tailor these roles to better fit your site’s specific needs. For instance, you might want to allow contributors to edit their posts even after approval.
To learn how to adjust user roles or create new ones, follow our detailed guide on adding or removing capabilities to user roles in WordPress.
We trust this explanation has been informative regarding the contributor role in WordPress. For further insights and tips on WordPress, please refer to the Additional Reading section below.
Additional Reading
- How to Let Contributors Edit Their WordPress Posts After Being Approved
- How to Allow Users to Submit Posts to Your WordPress Site
- How to Add or Remove Capabilities to User Roles in WordPress
- Author
- User Role
- How to Effectively Attract and Manage Guest Bloggers in WordPress
- How to Enable Author Tracking in WordPress