Hi @danehuffman
I had a look at your site, and it appears that the items in the center column appear to be regular WordPress posts. To clarify, are you currently using the free version of WP RSS Aggregator, or do you have one of our Premium plans?
I’m asking because importing feed items as regular WordPress posts requires the Feed to Post feature, which is available in the Premium version. If you are using Aggregator Premium, please reach out to us directly via our contact form here so we can investigate this further with you, as this forum is intended for support related to the free version only.
Once we know which version you’re using, we’ll be happy to guide you further.
Sorry for the late reply. I haven’t even updated to the new version yet. I’m a little afraid I’ll mess something up. My site is not a money-making venture so I haven’t purchased anything premium yet. Do I need to have premium to get the center column RSS working or do I just need premium to walk me through doing it? Thanks.
Hi @danehuffman
Thanks for getting back to us, and no worries at all 🙂
Just to make sure we’re on the same page, are you referring to the “Recent Posts” section in the center column of your homepage?
Based on what I can see, the items in your center column appear to be regular WordPress posts. In the free version of Aggregator, feed items do not get imported as regular posts. Importing feed items as normal WordPress posts requires the Feed to Post feature, which is available in the Premium version.
Since you mentioned that you have not purchased anything premium yet, I just want to clarify a couple of things so we can better guide you:
- How are you currently displaying the center column content? Is it pulling standard WordPress posts from your theme?
- Was the center column previously auto-updating from an RSS source, or were those posts manually imported at some point?
Please let us know a bit more about how that section is set up, and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.
i have not been updating the center column as I just haven’t had time. But when I do, I have to manually post them. I had a previous theme that aggregated all three columns. I would add my own articles as I wanted. Unfortunately it broke and the theme is no longer supported. I’ve used a couple of themes over the last few months and neither will aggregate in the center column.
Thanks for getting back to me. If I were making money with the site, I would gladly get premium but I’m losing money and will have to make some tough decisions as to whether or not to continue if I can’t figure something out. Before my original site theme broke, I was getting more than 20,000 unique visitors a week – which without any promotion wasn’t terrible but now I get very few visitors.
Hi @danehuffman
Thanks for the clarification, that helps a lot.
Based on what you described, the center column isn’t updating automatically because that section appears to be pulling regular WordPress posts from your theme. Importing feed items as standard WordPress posts requires the Feed to Post feature, which is available in the Premium version.
This is why:
- The left and right columns can display RSS feeds normally.
- The center column only updates when you manually create posts, since your theme is pulling from the normal posts database.
Your previous theme likely had a custom setup that handled aggregation differently, which is why all three columns were updating automatically before.
So in your current setup, the center column would either need to be updated manually, or use a feature such as Feed to Post if you want RSS items to appear there as normal posts.
I hope this helps clarify what’s happening. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
I think I understand. I wonder if there are any themes out there left where all three columns display RSS feeds?
Hi @danehuffman
That is a good question.
In most cases, themes themselves do not actually perform the RSS aggregation. Instead, the theme simply provides the layout, while the plugin is responsible for pulling and displaying the feed items.
With the free version of Aggregator, feed items can be displayed using the plugin’s shortcode or block. This means that as long as the theme supports standard WordPress content areas (pages, widgets, or blocks), you can usually place feed displays anywhere on the page, including a center column.
For example, many users create a page layout where each column contains a shortcode that displays a different feed or group of feeds.
So rather than needing a specific theme that “aggregates” RSS feeds, the key is choosing a theme that allows flexible layouts (such as columns, widgets, or block-based layouts). Most modern themes should support this.
