rss feeds

Learn how to use RSS feeds to build up an automated blog network

Using RSS Feeds for Blog Content

Author: Mona Sutherland

So, you're starting your blog empire, but you just realized that means a heck of a lot of writing. Now many people do end up outsourcing their daily updates and just take care of things on the backend, but for those of you that would rather do everything yourself, there is a simple and elegant solution to filling up your blogs with plenty of content - RSS feeds.

RSS is a protocal that stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, but this article isn't going to get into the nuts and bolts of how RSS works. Instead, this one is going to cover exactly where to find great RSS feeds to use as search engine fodder.

There are a few things that really make or break a RSS feed. If you aren't going to be doing any of your own updates, finding ones with consistent updates is very important. Some sponsors are really on the ball with this, but the vast majority of them keep it going for awhile and then get bored. This is probably because getting blog traffic is a long term type of strategy, and it can take some time to see a return on investment.

The next thing you want to look for is well written text that is long enough to keep the search engines happy. Some RSS feeds are literally nothing more than glorified gallery descriptions - you get one short line with a crappy thumb and that's about it. Now, it's possible that you have accidentally stumbled onto the actual gallery RSS, but chances are the sponsor doesn't really know what blog feeds require.

The longer the better, usually, but in general you are looking for 50-100 words. The last thing you want to look for are eye catching thumbs. Your text will get the visitors there via the search engines, but good pictures will keep them there and clicking though to your sponsors.

There are so many different RSS parsers that it would be impossible to cover them all, both free and paid. If you're using Wordpress there is a world full of plugins that you can try out - the one I personally have used is Feed Wordpress. There are stand alone scripts and hosted scripts and any other type of script you can think of - the main thing to do is just try them out and see which one works for you. The best kind have some sort of rewriting function so that you can swap out enough words to make the feed post unique to your blog. That way, you can actually get ranked instead of competing with everyone else that is using that feed. Now you just sit back and let the script handle it.

If you're in a smaller niche that either doesn't have RSS feeds at all, or they are just crappy ones, there is another solution - you can make your own. Now there are two scripts that I know of offhand for this - one free and hosted, the other paid. The one I use most often is the paid script called Gallery Scraper. This allows you to input a list of hosted galleries, it generates the screenshots for you, and then you just put in the text. You do need an RSS parser for the actual feeds, but the amount of time saved by these pre setup galleries is just mind blowing.

The other script that will do this is Gallery2Blog. It is not quite as elegant as Gallery Scraper, but it is free and hosted elsewhere. Like Gallery Scraper, it will generate the screenshots for you from a list of hosted galleries, and all you need to do is put in the text. This one also requires a separate RSS parser.

Although high quality handwritten blogs do very well, it is very hard to build up a huge network of those. The time and/or money sink is just gigantic, and sometimes you don't have much luck with a particular niche. So making a combination network of both handwritten and RSS fed blogs is one way to really build yourself up without much of an outlay. With the RSS automated, you'll have plenty of traffic generation to feed your handwritten blogs, along with income coming in from these.

Whether or not you want to actively promote your RSS blogs is up to you - the thing that I did was just make niche directories that I could dump all of my RSS blogs into. I did make my handwritten ones prominent in these directories, but the hubs like this also make it easy to keep track of just how many blogs you have per niche.

So whether you're a diehard blogger looking for ways to expand your network painlessly, or you're a blog newbie looking for some advice, hopefully you have found plenty of useful tips and ideas! Now get to blogging.

About the Author:

Mona Sutherland graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Mona moved to the Republic of Panama to pursue certain entrepreneurial endeavors, including graduating valdevictorian from her MBA course at the University of Lousiville. Mona is currently an Internet Marketing Specialist.

Submit your blog to BLOGbal.com, the GLObal Blog Directory!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Using RSS Feeds for Blog Content

link building services

What is link building and what you should look for when deciding on selecting the different link building services and link building packages available. The wrong choice can actually harm your website by getting it banned from the search engines.

The Golden Standard In Link Building Services

Author: Anton Cox

Avoid Google SEO Penalties: Which Link Building Services Are Gold?

When focusing your online marketing efforts on link building, it’s quality, not quantity that provides the strong foundation from which other links can be built. Link building services are like panning for gold. The prospector must know gold when he sees it (sites with a high amount of traffic in a related industry are a great start). The prospector must know where to look (starting with the DMOZ and Yahoo directory) and what to do with the raw nuggets he finds (Submit the website, get listed in the directory or email the webmaster) in order to make or request a valuable one-link that will catch the eye of search engines.

There are 3 parts to the gold standard of link building.

1. Link building services that deal in multiple reciprocal links are ‘fools’ gold. Most back links that you pay for have little or no value. There's a myth among marketers that “more is better" but many back links can actually undermine your site's ranking. Most people believe the following is true:

“Buying back links is an easy and quick way to the top. It is expensive, but you will get a high Page Rank. You will not spend the many hours of dull link building work” – This is entirely false.

Firstly, Page Rank is an unreliable indicator of a pages value. If you are a PR1 then, in theory, aiming to link with sites that have a higher PR is wise, but it isn’t a one way path to the top. Google openly admits they ‘play’ with the data and it is ‘inaccurate’. Secondly, buying links is a big No! Google is quite rightly rejecting the practice of buying links to enhance your website. Google engineers monitor the top ranking sites for competitive keywords and if they slightly suspect link buying has been involved in your position, you can be penalised, even banned.

This, however, does not mean that you cannot buy the services that help create the most valuable links of all; one-way theme links.

What is a one-way theme link?

Theme equals ‘content’ which includes written content, video, audio anything that adds considerable value to the search results. One-way = your link embedded within quality content/information, then publishing on the web for the general public to access.

The pitfall is that many website owners get swept along with buying link building packages at the lowest price and this puts your website into an inescapable trap. The easier the link is to create, the lower the cost, the lower the cost the lower the value. Google isn’t going to make it easy for you to get links. They want to see you offer ‘value’ along with your links. Your website will probably get blacklisted by Google if you follow the cheapest option. The ‘fools gold’ of link building services is having many thousands of links originating from the same place or from worthless reciprocal link farms or from links created with other website that have no value in Google’s eyes. Google frowns on the practice of multiple back links pointing to a site from just one source. Particularly if the originating site has poor content value, loads of links and a low Page Rank. This is a characteristic failing of ‘link exchanges’ aka ‘Link Farms’ and their link building packages. Google spots these a mile away and will penalise their ranking. Reciprocal links are worthless now as a strategic move, however, tactically they still have their value, it’s better to have a reciprocal link with a high traffic site, then to have nothing at all. So simply linking up to a link exchange script is not only ineffective but also is damaging to your site, particularly if you don’t take the time to assess the value of each site before offering your link to a webmaster or blog owner.

2. Link building services that give you only ‘natural’ links are solid gold. What makes a good natural link may sounds obscure at first, but knowledge of your marketplace, in particular, your customer, helps identifying keywords to include on your website, also known as, on-page optimisation. They keywords provide considerable insight into this industry terminology and allow you to cater your content to the needs and desires of your market. To create the most valuable of links – theme link – involves using a combination of entertaining and informative copywriting (just like this) that solves and quenchers the target markets thirst for knowledge and integrating these keywords – this should be done for each page of your website. Only after that process is completed do you start building links to your website.

Sites that widely promote the trading of links should be avoided at all costs. Google looks for authentic, natural and organically developed back links. Sooner rather than later they will detect artificial links such as those that are openly traded. The obvious link trading networks are easy link partners for first-timers due to the structure of these networks they are wide open to discovery by Google engineers, once the engineers find these sites, they find you links as well, follow them and thus all parties involved are affected, even disqualified by Google.

3. Link building services that give you permanent back links are worth their weight in gold. Back links are critical to SEO and traffic generation. If you are going to invest into a one-way link building campaign, you must get a return on that investment. Steer well clear of subscription back links that take a monthly or quarterly fee for maintaining your ranking. Only ever pay for permanent one-way links. There is only one thing worse than not having a low search engine standing and that is losing your previously good search engine standing.

If you think that getting a solid gold link building service is just a matter of getting out your cheque book, think again. You need to make sure your website is optimised with the correct keywords, and then you embark on a one-way theme-link building campaign. That’s it! The fools gold links, reciprocal links and buying links, can seriously damage your websites marketing efforts. As with all things in life, it is more about quality rather than quantity that customers appreciate and Google rewards you for focusing on.

About the Author:

Anton Cox is senior project manager at World SEO. World SEO provides reliable link building services by offering several bespoke link building packages to website owners and SEO agencies wanting to enhance their web presence and win more visitors to their website.
Visit www.worldseo.co.uk to find out more about our link building services.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Golden Standard In Link Building Services

RSS feeds

RSS feeds are great for getting fresh information regularly on your website. This is a very convenient option that will benefit websites and blogs through updated content on a consistent basis and increased traffic.

How to Use RSS Feeds

Author: Wendy Moore

You may have seen the words RSS Feed many times on websites and blogs that you frequent, but exactly what is an RSS Feed?

RSS refers to Really Simple Syndication which is actually a format that allows a publisher to get updated content on their website or blog with little effort. Sometimes, RSS is also known as Rich Site Summary. Feed formats used in updating web content include news headlines, blog posts, audio clips and videos.

RSS formats have been in existence since 1999 but its popularity soared during 2005 and 2006. Currently, there are many sites that offer a feed of their content through the RSS format.

Why use RSS?

No longer do you need to search for fresh content every day to provide information on your site. RSS is a lot more convenient because it allows you to utilise other people’s information and feed it directly onto your website or blog. You no longer need to rush writing articles or hire article writers. Just search for relevant articles from directories on the internet and RSS allows you to feed them directly to your website.

How to use RSS

Using RSS feeds is easy. You just have to add several lines of code on your web page or blog and your content will automatically be updated.

Usually you need a feed reader or news aggregator software to gain RSS feeds from different websites and display them on your own web pages. Feed readers come in a variety of platforms but there are also the web-based feed readers such as My Yahoo, Bloglines and Google Reader.

After obtaining your feed reader, the next step is to find sites that syndicate content and add the RSS feed to the list of feeds your reader keep tracks of. This is done through subscription and usually by entering the feed’s URL into the feed reader.

Another option is to simply click an RSS icon in a browser which automatically starts the subscription process. The main function of an RSS reader is to monitor the user’s subscribed feeds for new content, downloads them and then provides a user interface to read the feeds.

Any publisher or author will greatly appreciate the benefits they can gain with using RSS feeds. By providing fresh and relevant content on a consistent basis, there’s an increased possibility of attracting more visitors to your site. Additionally, search engine spiders will be prompted to index your web pages and will do so regularly especially as your site gets updated with fresh information.

About the Author:

Wendy Moore is founder of www.affluencia.com and www.savvywebwomen.com. She is also the creator of the Savvy Web Secrets Mentoring Program - the step-by-step, hold your hand program that gives you the tools and confidence to take your business online. To receive your F.R.E.E. Special Report and weekly how-to articles to expand your online internet toolkit, visit www.savvywebwomen.com.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Use RSS Feeds

Mistaken Affiliate

'You may think this is far off from you', think again becuase it may just be by the door!'

Mistaken Affiliate Penalty Happens
Author: Musawenkosi
There should be a way to handle suspect affiliate fraud and one that wont bring shame to both the affiliate programme and the publisher. Its indisputably hurting to be deprived affiliation especially when you were reaping benefits from your website. I don’t know about those who fraud affiliate programmes intensionally, but for someone who is taken by surprise at account termination, it surely cuts to the born. I am a victim to false accusation from an affiliate company that I had gotten exited about because I was seeing a lot of progress. My story is detailed in two different forums: First, in my blog where the termination happened. I discovered this when I visited my website from a friends office and all the banners from this affiliate programme were gone. Think of the many pages that I had to reword because they were banner-less. It was such a huge inconvenience. I detail this in the post ‘ Assumes Affiliate Technical Complication’ . Second, I had to ask my wife to join this affiliate programme and help her open a website she will own so she can run the adds from the affiliate programme that terminated my account. I detail wife’s engagement into affiliate maketing in these two posts ‘ My Other Me’ Shall Correct my Affiliate Mistakes’ and ‘ How I got into Affiliate Marketing’ Why should I bother writing this? Who cares after all? What am I all about? I guess the reason makes part of the benefit of having a blog. Bloggers have freedom of expression and whatever is said, people can learn a lesson. My attitude is that ‘in every business one can get a lesson’, likewise, I treat my blog as a business and thus a lesson can be learnt from my experiences. If you are a webmaster or an aspiring one, you surely can learn to prepare yourself for the many challenges faced while doing business online. I know this will be over in no time, but life will go on as usual and for the record, this will be a testimony into my online success.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/mistaken-affiliate-penalty-happens-1127734.html
About the Author:
A writer, motivational speaker, teacher and a businessman. Authoring six motivational books and a freelencer for two local magazines. Website is yeboyesafrica.com.

Beauty Products

Reselling wholesale beauty products is a very profitable business to start online. Everyone wants to look their best and will spend big money in order to do it. To resell beauty products you will first want to find a good niche and then find a trustworthy wholesaler. The second you completed this two tasks, you will be on your way to starting your own online business.

Where To Find Wholesale Beauty Products?
Author: Tudor Ciurescu
Reselling wholesale beauty products is a very profitable business to start online. Everyone wants to look their best and will spend big money in order to do it. To resell beauty products you will first want to find a good niche and then find a trustworthy wholesaler. The second you completed this two tasks, you will be on your way to starting your own online business. There is such a huge variety of products to select from in the health and beauty category that sometimes it may seem overwhelming. So it is a good idea if you will start selling just some of the products in a certain category and not all the products you come across to. Beauty products will always be top sellers as women and men alike will always care about how they look and will spend colossal sums of money to locate goods that will help them with their beauty treatment. Beneath is just a partial list of beauty things that you can resell: Hair brushes Skin care products Anti aging creams Eye creams Body lotions Toothpaste Bath oil and shower products Face washes, toners, moisturizers Natural hair products Perfumes and fragrance Curling irons, strengtheners, hot rollers Pedicure and manicure products To find a profitable beauty niche, look at completed listings on eBay to see what is selling and for how much. You can also read magazines, look at websites to see what they are selling, and visit makeup shops at the mall to get ideas. Make your research in these places and find out what is good to sell and what isn’t. After you found your niche go and search for a reliable wholesale company can provide you with the products you need to sell. To find a true and genuine wholesale company that has the products you want to sell, you should first do your due-diligence and look at several different companies and then compare them. Some wholesaler will ask you to buy a minimum quantity of products while others may have a low order requirement or none at all. Now there is a tool online that you can use to source products. You can find this extremely useful and powerful tool at the Worldwide Brands website. There you will find all the expert advice you may need. These guys are the top experts in the ecommerce industry when it comes to sourcing products, finding good markets and making money on eBay.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/where-to-find-wholesale-beauty-products-1127905.html
About the Author:
Tudor Ciurescu is a eBay enthusiast. He owns and maintains eBay Triangulation Method - a resource for eBay hobbyists.