I have several sites that need a bit of updating on content - and the more sites I create, that means a big portion of time is taken up writing out content for them and I don’t necessarily mind - but I’m looking for a more time-effective method to get things done.
So after reading a little blurb over at John Chow’s site about creating a site and getting advertisers, etc and then working on getting RSS feeds to populate the site with content it got me thinking.
I could do that.
So I tried out a couple of RSS to HTML plugins for WordPress - found one that worked well and have been trying them out on a couple of sites.
This is awesome for me - I get content on my site.  All links for the info go back to the original authors, etc.  But it does leave me wondering if using content this way is a bit of a rip off for those who wrote the info in the first place. I think we’ve all been victim of people scooping our RSS feeds to use on their sites.  But I can’t help but feel a bit shady using this method.
I do have original content on the site and use the RSS feeds as a suppliment to the content there. I just can’t keep up with the continual content that they need. I guess I could consider it as being a portal to other sites on the same topic.
I guess my question is this - how do you keep content fresh on your site? I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a quite a few sites up and running and keeping things up to date is a bit of a struggle. I’m trying to find automated ways to keep content coming to those sites that need it. But at the same time I want to be as legitimate as I can and give credit where credit is due. I want people to go to those other sites - this isn’t really so much different than what I was doing on my own… or even like the gossip sites use content that has been written before.
It’s a bit of a conundrum… I know because we have RSS feeds - we’re open to this sort of site creation. I don’t want to be seen as an RSS squatter… of sorts - so I’m trying really hard at being as transparent as I can - as in where I get the info.
Right now I’m in no position to hire ghost writers for these sites, and honestly I don’t think ghost writing is what these sites need. They need far more updating than the occasional cool article.
So, after all my rambling - how do you keep up with handling content on your sites?
Popularity: 25% [?]
pagepeel by webpicasso.de
December 5th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I had a few RSS-updated sites for a while, then I started to feel rel dirty about that so I took them down. Now, whenever I see that I haven’t updated a blog in a long time, and I can’t afford a regular writer on that blog - I’ll find a related product that I think is cool and just write about why I think it’s cool and it’s features - or I’ll look for useful press releases on the topic and post them.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
I use Teli Adlam’s Datafeed to Wordpress script - it lets me add unique content to datafeeds and then once it’s set up, I have a blog that grows slowly and steadily, using datafeed content.
I’ve also let blogs just sit there, and then when I’m feeling motivated again, I go back in and start posting as if I hadn’t stopped. If it helps, think of the time you’re not posting not as time your blog is going stale, but rather as time that it’s nicely aging for you.
You’ve just given me an idea for a post!
December 9th, 2007 at 8:09 am
[...] Scooping RSS Feeds [Building My Empire] [...]
December 16th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
That is called is being a Feed Scraper and in my book the first thing I would do if you have Google Adsense on the blog that had my content on it would be to report you to Google Adsense and ask them to ban your account.
Think about how you would feel if I took your feed, put your content up on my site and made money from your hard work with out paying you? Would you like that?
I have had run ins with Feed Scrapers and in the end those blogs and websites have no value to users. Take the time and write content for the site or let it sit.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I don’t see this as a black and white issue. It’s not a matter of “Is scraping good or bad?”, it’s a matter of how you publish the scraped content. Like it or not, scraping is an efficient method of disseminating information in a world where the consumer demands comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of topics. I’m not saying this is the BEST method, nor the most journalistically sound method of reporting, but it’s certainly a fact of everyday life. Having worked for multiple local news stations I can say that a huge chunk of their reporting is copied off the AP wire outright with little or no fact checking. Same goes for most large multi-conglomerate media outlets, they ALL steal from each other.
Scraping can be beneficial to both parties involved if handled in a responsible manner, and MANY popular websites practice this(Lifehacker and Boing Boing come to mind). These sites are built around taking content from other sites and featuring it on their own, and I’m guessing that quite a few of the “scraped” sites are not complaining about the extra traffic that these mega-sites are providing them.
I assume that when most people talk about scraping they are referring to using content without linking back to the original author. This, however, is not scraping, it’s stealing (aka Plagiarism). At best you should write a quick blurb about why the content you are linking to is useful, and at the very least you should use a scraper that provides links back to the original content. I fail to see how responsible scraping is not mutually beneficial. Hell, I’d love it if 1000 people took my article and scraped it into their blogs with a link back at the end, that’s just free marketing as far as I’m concerned!