I honestly didn’t think I did much different than other users of RSStoBlog…I just followed Michelle’s guidance and instructions. (i.e. don’t post at the exact time every day, alter your content, etc.)

The only sites I’ve had trouble with (penalized) are the sites that I haven’t ‘fed’ for the last 6 months, but that’s no fault of the program, it’s a serious user fault. And I do know that if I would just get moving on those sites again they’d move back up the ranks – just that I lost interest in them because the market I chose was dry.

I wonder…perhaps the sites you thought were penalized for RSStoBlog use were actually penalized for something else? There’s a whole pile of things google slams us for if we’re not mindful.

I hope that helps…just follow Michelle’s guidelines and assistance, she’s very good to her customers if you have to ask for help.

Laura

Yes I have seen all of Michelle’s tools now and played with each (except the clickbank version). They are very good.

I know the datafeed stuff seems confusing at first, but once you get using these tools you’ll never look the same way at building income generating websites again.

I do have one example in my datafeed videos and another one on my latest post, here – http://www.smartzville.com/marketing-help/learn/make-commission-ready-pages-fast – my initial review is on that page as well.

Laura Childs

man this datafeed stuff gets confusing.. is this the same as the amazon one? or is the amazone one just work with amazon only..

p.s do you have a site where your running telis and michells scripts that we can see to the output.. if not no worries

No trouble.

“What is a footprint in regards to search engine positioning?”

‘Footprints’ are a slang name for anything that makes your site appear automated to the search engine robots or spiders.

For instance, a footprint could be if posts are made to your blog exactly 12 hours apart. Or if every page has the exact same number of links or words. For that matter a really big footprint is if your website is an exact replica (also known as duplicate content – same format, same content, same metatags) as another website (often the case with ready built sites selling on ebay).

All scripts I suggest, Teli’s WordPress Datafeed Script, Michelle’s RSS2Blog, and Michelle’s Affiliate Datafeed Script, are easily footprint free.

Plus they’re a fun and lucrative way to build sites!

Laura

p.s. You don’t need them all to make money with your websites. If your skill set is strong in running blogs, then grab Teli’s script. If you like RSS, standard HTML, and/or blogs, then Michelle’s products are for you. Definately the part I love the most is that both of these business women offer excellent support and assistance!

Thanks for the informative and well written articles!

Could you please explain what you mean by a ‘footprint’ in relation to using the Wordpress data feed script.

Thanks
Alex

Michelle’s datafeed software will perform a number of functions for you (a) create an RSS Feed of products with your affiliate link embedded, (b) create actual web pages of products with your affiliate link embedded, (c) create an RSS2BLOG post file of products with your affiliate link embedded (and if you know RSS2BLOG you know the huge versatility of that script!) – set it to run as often as you like, change it whenever you like – it’s that easy.

Laura Childs

Michelle’s merchant datafeed software is here. Currently selling at pre-launch prices.

Both scripts come with supporting documentation that explain which fields to keep and which to delete. In the affiliate datafeed video tutorials I made you can see how easy it is to select and delete entire columns with one click.

You only need a few fields to make these work for you. And, as you see in the videos in 20 minutes the entire thing was set up and posting regularly.

Laura

So if I want a post per day, one every 24hrs, I can’t go back in later and change that to one every 10 hours or 1 every hour.

Is Michelle’s Amazon datafeed software the same but better? Meaning will it work with datafeeds and post randomly?

Thanks, Mark

What things go and what things stay?

I do still use this script and I still love it as much today as I did when I first grabbed it.

Actually, I probably like it better now since I’ve been making pretty easy affiliate commissions all summer long. Would I buy it again if I had to buy one licence per site? You bet I would!

Your second question, re: search engines and blog-based stores, is a little trickier to answer…

I believe the secret to my success with using this script (for both sales and for search engine positioning) is due to the fact that I always add a little more…

For instance I would never use WordPress’ default template, or product descriptions verbatim. It doesn’t take much to change things up a bit and give your site the ‘edge’.

Taking it One Step Further

Some of the advanced techniques I’ve employed with this script (but it isn’t really necessary, it’s just my way of ‘playing’ at my work) are:

- adding a few articles to my affiliate datafeed sites,

- mixing up the feeds (choosing only select products from any merchant feed, showcasing multiple merchants in one feed),

- doing a global search and replace in my datafeed for generic words (ie., replacing style with design, new with innovative, traditional with classic, etc.),

- and sometimes, when I have 1/2 a mind to work with (ie., watching TV with family or sitting with my daughter while she’s doing school work), I’ll often surf through my posts and add a personal comment on random items. (e.g., “This would look great as…”, “Change the whole look of your…”)

Perhaps these things take more time in the long run (changing a template=5 minutes, mixing up feed content=1 hour, adding the personal touch=whatever time you have to give your projects), but I believe that those ‘touches’ help to set your site apart from the others in the search engine robots’ and spiders’ eyes.

One datafeed blog site I launched in the Spring using Teli’s script had top 10 results for mid-level keyword phrases and a PR4 on google’s next update (two weeks after my launch). Although I don’t place much emphasis on PR, it does help to know you’re on the right track when you can get and keep that rank.

Now to be honest I have had a busy summer here on the farm and with local community work so now that the activity has died down I can get back to work on these sites (and building more) in the coming months.

It’s just such easy money and if you like the products or topics you target the work is actually fun.

My strategy is to spend 10-15 hours per site set-up (which will run on auto-pilot for 4-5 months at a time), then another 10 hours or so getting the site indexed, getting some good inbound links, and to promote the RSS feeds.

Since I switched hard drives this summer I’m without my old version of MS Excel so I’m struggling at the moment with using OpenOffice for my datafeeds. There’s definately something I’m messing up with saving the files and I’m waiting on Teli’s support desk’s reply.

But…this week I’ve also started playing with Michelle Timothy’s Amazon Feed creator. That is one slick piece of softare! It can grab customer reviews, create standalone RSS feeds, and/or create ready to use content for your RSS2Blog install – with product photos and your affiliate link embedded.

There’s just a pile of ways Michelle’s software could be used to earn affiliate income.

How to Choose?

If I was just starting out I’d choose the WordPress Data Feed script. It’s easy and versatile.

If I already owned RSS2Blog I’d grab the Amazon Feed software as a nice compliment and use both features of the software (1) to generate standalone RSS feeds and (2) to generate content for my blog.

And without trying to confuse anyone any further, I’ve heard through the grapevine that Michelle is soon launching a few more complimentary tools – watch for that announcement here next week!

Signing out,

Laura Childs

p.s. You can try-before-you-buy! Michelle’s Amazon Affiliate software has a free trial version here!

p.p.s. Late addition! Just launched this week – Michelle’s merchant datafeed software – check it out, you won’t believe the number of ways it will create money making content for your websites!

My limited knowledge of servers and such tells me that cPanel runs on Windows-based servers. The easies thing to do is switch hosts or get a new server that is capable of cPanel managed accounts.

You can still install and run WordPress on unix machines, it’s simply a matter of 5 minutes to install (as opposed to cPanel which is generally less than 1 minute).

Laura