Documentation
PressHangar Draft Pacer docs
Everything you need to install, configure, and run PressHangar Draft Pacer — plus what to do when a schedule doesn't behave.
Getting started
- 1
Install and activate
Upload the PressHangar Draft Pacer folder to /wp-content/plugins/, then activate it from the Plugins menu. No setup wizard, no extra accounts required.
- 2
Configure your pace
Go to Settings → PressHangar Draft Pacer and set your posts-per-day range, publishing time window, start date, and any post type or category filters. Leave watchdog recovery on unless you have a specific reason to turn it off.
- 3
Run it
Click Schedule Now to assign publish times to your existing drafts immediately, or leave it to the daily cron job. Either way, PressHangar Draft Pacer's admin dashboard shows exactly what's queued and when it'll go out.
Settings reference
All settings live under Settings → PressHangar Draft Pacer.
- Enable drip publishing
- The master switch. Off by default so nothing schedules automatically until you're ready — manual runs from the dashboard still work while it's off.
- Posts per day (min / max)
- The range PressHangar Draft Pacer picks from each day, e.g. 3–5. The actual count is randomized within that range so the cadence doesn't look scripted.
- Publishing window
- The start and end time each day's posts are allowed to publish in, e.g. 9:00 AM–9:00 PM. Times are randomized within the window with at least a 15-minute gap between posts.
- Start date
- The date PressHangar Draft Pacer begins assigning schedules from. New drafts are queued after any posts already scheduled, so re-running the scheduler is always safe.
- Post types
- Restrict scheduling to specific post types (posts by default). Useful if you also use custom post types for non-editorial content.
- Categories
- Optionally limit scheduling to drafts in specific categories, leaving everything else untouched.
- Order
- Schedule drafts in random order, or oldest-first so your longest-waiting drafts go out first.
- Watchdog recovery
- Enables the 15-minute sweep that publishes any post that missed its scheduled time by more than five minutes. On by default — this is the setting that guarantees zero missed schedules.
- Notification email
- Where PressHangar Draft Pacer sends an alert if it detects WP-Cron has stopped running. Defaults to the site admin email.
External cron setup
PressHangar Draft Pacer works out of the box on WordPress's standard WP-Cron. External cron is an optional safety net for low-traffic sites where WP-Cron's traffic-triggered scheduler doesn't fire reliably — it is not required. If you'd rather not set it up, the built-in watchdog will still rescue any missed posts.
Shared hosting
Most control panels (cPanel, Plesk, and similar) have a "Cron Jobs" section. Paste the external cron command shown on PressHangar Draft Pacer's settings page there, set it to run every 15 minutes, and save.
VPS or dedicated server
Run `crontab -e` and add the command from PressHangar Draft Pacer's settings page as a new line, scheduled every 15 minutes (`*/15 * * * *`).
Home server
Use `crontab` on Linux/macOS or Task Scheduler on Windows, following the same 15-minute interval. The command is the same one shown on the settings page.
No cron access at all? Register the URL from PressHangar Draft Pacer's settings page with a free service like cron-job.org, or simply skip it — PressHangar Draft Pacer still runs on standard WP-Cron with the watchdog as a backstop.
Troubleshooting
Scheduled posts aren't publishing
Check PressHangar Draft Pacer's status card for a cron health warning first — if WP-Cron has stopped, it'll tell you and link to the external cron guide above. If cron looks healthy, check for other scheduling plugins that might conflict, confirm your timezone under Settings → General matches your server, and make sure the scheduled date isn't in the past.
The dashboard shows a cron health warning
This means PressHangar Draft Pacer hasn't seen a cron event fire recently. Set up an external cron job using the guide above, or verify that `DISABLE_WP_CRON` isn't set to true in wp-config.php without a replacement cron job in place.
Posts are publishing too close together
PressHangar Draft Pacer enforces a minimum 15-minute gap between posts and auto-adjusts spacing if your posts-per-day and time window combination is tight. Widening the publishing window or lowering the max posts-per-day gives it more room to spread things out.
I need to start over
Use the clear queue option on the dashboard to remove all pending PressHangar Draft Pacer schedules and restore the original draft status, then reconfigure your settings and run the scheduler again.