Front end post submission lets visitors send content from a form on your site, and each entry becomes a WordPress post waiting for you to review. It is how community sites collect stories, events, listings and testimonials without giving anyone a login. This guide is for teams running community, directory, event and charity sites. We cover the post type, the status, which answers fill which part of the post, and a safe setup, in WordPress in about 20 minutes.
The short version
- Switch on Create a post from each entry on the form.
- Choose the post type, a status such as Pending review, and an author.
- Link each field to the post title, content, excerpt, image or a custom field.
- Review before publishing; only trusted forms should publish at once.
What can visitors submit?
Anything that fits a post on your site. Echo Forms Signature can make an ordinary post, a page, or any public post type, such as events from an events plugin or listings from a directory theme:
| Site | Form | Becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Charity | Share your story | A post, pending review |
| Local events | A submit an event form | An event, with its date in a custom field |
| Directory | Add your business | A listing, with a logo as the featured image |
| Agency | Leave a testimonial | A post in a Testimonials category |
Which answers fill which part of the post?
Each field’s Links to post field option on the Build tab decides it:
- Post title: the title. A post with nothing linked is called (form name) submission.
- Post content: the body.
- Post excerpt: the short summary some themes show in lists.
- Featured image: from a File upload or Camera field, added to your Media Library.
- Custom field: any custom field by name, such as
event_date, for themes and plugins that show events or listings.
Answers you do not link stay on the entry, so you still have them. We like this for user submitted posts, because the entry keeps the person’s email while the post stays clean.
How to set up front end post submission, step by step
- In Echo Forms with Signature, build the form: a title, the content, an image and any extra fields.
- Open the post creation settings and tick Create a post from each entry.
- Pick the Post type, such as Post or your events type.
- Set Post status to Pending review, and pick a real Post author, such as Stories Team.
- Set Links to post field on each field.
- Add an email to yourself, so you know when a submission arrives.
- Send a real entry, because entries from Test mode make no post, and check it under Posts.
The turn entries into posts guide shows each setting, and WordPress’s own post status documentation explains draft, pending and published.
Is it safe to let visitors create posts?
Yes, with Pending review or Draft. Nothing goes live until someone on your team presses Publish, so spam and mistakes never reach visitors. Use Published only on a form that only trusted people can send, such as one behind a login. Add spam protection too; our honeypot field guide covers the hidden check every Echo form has.
How does a guest post form compare with a full membership site?
It is much simpler. Visitors need no account, and you need no extra plugin, because the form makes the post and WordPress handles the rest. A team of 2 people reviewing 20 submissions a week can approve each one in about 1 minute, which we think is the right size for most sites. For sites where contributors edit their own posts later, a membership plugin is the better fit.
Front end post submission takes about 20 minutes to set up and turns your visitors into contributors. Start with one form and Pending review, publish the best submissions within 2 days, and say thank you to each person by email. See post creation for more examples.
Every entry, a post to review
Post creation comes with Echo Forms Signature, from $49.99 a year.
