Integrating Jottings with Zapier/IFTTT

When I built Jottings, I wanted it to be a simple, standalone place to share your thoughts. But I also knew that what you create shouldn't be trapped in one place. Your writing belongs everywhere you want it to be.

That's why I made sure Jottings generates a full RSS feed for each site. And RSS feeds are powerful—they're the golden ticket to automation.

Why Automate Your Microblog?

Before we dive into the how, let me ask: why would you want to automate anything on Jottings?

Think about it. You publish a thought. Your followers on Twitter see it. Your email subscribers get notified. It saves to your Notion database. All without you manually copying and pasting.

That's the dream, right? Write once, publish everywhere.

Or maybe you're building a system where Jottings is the source of truth. Your RSS feed becomes the engine that powers your entire digital garden. Every new jot triggers a workflow that keeps everything in sync.

I started thinking about this when I realized: most people have a dozen places they want their content to go. Email lists. Twitter. LinkedIn. Telegram. Slack. Notion. A Discord channel. Having to manually manage all of those is exhausting.

Automation isn't lazy. It's efficient.

Getting Your Jottings RSS Feed

First things first: where's your RSS feed?

Every Jottings site automatically generates a full RSS feed. Here's the URL pattern:

https://{subdomain}.jottings.me/feed.xml

So if your site is thoughts.jottings.me, your RSS feed is at https://thoughts.jottings.me/feed.xml.

The feed includes everything: the full text of each jot, publication date, and any media you've included. It's a complete representation of your site's content, updated every time you publish.

You can verify it's working by visiting the URL directly in your browser. You should see XML that looks like valid RSS (it won't be pretty, but it'll be there).

Now grab that URL. You'll need it for the next step.

Setting Up Zapier

Zapier is my favorite automation tool. It connects thousands of apps, and it understands RSS feeds perfectly.

Here's how to set it up:

Step 1: Create a new Zap

Go to zapier.com, sign in (or create an account), and click "Create a Zap" at the top left.

Step 2: Choose your trigger

Search for "RSS" and select "RSS by Zapier" as your trigger app. Choose "New Item in Feed" as the trigger action.

Step 3: Connect your feed

In the trigger setup, paste your Jottings RSS feed URL. Zapier will fetch your latest jots to test the connection. If it works, you'll see your recent posts listed.

Step 4: Create your action

Now comes the fun part. What do you want to happen when you publish a new jot?

Here are some popular options:

To Twitter: Search for "Twitter" and select "Create Tweet." Use the title or description field from the RSS item as your tweet text. Boom—every jot becomes a tweet automatically.

To Email: Use "Gmail" or "Email by Zapier" to send yourself (or a mailing list) an email every time you publish. Format it nicely with the jot's title, content, and a link back to your site.

To Notion: Select "Notion" and create a new database entry. Map the jot's title and content to your database columns. Now every jot is automatically saved to your Notion workspace.

To Slack: Use "Slack" to post a message in a channel every time you publish. Great for internal team communication or notifying friends.

Step 5: Test and turn it on

Before you go live, test the integration. Zapier will simulate sending a notification with your most recent jot. Make sure it looks good.

Then toggle the Zap on. You're done.

Using IFTTT as an Alternative

If you prefer IFTTT (which has a simpler interface), the process is similar:

Step 1: Create a new applet

Go to ifttt.com, sign in, and click "Create" at the top.

Step 2: Choose the trigger

Search for "RSS" and select "Feed." Then choose "New feed item."

Step 3: Paste your feed URL

Enter your Jottings feed URL. IFTTT will preview recent items.

Step 4: Choose your action

Pick where you want the content to go. IFTTT has built-in support for Twitter, email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and more.

Step 5: Customize and publish

Write a template for how each new jot should appear. IFTTT lets you use variables like {{EntryTitle}} and {{EntryContent}} to customize the output.

Click "Finish" and your applet is live.

Creative Automation Ideas

Now that you know how to set it up, here are some creative ways to use it:

Multi-platform publishing: Set up separate Zapier zaps for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Mastodon. Your jots automatically reach all your followers across platforms.

Email newsletter: Create a zap that sends an email to your subscribers every week (or daily) with your latest jots. You have a newsletter without managing mailing lists.

Telegram channel: Post each jot to a Telegram channel automatically. Your subscribers get instant notifications on mobile.

Slack updates: Post new jots to your team's Slack workspace. Great for async communication or sharing quick updates.

Notion database: Build a searchable archive of all your jots in Notion. Combine multiple feeds if you run several Jottings sites.

Discord bot: Send new jots to a Discord server. Perfect for communities or private channels with friends.

Backup system: Use a service like Dropbox or Google Drive to automatically archive each jot as a text file. Your writing is always backed up.

Aggregator site: If you run a content hub or publication, use multiple Jottings feeds as inputs. Every new jot from contributors automatically appears on your main site.

Things to Know

A few quick notes before you go wild with automation:

Delays: Zapier and IFTTT aren't instant. There's usually a 5-15 minute delay between publishing a jot and the automation triggering. If you need real-time, this might not be the solution.

Limits: Zapier's free tier gives you 100 tasks per month. IFTTT is free but with limited applets. Once you scale beyond that, you'll need to upgrade.

Error handling: If a zap fails (say, Twitter goes down), Zapier keeps retrying for a while. IFTTT is more lenient. Check your dashboard occasionally to ensure everything's running smoothly.

Privacy: Remember that RSS feeds are public. If your Jottings site is public, everything you publish is visible in the feed. Keep that in mind when setting up automations.

Why I Built This In

I included full RSS feeds in Jottings because I believe in open standards. Your content shouldn't be locked into one platform. RSS is a simple, decades-old format that any tool can understand.

By building on RSS, Jottings integrates with literally thousands of tools without me having to build specific integrations. That's the power of open platforms.

If you're publishing to Jottings, you should be able to send that content anywhere. To anyone. Through any tool.

Next Steps

Try it out. Pick one automation to start with. Maybe it's posting your jots to Twitter. Or saving them to Notion. Or emailing them to friends.

Once you see the first one working, you'll probably want to add more.

If you hit any issues or have questions about setting it up, I'm always around. Hit me up on Twitter or drop an email—I'm vishal@jottings.me.

Happy automating.