Background
Search engines are especially interested in websites with relevant content that is always being updated. Websites that look like they don't change and don't have any new content may be seen as dormant, and in order to give users the most up-to-date and relevant search results, search engines may rank them lower than websites that are updated regularly.
What's that?
RSS to Blog Pro is a tool for posting to blogs that can be set up to update itself. It is a PHP script that is installed on a single web hosting account. From this central installation, fresh content from different sources can be added to multiple blogs. There is also an older, non-pro version that does the same basic things but needs to be installed separately for each blog it manages.
How does it solve a problem?
Adding new and, more importantly, relevant content to a website can take a lot of time and effort. You can either spend time looking for and making new content, or you can pay someone else to do it. If you don't add new content to your websites, they can look old and fall off the search engines' radar. This changes where your website ranks in search results and hurts any free traffic you get from search engines as a result. If your sites depend on traffic from search engines, this could be the end of them.
What's in it for me?
RSS to Blog Pro solves the problem of having to regularly update website content by automating the whole process, from finding relevant content based on keywords you provide to posting content to your website blog. In the eyes of search engines, adding content that doesn't belong on a website isn't nearly as good as adding content that does belong on a website. The more specific your niche, the more likely you are to rank higher because you'll be competing with fewer websites. If your website's content is all over the place, you might end up competing with sites in a lot of different niches.
If you're making content-based websites with the goal of making money with AdSense, you know that the ads that show up depend on what's on your pages. If the content on your website isn't relevant, the ads on your site won't be relevant to the people who visit it, so they won't be interested in clicking on them and you won't make much money.
Features
- Regular updates.
- Affiliate programme with two levels that pays 40% commission to the top level and 10% commission on any sales made by affiliates you bring in.
- You can use keywords and RSS feeds to create content automatically, or you can add your own content.
- A single installation can post to as many blogs as you want.
- Ping functionality is built in for blog and ping.
- A log is kept so that you can see exactly what was posted and where it went.
- User support forum.
- You can schedule your blog posts to go up at random times, like once or twice a day, so that they look more natural.
- Works with WordPress, Blogger Blogs, Movable Type, Type Pad, Live Journal, and MSN Spaces, among others.
- There are no "footprints" that show that the content was made by a computer.
What I Know About RSS to Blog Pro
I've been using RSS to Blog Pro on more and more blogs in different niches since August 2005. Since then, I'm happy to say that my income from AdSense has gone up every month. With the software on my virtual private server (VPS), I manage about 50 blogs and post new, relevant content every day or two. I wouldn't recommend installing RSS to Blog Pro on a shared server, because if you're updating a lot of websites or running the script often (every couple of minutes), your host might not like it. Considering how cheap a VPS is to run and how much more reliable it is, there is no good reason to risk a shared server. A virtual private server (VPS) is like having your own server. It is completely separate from other people's websites, so you can't change them and they can't change you. There is one exception, which is disc IO, but you shouldn't worry too much about that.
Relevance is really what makes the difference between an auto-content-generation tool that helps your bottom line and one that does nothing for it. I can't say this enough: if you don't have relevant content, search engines won't be able to classify your niche or rank you fairly among your competitors. That means you won't do well when people search for things in your field. It could also mean that your website will show ads for tennis gear when your specialty is taking care of dogs. When people come to your website looking for information about dog care, they are not likely to be interested in tennis equipment because it is not something they need at that time.
There's no doubt that this helps keep those websites looking new, and my website stats show that my blog pages get a steady stream of visitors every month. And, of course, a lot of clicks on targeted ads means a lot of targeted visitors and a lot of targeted content.
Support-wise, Michelle, who made RSS to Blog Pro, has responded quickly to my emails, and there is an active user forum where people can help each other. Michelle also helps out on the forum, though it can take a few days for her to answer some questions. However, the software, user base, and support forum are all mature enough to answer almost any common question a new user might have.
The software is easy to set up and install, so you should be up and running in an hour or two.
One thing I haven't done is use RSS to Blog Pro's ability to "ping" blog directories. This is because if I pinged these sites every time I added a new post to one of my blogs, I'd end up pinging up to 50 times a day from the same domain (the domain on which RSS to Blog Pro is installed). I don't want to be blacklisted for pinging too much and using up too many of the directories' resources, so I use the ping feature in my WordPress blog software instead. This way, each ping comes from its own domain. Again, this will make RSS to Blog Pro look a lot more natural and help it work better by separating some of the work from it.
Conclusion
After using RSS to Blog Pro every day for 6 months, I'm pretty happy with how it works. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants self-updating websites that get targeted traffic, as well as to anyone who wants to make money online. When choosing a host for the script, you need to be careful, but once it's set up, it's easy and reliable to use. A great script that both AdSense users and affiliate marketers should have in their toolboxes.
