Agents Online Real Estate Forums, Discussion, Realtors Marketing Tips


Click Here to display our logo on your site and link to us!
AgentsOnline Real Estate Discussion Forums Logo

Topic Options
#64511 - 04/27/06 10:25 AM Addding RSS Feeds to Website
Kevin Hall Offline
Member

Registered: 12/22/04
Posts: 29
Loc: San Diego
I've read a lot on adding RSS to my website and this forum has shared some thoughts and opinions about whether it is good or bad and things to avoid.

What I would like to know is...
Who has a site that is using a feed?
What software are you using to accomplish this?
I've read in other SEO Forums that it is best to avoid java script methods of bringing RSS feeds into your site and that a php method is better.

We are looking into a software called FeedForAll. Has anyone used it? I am still in the steep part of the learning curve on this one folks and could use some coaching.

Or... Do you know a better way/software to bring feeds into your site?
_________________________
Halifax Real Estate

Top
#64512 - 04/28/06 01:23 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
dm Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 03/01/06
Posts: 8
Loc: Orange County, CA
If you are adding less then one article to your website per week, and want to share it through RSS, then you can easily do/edit RSS manualy. It is not required to automate FEED generation.

Top
#64513 - 04/28/06 04:45 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
vri Offline
Member

Registered: 12/29/04
Posts: 38
I was using magpie, and still do on my asp sites but found the following on digital point for php and it's the as simple as can be. Just add the full url of the desired feed in place of http://www.yourfeedhere.

 Code:
   <?php
$insideitem = false;
$tag = "";
$title = "";
$description = "";
$link = "";
function startElement($parser, $name, $attrs) {
 global $insideitem, $tag, $title, $description, $link;
 if ($insideitem) {
  $tag = $name;
 } elseif ($name == "ITEM") {
  $insideitem = true;
 }
}
function endElement($parser, $name) {
 global $insideitem, $tag, $title, $description, $link;
 if ($name == "ITEM") {
  printf("<dt><a href='%s'>%s</a></dt>",
  trim($link),htmlspecialchars(trim($title)));
  printf("<dt>%s</dt>
",htmlspecialchars(trim($description)));
  $title = "";
  $description = "";
  $link = "";
  $insideitem = false;
 }
}
function characterData($parser, $data) {
 global $insideitem, $tag, $title, $description, $link;
 if ($insideitem) {
 switch ($tag) {
  case "TITLE":
  $title .= $data;
  break;
  case "LINK":
  $link .= $data;
  break;
 }
 }
}
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData");
$fp = fopen("http://www.yourfeedhere","r")
 or die("Error reading RSS data.");
while ($data = fread($fp, 4096))
 xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp))
  or die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d",
   xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),  
   xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));
fclose($fp);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
?>
_________________________
Calgary Real Estate

Top
#64514 - 05/07/06 07:22 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
blueoceanwave Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 05/05/06
Posts: 8
The best solution would be to have it run on the server, in something like PHP and for it to run automatically without any interaction, then you'll know it'll be done on time, all of the time.

Top
#64515 - 05/08/06 03:12 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
vri Offline
Member

Registered: 12/29/04
Posts: 38
Yea, that's what that script does... picks up the feed and displays it (magpie does as well but you have to load a bunch of stuff first).

You don't have to update the page if that's what you mean. It's updated when they update the page.
_________________________
Calgary Real Estate

Top
#64516 - 05/23/06 05:04 AM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
AdviceForAgents. Offline
Member

Registered: 05/15/06
Posts: 21
Loc: Austin, TX
Hi Kevin.

You have some good technical advice here. So let me offer a bit of the non-technical...

An often-overlooked fact about RSS feeds is that many web users have no clue what they are. Sure, webmasters and web marketers know about them, but a lot of the intended audience remains clueless.

RSS becomes more popular every day, but it's a long way from being a household term.

Before I knew about RSS, I used to see links on websites all the time that just said "our feed" or "RSS." I ignored them because they never meant anything to me.

Then one day I stumbled across a website that explained the purpose and value of RSS.

My reaction: "You mean I can add this to my 'My Yahoo' page with a simple click? And it sends me fresh content regularly and anonymously? Cool. Why didn't anybody tell me that before?"

The websites that explain the value of RSS are the websites with the most RSS subscribers.

Seth Godin, a internet marketing pioneer, says it well in his blog post below:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/08/whats_rss.html

Here are a couple of articles you might find helpful:

http://www.digitaldivide.net/articles/view.php?ArticleID=68

http://www.chacocanyon.com/resources/rss-explained.shtml

Hope that helps!
_________________________
Brandon Cornett
Top 10 Agent - The SEO Book


Top
#64517 - 09/17/06 11:06 AM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
peaforabrain Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 09/17/06
Posts: 5
Loc: uk
I agree with Brandon, with the fact that RSS is largely overlooked by a lot of website owners because it seems very complicated.

I have an articles section on one of my websites and use magpie to feed the articles here and there. It is fairly easy to implement, but probably wouldn't be for a novice website owner. There do seem to be a lot of very user friendly RSS parsers available now, some you have to pay for. have not ried any, so cannot comment.

I have the feeds in a lot of the RSS search engines, but have found the take up very poor, even though there are some very good original articles all related to the travel industry.

In conclusion, the take up of RSS and similar feeds is still in its early stages, but will be commonplace sometime in the future, is my opinion.
_________________________
The world is getting smaller - so make the most of it before it disappears

http://www.worldpropertylinks.co.uk/forum
http://www.rentals365.com

Top
#64518 - 09/17/06 07:48 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
RealEstateWebGuy Offline
Member

Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 106
Loc: Nashua NH/ Boston MA USA
I absolutely agree. Email is a pain in the ((*&*%)$$), with spam, etc. The problem with RSS is it's confusing to people because it's never really been made easy, except on a Mac (we get RSS feeds directly in the browser... have for a couple of years). HOWEVER, the new version of IE is coming out and has a built in RSS reader in the browser as well... as that becomes more adapted, RSS will become more mainstream.... and it makes SO much more sense than email newsletters, etc.

Top
#64519 - 09/18/06 01:53 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
Kevin Hall Offline
Member

Registered: 12/22/04
Posts: 29
Loc: San Diego
Hey, thanks for bumping this post. I should have reported back earlier (my bad). I did find a solution. It is a software program called CaRP
They have a short article here called
Two simple steps to higher search engine placement

They have a free version or the paid version gives you more options.

Since it is PHP, the only tricky part I found was that you do have to follow the steps to modify your htaccess file to recognize htm and html ending.

Here are a couple of pages I've been working with.
This is a develoment page for San Diego Real Estate site: http://www.garykentteam.com/dev/rss-feed-carp.htm

Here is a domain incubation information site I am developing

I think it is a cool idea to add fresh content to otherwise static page. From what I've read, it probably will not be a great SEO benefit from the content as much as from the amount of changing content.
_________________________
Halifax Real Estate

Top
#64520 - 09/18/06 08:46 PM Re: Addding RSS Feeds to Website
Kevin Hall Offline
Member

Registered: 12/22/04
Posts: 29
Loc: San Diego
Okay, now I'm going to have a little fun,
But here is another example of how I used the CaRP RSS Feed.

Check out my homage to September 19th, International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

http://www.white-hat-domains.com/tlap.html

Even though this is tongue-in-cheek it does show another way of adding dynamic content.
_________________________
Halifax Real Estate

Top


Newest Members
YourNetGuy, Timothy Evans, Donald Trump, Jesse Title Guy, Moe
12453 Registered Users
Who's Online
32 registered (Agent_Mark, Andrea C, Big Daddy Cool, ChristieS, 5 invisible), 45 Guests and 7 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Search

Shout Box

Good Ideas
Nusetlock.com




Energized Seller




Realtor Websites




Sponsors


Real Estate Careers, Get Certified. Improve your BPO business., How To Advertise Here


This site presented by RNC Internet Services