Jace - if you're awake, please contact me. Been playing around with WP the way it's setup for you and need to chat with you ;) Thanks

You need to fix the length on your thumb includes.Somehow I doubt they are all length of 5000 :1orglaugh there are many functions available to do this, best way would probably be with the use of cURL

I have to agree with both Jace and TheDoc here...

It is very important to have a lot of info in good RSS feeds. Extremely important to use <enclosure /> for example, and also very good to use Yahoo's mRSS extension (media content) if you have videos embeded in the feed.

The feeds I am building for a new project of mine have a good <description /> which is HTML and can be directly put into blogs, but I also use <media:thumbnail /> <media:title /> <media:description /> <author /> <pubDate /> and of course <guid /> and <link /> for additional info that is all INCLUDED in the description HTML but if someone wants to grab the info one by one and build their OWN design based on it, there is no problem to do so.

The BEST way to use an RSS feed is via customizing how to output the info so you can actually display the content the way YOU want it and not let someone inject pure HTML into your blog. Of course this requires having all the info needed to do so.

teksonline, building a standardised TGP extension to RSS is a great idea, we should definately do that.. if you would like some more feedback on what you made already, get a hold of me on ICQ 1889711.

I too think the answer to success in RSS is the sponsor providing as much raw data as possible and the affiliate learning how to manipulate it, especially the description. This will ensure your output is truly unique and not just because you have a different size pic than the next guy.

For the webmaster not skilled in this manipulation, anything less than customization options from the sponsor to the point that each affiliate gets his own feed with unique text will tend to suck in the long term unless you are the only webmaster pushing that feed.

Most Sponsors who have jumped on the "yeah we have that RSS thing too" bandwagon in the last year remind me of a couple of television commercials. :)

The first one for fandango, where you can buy your movie tickets online. The guy that doesn't know what the fuck fandango is overhears the couple mention it at the ticket counter and thinks all he needs to do is mention that word and he will be cool and get his tickets.

The other one is the latest verizon commercial, where the guy asks the verizon competitor if their network can do that an he says something like "sure why not" without understanding what the guy wants.

It's weird that there have been so many threads about Sponsors asking affiliates what they want in a feed, usually after Affiliates complain about what they first put out, that you would think the latest sponsors coming out with RSS would have some pretty hot feeds, but no.

In a nutshell, for a Sponsor to really stand out, they need to do two things that are of course easier said than done.

1) Have as many customization options as possible, ideally including a text generator to pump out a unique description for each affiliate's feed so the lazy/busy webmaster can grab it and go.

and/or

2) Provide as much raw data as possible so that the affiliate can take customization to the next level beyond whatever can be generated by the options offered by the sponsor.

Amen Nathan and Oz. It's the raw data that is sadly lacking in feeds. I know Jace keeps going on about tgp, but I haven't ever used a feed on a tgp. This is not as he concludes the difference between TGPers and Bloggers using the feed, it's the difference between someone knowing HOW to use and manipulate and feed and someone using a plugin that doesn't have a clue how to use a feed without a plugin.

Jace - when you get a sec please contact me. :)

Hi Jace,

At WebcamCash, we've listened to our affiliates and believe that we have the solution for you with our RSS Feeds. Go check them out!

We have also provided our affiliates with a video tutorial on how to use the RSS feed.

If you have any futher questions about our RSS Feeds or any of our toolsets, then contact us at [email protected]:thumbsup

Purple Haze

Interesting thread but I still don't understand. I think we should call them RHS feeds (Real Hard Syndication) instead of RSS (Real Simple Syndication)

Jace can you or someone tell me if my RSS feeds suck or are decent?

http://www.beachmodel.com/free_galle...c=l&disp_num=0

I am guessing that this feed is just for TGP's and not blogs?
This is Woj's script in action.

Any help an input would be appreciated as I would like to have good blog feeds.

Cheers,
BV