Publishing content: modes and connected sites
Choose how Distro publishes SEO articles (auto-schedule, review only, CMS drafts or Autoblog) and connect WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Shopify and other blogs.
Distro can publish your articles straight to your blog once you connect it on the Connect Blog tab. How much happens automatically is up to you: you pick one of four publishing modes in Settings → After an article is written.
The four publishing modes
| Mode | What happens after an article is written | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Review, then auto-schedule (recommended) | You approve each article once. It then publishes itself at 9:00 (your timezone) on its post day. | A connected blog that can publish |
| Review only | Articles wait for you. Approve, then publish or schedule each one yourself. | Nothing. Connect a blog to publish from Distro. |
| Push to your CMS as drafts | Each article is pushed into your CMS as a draft, and you publish it from there. | A connected blog that accepts drafts |
| Autoblog: publish without review | Articles publish on their own on your plan's post days, with no review. | A connected blog that can publish, and an active Growth or Scale plan |
Review, then auto-schedule is the default. To change it:
- Open SEO & Content → Settings.
- Under Publishing, choose a mode in After an article is written.
- Click Save settings.
Review, then auto-schedule
Approve an article and Distro queues it for 9:00 on its planned post day in your timezone. If that time has already passed, it publishes a few minutes later. You'll see "Approved. It will publish automatically on…" with the date. If no blog that can publish is connected, the article simply stays Approved until you publish it.
Review only
Nothing is published until you do it from the article. See Publish or schedule an article yourself below.
Push to your CMS as drafts
Each article the engine writes is sent to your CMS as a draft. Distro still keeps a copy you can review. If the push fails, the article stays in Distro and the error shows under Recent activity on the Overview tab.
Autoblog
Autoblog writes, approves and publishes articles without asking you. Before publishing, it adds stock images (if enabled) and inserts its suggested internal links. Its pace is set by your plan:
- Growth: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, up to 12 a month
- Scale: daily, up to 30 per rolling 30 days
It publishes at most one article per day. You'll get an email listing what was published.
Connect your blog
- Find your platform and click Connect (for Manual Export, Enable).
- Fill in the fields shown on the card. Each one has a short hint about where to find it in your platform.
- Click Save connection. Distro tests the connection straight away.
- Check the card shows Connected. If it shows Error, read the message under it, fix the details and click Test.
Use the credentials your platform creates for apps and integrations, such as a WordPress application password or a Ghost Admin API key. Never enter your normal login password. Distro stores connection details encrypted and only connects to public web addresses.
Blog connections belong to the product you're working on. If you connect more than one blog, the automatic modes use the first one you connected.
Supported platforms
| Platform | Badge | Can do | You'll need |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Ready | Draft, Publish, Schedule, Update, Fetch posts | Site URL, username, application password (Users → Profile → Application Passwords) |
| Ghost | Ready | Draft, Publish, Schedule, Update, Fetch posts | Admin API URL, Admin API key from a custom integration |
| Webflow CMS | Ready | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | API token, Site ID, blog collection ID (field slugs optional) |
| Shopify Blog | Ready | Draft, Publish, Schedule, Update, Fetch posts | Shop domain, Admin API access token from a custom app (Blog ID optional) |
| Blogger | Partial | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | Blog ID and a Google OAuth access token. Tokens expire, so you'll need to refresh them. |
| Contentful | Ready | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | Space ID, Content Management token, content type and field IDs |
| Sanity | Ready | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | Project ID, dataset, write token, document type |
| Strapi | Ready | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | Base URL, API token, collection API ID |
| Medium | Partial | Draft, Publish | An integration token, if your Medium account can still issue one |
| Dev.to | Ready | Draft, Publish, Update, Fetch posts | API key |
| Hashnode | Partial | Publish | Personal access token, publication ID |
| Custom CMS / Webhook | Ready | Draft, Publish, Schedule, Update, Fetch posts | A URL you control. Distro POSTs the article as JSON, with an optional secret header. |
| Manual Export | Manual | Export only | Nothing. Download Markdown or HTML from any article. |
Partial means the connector works, but with a real limitation from the platform's API. Medium, Dev.to and Hashnode publish on a third-party domain, so they're best for republishing articles that also live on your own site.
Distro doesn't currently connect to other site builders. For those, use Manual Export or a Custom CMS / Webhook endpoint you build.
Publish or schedule an article yourself
- Open the article from the Drafts tab and click Approve.
- In the Publish box, choose your blog from Select a connected blog.
- Click Publish to publish now, or pick a date and time and click Schedule.
Publish and Schedule stay blocked until the article is approved. Push draft works without approval and sends the article to your CMS as a draft.
For platforms without built-in scheduling (Webflow, Contentful, Sanity, Strapi, Blogger, Dev.to and others), Distro holds the article and publishes it at the time you chose. You'll see "Scheduled. Distro will publish it to…" with the platform name.
The scheduled time must be in the future. Once published, the article's status changes to Published and its link appears in the editor.
Sync posts for internal links
On cards that can fetch posts, Sync posts imports up to 50 of your recent published posts. Distro uses them as link targets when it suggests internal links for new articles. See How Distro SEO content works.
Disconnect a blog
Click Disconnect on the platform's card and confirm. Distro stops publishing to that blog straight away, including posts that were already scheduled, and deletes the saved connection details. Articles already published stay on your site.
If publishing fails, see Content failed to publish.
Email us at hello@usedistro.com with what you tried and what you see. Signed in? Help & support in the app has walkthrough videos and a message form.