Auto-refresh your content for free
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29 July 2005
Invariably, there’s little spare time to update the site or add new relevant content when what limited resources are available must be focussed solely on core business activities. Wouldn’t it be good to have content automatically added to your site for no effort and at no cost? Well, we can. For there’s literally hundreds of free content providers around desperate to get their output eyeballed. The catch with many is that they insist on co-branding or serving up adverts, and often there’s little or no control over the advertising material that comes with their newsfeed. An exception is a relative newcomer to the scene, contentinfusion.com who supply a wide range of themed newsfeeds for free, with no adverts and no co-branding. Despite the company being American, the content so far appears not to be as US-centric as we have come to expect and much can sit comfortably on European sites. Register with contentinfusion.com and you can choose one newsfeed for free. An online tool allows users to customise the feed’s formatting and also how articles are displayed. Save your preferences and the tool generates JavaScript or HTML code to insert into the page. For advanced users there are options for XML, Cold Fusion and PHP. A nice feature – if it works – is the keyword setting, allowing users to refine their newsfeed category to a particular topic. This example page was set up on the author’s classic Saab 900 web site. The keyword ‘Saab’ was inserted for the automotive newsfeed but, at the time of writing, the content being delivered was rather more generic than expected. That said, contentinfusion.com is a notable exception to the majority of US newsfeed providers whose output is typically star-spangled. Sports newsfeeds, for example, are dominated by baseball, basketball and football of the crash helmet-wearing variety. Rugby, snooker and other European sports barely get a look in, and you’ll need to search for soccer to find 11-a-side coverage. Dig around, though, no matter how niche your line of business, chances are there’s someone somewhere with free content that’s right up your street. This is an important point to remember: relevance. If a newsfeed is to add informational value to your site, it must be relevant and in context with the products or services you provide, not only for site visitors but for your search engine ranking as well. For instance, if your company sells houses in the Highlands and Islands, there’s little worth in adding a newsfeed about world events instead of seeking out a newsfeed with property news. So how do we find a free newsfeed? Hit the search engines and insert the query “free newsfeed”. If that looks too much like hard work, then check out these hardy perennials. UK newsfeeds
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