Creating Content
New websites are being launched daily. In order to compete, webmasters need to find alternative ways of producing themed websites. Highly focused articles are often sought by wembasters. Why? Because content on the web is still king! In order to attract search engines and site visitors, webmasters rely heavily on providing new, innovative and fresh content. If the web site content is rich, visitors will come. If the website content is updated regularly, visitors will return. When evaluating a website's traffic it is easy to see that the low cost of syndicated content can increase a website's value. Sites that contain multiple pages related to a specific topic increase the likelihood of being 'found' when a variety of search phrases are used for that topic.
By creating a niche resource, webmasters are viewed as industry experts and their websites are more likely to receive incoming directory links. A number of publishers provide free content, the only stipulation being that the webmaster serving the content must include the author resource box. Webmasters utilizing free content can easily create portals teeming with themed content.
Unlocking the Key to RSS
Many webmasters are struggling to find fresh, innovative content while other savvy webmasters have realized the potential hidden within RSS and are adopting the technology at a maddening pace. By utilizing RSS, webmasters can tap numerous free content sources with very little effort. RSS truly is a webmaster's key to free content.
Webmasters interested in taking advantage of RSS have a number of resources available to them:
GoArticles is a free content article directory with more than 20,000 articles available for syndication. Recently GoArticles added a feature that will allow webmasters and site owners to add dynamically updated article headlines to their sites by simply adding a single line of java script into their webpage. More than 100 articles are added daily to GoArticles. The content is refreshed and indexed every 3 hours, so new articles are updated on the site 8 times a day. Webmasters looking for content can include theme-based RSS feeds into their site, using java script supplied by GoArticles. The java script accesses an RSS feed that contains the article headlines on the GoArticles site.
GoArticles has 64 article categories, making it easy for webmasters to find content that suits their interest. Webmasters can select either the most recent articles in a specific category or the most popular articles in a specific category. As new articles are added to the GoArticles directory, the content on the websites using the java script will dynamically update.
Additional details at: http://www.goarticles.com
Example of a site using GoArticle's feed - http://www.small-business-software.net/goa-seo-headlines.htm
Another article resource webmasters may find useful is Article Central's tracker script. Webmasters can easily insert java script into their website to list all of Article Central's new articles or site owners can customize the tracker code to list only those articles chosen from the article repository's article category list. Articles relate to web development, design and technology-related issues and are updated daily.
Additional details at: http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/tracker.asp
Example of a site using Article Central's feed - - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/articledirectory-headlines.htm
Content syndication is a win-win for both the publisher and the webmaster. As a result of these new distribution opportunities provided by GoArticles and Article Central, publishers will receive increasingly more exposure for their articles and webmasters will have a new source for fresh content.
Webmasters interested in creating dynamic content from other free sources can use the free service provided by Feed2JS. All webmasters need to do in order to display the RSS feed on a website is enter the URL of the RSS source. Feed2JS creates java script that can be inserted into the HTML of the site owner's webpage. Webmasters are also given control over how their content is served, meaning they can customize the look and appearance of the headlines.
Additional details at: http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/index.php?s=build
Example of site using Feed2JS - http://www.feedforall.com/rss2java-rssblog.htm
Search engines are increasingly looking for theme-based portals by having specific targeted content where Webmasters are likely to be defined as industry experts. RSS is a free and easy way to promote a site and its content without the need to advertise. RSS is defined specifically for syndication; in fact the acronym RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This means that webmasters serving RSS content do not need to negotiate complicated content sharing partnerships in order to use content contained within an RSS feed.
In order to completely understand the power and potential of RSS, webmasters may want to visit the following resources:
RSS Specifications - everything you need to know about RSS - http://www.rss-specifications.com
Feedster - locate RSS feeds that are topic specific http://www.feedster.com
FeedForAll - create RSS feeds from your own content http://www.feedforall.com
RSS4U - free online RSS reader http://www.rss4u.com
FeedDemon - desktop RSS reader - http://www.feeddemon.com
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley
About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for the NotePage http://www.notepage.net and FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com product lines. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net