What's this RSS all about?
 

Although there's a lot of hype involving RSS a lot of people still don't seem to understand it, so Webcams.com has created a small introductory text with some samples of what you can do with RSS.

In a nutshell, RSS offers SELF UPDATING WEBSITES

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows you to display our freshly updated content on your site dynamically. This means that when an RSS feed that you're using is updated the new, updated information appears on your site automatically. Automation means less work for all of us.

Here is a sample RSS feed: http://www.webcams.com/affiliate/wca...seller=webcams

So how is the RSS data displayed on your site? With an RSS Parser. An RSS feed parser is a tool (usually in a scripting language such as PHP) that takes the data from the RSS feed and displays it in an easy to read format on your site by taking pre-defined RSS tags that the parser knows to look for such as <title> and <description> and parses them straight into your site.

What makes the process automated? Every time your page loads the parser loads the RSS feed URL. If a new item exists in the RSS feed, it is automatically placed on your site.

The most common sort of RSS parser are plugins for Wordpress (blog software) such as ?rss2blog? but custom parsers can be created easily as well (such as the one we provide for our online model and model profile RSS feeds).

RSS Parsers work by looking for tags that appear in a certain feed automatically. Some of the most common tags are item, link, and description. Parsers are designed to know that all the data that appears between an <item> and an </item> tag belongs to a certain entry on the feed, for example. It will then look for the <title></title> tags and know that the data between this is the title of the item, and so on.

Most feeds have standardized tags so that they will work with most parsers. Some feeds have custom tags for data that is specific to a certain site. For example, our online model feeds have tags like <wc:screen_name> and <wc:categories>. For custom feeds, you will need a custom parser to make the data appear intelligibly on your pages.

Webcams.com provides this parser for you so you don?t have to program one. You can use our parser to display data from our online model or model profile feeds on your site in a way that is completely customized by basic embedded PHP template.

Webcams.com offers a variety of RSS feeds to use to keep your site fresh and updated:

• Blog Entry Feeds: These are some of the most popular feeds. Instead of having to update a blog manually, you can load a Webcams.com feed URL created to your specifications from our promo area into your blog software and a new entry will appear automatically every time we add a new blog entry. The blog entry feeds are standardized with some pictures and a detailed ?blog post? that describes the featured Webcams.com model.
  
• Feed Hosted Gallery Feeds: You can display these feeds on your site instead of having to use gallery software to generate gallery results, or you can use these in a blog as well. These feeds include a preview thumbnail of one of our webcam galleries along with a description in a format of your choosing.
  
• Online Model Feeds: These feeds display a real time list of Webcams.com online models. You can choose the models you would like to display on your site by parameters such as niche, user rating, model join date, and more. For example, So if you wanted to display Asian girls with a minimum rating of 7 who joined in the past week, you could do this using our Online Model Feeds!
  
• Model Profile Feeds: If you would like Webcams.com model profile data for a particular model to display on your site in a format that matches the rest of your site all you need is our model profile feeds. These feeds display real time data from the model profile as it is updated. So for example if the model ?why chat with me? field is updated by the model, it will be updated on your site automatically without you having to do anything!

Here are some sample pages using our feeds and parser that give you a better idea of what we mean:

Model Profile: You can display any model's profile values directly on your website so the profile can be developed to look however you want.

Online Models in a Table: Display our online models in an array of your choosing. This sample is of a simple table, similar to most other sites' 'iframes'

Multiple Models in Different Niches on One Page: Display models in various niches all on one page, separated by niche

One Online Model: Basic sample of one large picture for one online model featured on the page. You could insert this into a side navigation bar, for example!

We hope this gives you a good introduction to RSS and how it can assist you in keeping your pages updated dynamically.

great post man :thumbsup

YARGH! Great post. Software like Autoblogger Pro can help maximize seo, and rss all on autopilot.

great read man!

i need to add your site

Nice read there:)

See Sig thnx

RSS is a great tool.. I think a lot of people are intimidated because it just sounds complicated and isn't as easy as putting a couple of nudey banners on your site and hoping to get sales, but it eliminates so much work.. automation with *good* RSS feeds using multiple sponsors means a quality experience for the surfer as well as for the webmaster

RSS is one of the best ideas created for the Net! :thumbsup

and if you looking for a great sponsor with nice blog feeds...click my sig :pimp

Here's what a parser looks like -

Display RSS on Your Pornsite

It's handy, but using java scripts won't let the feeds become part of the sites source code like php does..

Ok for return visitors but not se stuff...

Nicceeeeee post a+ covered it all bro.

ScooterMuze - I think you have just answered my question regarding this issue in my post http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=652007

Could you confirm?

Thank you for the info John, and as always, Webcams.com is on top of their game, the rss feeds Rock, and be sure to get your links up, send traffic, and Win Some FREE Cash during the Sunday Night Webcams.com Poker Tourneys on 2bet.com!

I replied in that thread as well.. with a couple helpful links..
Well.. helpful to me anyway.. :)

Thanks ScooterMuze - I will go and study.

Except that so far the vast majority of adult RSS feeds don't validate...

About 6 months ago I found 30 feeds which looked suitable for blogs. Just 2 of them validated (http://feedvalidator.org/). I'm not anal about that, although it ensures you won't get odd characters sometimes appearing in your posts. The thing is that only 5 other feeds didn't immediately or at regular intervals break my site. Quite a few couldn't be read at all.

That was using FeedWordPress, probably the most popular RSS plugin for WordPress and it works perfectly with properly formed feeds. I have it on several sites and have been using it quite a while.

Part of the problem is that inevitably errors creep in when feeds are updated and put online without being checked, although some of the coding is sloppy enough that no-one can ever have attempted to validate them. But the basic issue is probably that two years ago there were already 9 different and incompatible versions of RSS feeds (http://diveintomark.org/archives/200...ompatible-rss). Aggregators like FeedWordPress do an excellent job of accomodating the differences, but it doesn't take a whole lot to choke them.

Hopefully the feeds have improved, but it is worth validating them before you try to use them and only use those which throw up nothing worse than some warnings. Even so, you should watch your site carefully for a few days after adding new feeds, to make sure they are all reliable.

These looked a little silly when I pulled them -- but I'm sure it's my template. I left you a message about this in your post on Xbiz about a month ago, but I think the post scrolled away before anyone saw it. Feel free to ICQ to discuss this.

RSS is kind of like what we called "push" technology 10 years ago...

For those of you who don't remember:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/arc....mspx?mfr=true

RSS is a friendler version though.

Nice thread John ;)

I sent you an ICQ... msg me and we'll figure it out...