How to run a Telegram aggregator channel when you don't have time to write every day

You’d like to run a channel on your topic, but you don’t have time to write for it every day. Or you already have a channel, and it gets fewer posts than you’d like. There’s no shortage of material, though: you already read the channels where all of it appears.

An aggregator channel gathers the posts of those channels in one place, so subscribers don’t have to read them one by one. That doesn’t have to mean forwarding: posts can be summarized, rewritten in your channel’s format, taken from sources in different languages and published in several channels at once. A channel like this is useful to people and can make money. Below: how to choose the channels, how to set up publishing, and what you still need to do yourself.

Why subscribe to an aggregator when you can subscribe to the channels themselves

Anyone can subscribe, but they have to know who to subscribe to. You’ve been following the topic for a long time and can tell who has something to say and who repeats everyone else. Someone who has just arrived can’t. And someone who can often just doesn’t want to read ten channels for what could be read in one.

Do you need an aggregator on your topic

Look at where the news on your topic lives. An aggregator is useful if it’s scattered across many channels. Take AI: new models and services keep appearing, dozens of channels write about them, and a person simply wants to know what’s out and whether it’s worth trying. They’ll subscribe to one channel that has it all.

If your topic has only two or three well-known channels, you don’t need an aggregator: everyone already follows them.

How to choose source channels for an aggregator

Start with channels you read yourself and would recommend to a friend. If you wouldn’t recommend a channel, your subscribers don’t need it either.

Now imagine all their posts appearing in your channel one after another. If two channels write about the same things, keep one: the bot publishes each post separately and won’t merge one story from different channels. If a channel writes about everything and only part of it fits your topic, you can keep it and filter out the rest. If a channel puts out so many posts that the others get lost behind them, you’re better off without it.

Estimate how many posts will come out on an ordinary day. If you wouldn’t want to read that many yourself, your subscribers won’t either. You can always add new channels later, once you see how the result reads.

How to run an aggregator channel automatically

Doing it by hand means reading the sources, summarizing posts and publishing them every day. That works when there are few posts, but with a dozen channels it becomes a job of its own.

The most convenient option is to set this up once in the bot. In «Essence» Bot you choose the channels, specify how to process their posts, and the bot publishes the result in your channels and groups. By default, each new post comes out as a brief summary with a link to the source. You don’t need to subscribe to public sources. The steps are described in the article on auto-publishing. During the trial you can connect five source channels for five days: that’s enough to see how your channel reads.

You can add a permanent signature with a link to your channel under the posts: that way, people who get a post forwarded to them will find you. If you already have a channel and subscribers came for your writing, start with one or two sources or set up a separate channel for the digest.

You can’t approve a post in advance: it comes out on its own, without your involvement. When you first turn this on, the channel will get the latest post from each source, and those may turn out to be old; after that, only new ones follow.

If you’d like to look at the results first, create a personal private channel and connect that to the bot. Posts will go there rather than straight to subscribers. You look through them when it suits you and move the best ones to your main channel, editing the text if needed. This takes more time, but subscribers will see only what you’ve checked.

How to keep ads and off-topic posts out of the channel

The bot doesn’t publish posts with the hashtags #ad and #sponsored, or with the Russian #реклама (“advertising”). Word filters remove the rest, and you can set them for a specific channel: “Only with” lets through posts with the words you want, and “Without” removes posts with the words you don’t.

In an AI digest, these could be the names of the models you follow. For ads without a hashtag, use words they usually contain, such as “promo code”. The filter doesn’t understand meaning, so some unwanted posts will still get through, and a post you need that lacks these words may get filtered out. How to put a word list together is something we covered separately.

How to make posts sound like your channel

You can replace the standard summary with your own AI prompt: you write yourself what form each post takes. The prompt can be set for the whole channel or for an individual source. For example:

• “A one-line headline, then two lines with the gist, no emoji.”
• “Explain terms so that a beginner can understand.”
• “Say what came out and who it’s useful for.”

This requires your own AI service key: you pay the service for requests, and the bot charges nothing extra. The result is up to 1,000 characters. Before turning the prompt on, press “Preview”: an example will arrive in your private chat, and nothing will appear in the channel. If the service refuses or the key stops working, the post won’t come out and the bot will send a notification. We covered how to connect a key and what else you can configure in the article on your own prompt.

How to collect sources in different languages and publish in several

Sources can be in any language: each of your channels has its own publishing language, one of 26, and summaries from all sources come out in it. This brings channels your subscribers wouldn’t read themselves into the digest. Filters check the original text, so write the words for a foreign-language channel in its language.

If your readers speak different languages, set up one channel per language and connect the same sources to them. You can connect up to 10 of your own channels and groups in total. It’s better to choose the language manually: otherwise it will follow the language of your interface in the bot. Posts without a summary, in the “original text” format, aren’t translated by the bot, so here you need a summary or your own prompt. We wrote more about this kind of channel in the article on a channel from foreign-language sources.

Do you need to check posts if the bot publishes them

Yes, especially in the first days: a summary conveys the gist but can miss a detail, and a mistake will reach subscribers before you see it. Compare posts with the originals: numbers, dates, names. Once you’ve gone several days in a row without finding errors or repeats, looking through the channel once a day is enough.

If a source starts writing too much or off topic, just remove it: the others will keep coming out as usual. And if you need time to figure things out, pause your channel, and publishing will resume with the next new posts.

Do you need to write something of your own in an aggregator

Not every day, but once a week it’s worth writing a short note: what mattered most among the posts that came out and what you think about it yourself. A prompt changes the delivery, but it won’t say that for you. A note like this turns a digest into your channel.

Can you take posts from other people’s channels

There’s no single answer: the rules depend on the country and on the channel itself, and you’re the one responsible for your channel. Telegram’s terms require you to follow the restrictions set by rights holders.

Journalism asks two questions about aggregation: are you taking readers from the author or finding new ones, and does your post replace the original or make people want to open it. A digest partly replaces the original: that’s why people subscribe to it. A short summary with a link leaves the reader a path to the author. If in doubt, ask the author, and if they object, remove the channel from your sources.

Can you include private channels in an aggregator

Technically yes, if you’re a member. The exception is channels and posts with forwarding restricted: the bot doesn’t process those. The bot reads such a channel through your Telegram account; connecting it is described here, and the risks of connecting an account are covered separately. Publishing from it to your channel has to be allowed separately. Only the processed text comes out, without the original and attachments, and a link to the post will open only for those who have access to the private channel.

A private channel writes for its members, while all your subscribers will see the summary, and the bot doesn’t ask the author. So check the channel’s rules first, or better yet, ask the author.

Can a channel like this make money

It can. The tools are the same as for any Telegram channel: a share of ad revenue, paid subscriptions, paid posts and sponsored posts. We covered the terms in the article on a channel from foreign-language sources. It’s better to build paid access on your own analysis and leave summaries free. How much a channel earns depends on the number of readers, and you’ll have to attract them yourself.

You no longer have to summarize every post yourself: you choose the sources, keep an eye on the channel and sometimes write something of your own.