I was going to write this Paper.li tutorial for quite a while. A few weeks ago I was asked by one of my followers how to get Paper.li to work. As often happens, I’ve had many other things on my plate. Funnily enough, my tutorial couldn’t be more timely, it seems. As this post from the Paper.li blog announces, the Swiss content curation service has reached a major milestone a few short days ago: 1 billion published articles!
So what is Paper.li all about?
Paper.li is a content curation service. It enables people to publish newspapers based on topics they like and treat their readers to fresh news, daily.
The Paper.li team believe that people (and not machines) are the ones qualified to curate the content that matters most. They also think that these same people can greatly help their own communities to find their way through this “massive content world” we live in. (source: Paper.li).
In simple words – Paper.li is a cool service which enables you to publish your own newspaper in less than 5 minutes. Now why should you even care?
Well, here’s why I’m using this service:
Paper.li enables me to curate content from my own Twitter stream and from the people I follow on Twitter. It does it automagically. Once a day my Paper.li
is updated and a tweet goes out, mentioning the 5 top contributors. I can’t tell you how many thank you messages I got from Twitter friends for mentioning them in my paper. This is a great starting point for a conversation and for a new relationship. Now these people will often retweet these messages and the paper edition, so that your paper quickly spreads around the social web. So, in other words, I’m using Paper.li as a relationship building tool.
There are other reasons to use the customized paper: I’m sure it has SEO value, especially if you choose a targeted keyword as your newspaper’s name. The paper can be updated daily or even twice a day, which is likely to attract search engine spiders over time. So if the content there links back to your website(s) this can add you some link juice.
A newspaper format is also an easier way to consume large amounts of information, so instead of going through hundreds of Twitter streams which are updated every 2 seconds, you can the actual news sources in one nicely arranged paper edition. So that’s pretty nifty.
If there are other reasons you can think of, comment away! I’d love to hear!
OK, I hear you. Let’s cut the waffle. After all, you’re eager to get your paper printed, aren’t you?
1.Log-in and start a paper
Log-in to Paper.li, or Start a paper right away…
2.Grab a coffee/herbal tea…
Seriously, it takes a time to create a newspaper! You need to read through all the news, get all the reporters together, do the graphics, roll out the printers… So 5 minutes is even too little I’d say! Now go make yourself a drink…
3.Customize your paper
Choose a name for your new publication. If you really love yourself, choose your real name. If not, choose a relevant name. for example: The Typography Lover Daily. If you know of an SEO keyword you like then that could work as well. Or simply choose a sexy, memorable name, e.g The Honest IM Daily 
Now choose your language, and choose the content streams which would shape your paper. You can mix & match up to 5 streams, from Twitter, Facebook and your RSS feed. The simplest and probably safest option is the first one: Me & the people I follow.
4.Admire your new baby
Now look at that! Isn’t it beautiful? And your coffee is still hot!
After you’ve scrolled through your newly-born baby paper, admiring every pixel, you can do some editing. And if you see a really awesome article, why not reply the contributor with a thank you message? That’s how relationships are born!
5.Tweak your paper
Now just so you know: You can always tweak your paper, add a background image, change the update frequency and time and more. Choose an update time which suites your audience. Try to hit the traffic peaks, depending on where most of your followers are (everywhere?). I set it for around midnight GMT but you can test what works best for you.
And now the mic goes to you!
Are you using Paper.li?
What kind of papers have you created?
If not, why not?
If this post has been of value to you, why not share the love by tweeting it, sharing it on Facebook and Delicious, digging it or stumbling it? Thanks…
If you have a social media solution you’d like me to review, please contact me!
About Adam
![[Manifest #1] Write As If There’s No Tomorrow](http://adamtroudart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/how-to-blogging1-150x150.jpg)
Is it just creating the content from your RSS feeds that are included in the 5 options picked? When you use the Twitter and Facebook keywords, does that mean anything you write, must include one of those keywords to place it in the paper from FB or Twitter feeds?
Hey Brenda,
You can specify the RSS feed(s) you want to include in you paper. As for Facebook and Twitter, it depends on your settings. The Facebook stream will pull relevant posts from the Facebook network as far as I understand. The Facebook feature is still being tested so it might now work perfectly yet.
As for Twitter, if you choose a Single Twitter User stream, then Paper.li will pull only tweets with the relevant keywords from your own Twitter feed. But there are a few other Twitter Stream options: Me & The People I Follow will pull content from your Twitter followers' stream for example, so you can get much more content.
It's explained pretty well in this page from Paper.li's help section: http://support.paper.li/entries/20127693-how-to-c…
Hope that helps,
Looking forward to read your paper…
Adam
Nice post. I have two papers – one each associated with my two Twitter profiles. The one for @medtopicwriter is much more popular than the one for @texascopywriter. I didn't really know what I was doing when I was creating these. It looks like I need to go in and tweak them — especially the one for @texascopywriter.
Thanks Adam!
My recent post Increase Patient Volume with Social Media – It’s Just Like High School
Thanks Samantha,
I'm glad you've enjoyed the post.
I will soon have a video on Paper.li so I hope it helps you understand it better.
Adam:)
That would be nice. I learn best with audio-visual and text components (I'm a complicated gal, Adam)
My recent post What’s the Scoop on Ovarian Cysts?
Great post Adam. Loving the clarity you bring. I did not get PaperLi from the outset and there seemed to be no instructions!
This post clears that one up. Social Thursday is really informative. I am loving the vibe x
Thank you
thanks so much for this tutorial, it.s a great idea and a useful alternative to blogs, however I can’t seem to find any tools for google analytics integration, is this an option ?
Good question. Thanks. I’ll check with the Paper.li guys and will tell you:)
Hey Adam can you please explain me how to get social media activity benefits that how can I do social media marketing !
Thanks a lot for your great support
I’d like to stop Paper.li from updating itself on its own when I want to edit and check it before it goes out. So for example, it’s fine right now, but it’s going to update itself tomorrow and it might not be what I want. Can you advise?
Twitter: eHWS
says:
Adam, many thanks for drawing attention to paper.li – I first was not so sure about it, but now I set up a “Daily” for each of the not-for-profits I support.
Tnx, J
Jonas recently posted..eHWS: #Domain News: Low-profile owner of NZ web domain company tapped as Mega CEO http://t.co/iSYB4WKZ + http://t.co/xcXeY61M
Twitter: eHWS
says:
Adam – when are you publishing the video on paper.li you mention above?
Tnx, J