• RSS Basics
• Affiliates and RSS
• Dragon Door RSS Feeds
• More RSS Information

RSS stands for Remote Site Summary. Some use Really Simple Syndication. An RSS feed is simply content in a standard format at a url on the internet. Any site may publish an RSS feed at it's own url (www.anysite.com/feed.rss) in the RSS format summarizing the contents of their site. A site may use multiple feeds to summarize various parts of the site (anysite.com/products/feed.rss, anysite.com/blog/feed.rss).

A standard RSS2 feed may be viewed in your browser. The Dragon Door RSS Feed url is http://kbforum.dragondoor.com/external.php?type=rss2. Click on the link and you will see that RSS lives up it's name. You get a KBForum Ticker, a running window into the current state of the forum. If you need content for your site, to increase relevancy and interest for your visitors, you may not need a lot more. Adding the feed creates regularily updated content on your site without you having to do anything else.

Other common types of feeds may not be so human friendly. XML (Extensible Markup Language) Feeds provide similar information but in a format more suitable for automated parsing (analysis) and reformatting. You can view the KBForum XML feed at http://kbforum.dragondoor.com/external.php?type=xml. You will need some knowledge about how the KBForum (vBulletin specifically) works and have basic web scripting language skills in php, asp, perl, python, etc to able to make use of this feed.

The final type is the javascript feed. The Dragon Door Javascript Feed url is at http://kbforum.dragondoor.com/external.php?type=js. Browsers differ in their ability to display javascript. In most cases you will simply see a long paragraph of text (code) starting with "function thread(.....);". This javascript is a data object which also contains a current snapshot of the KBForum. Basic programming skills and possibly some server configuration will be required to make use of the javascript feed.

An RSS Feed can add current relevant content to my site but I may have to learn programming or hire someone to help me use it. What is the great benefit from that?

As an affilate, you want the links in the feed where ever it's displayed and read to be affiliate links. Each time your automated script accesses the feed it's run through a filter wgich rewrites each link to include your affiliate parameters. You are then credited the appropriate commission through the affiliate system for any sales resulting from click-throughs on the rss feed links. Well OK, that's more interesting.

In the Dragon Door RSS feed, a typical link looks like:

	<a href="http://kbforum.dragondoor.com/kettlebells-strength-conditioning-forum/some-forum-url.html">
		KBForum Post title
	</a>
	
	Where KBForum Post title is the post title and some-forum-url.html is the url
		

From the pepperjamnetwork.com site, a text link would typically look like this:

	<a href="http://www.pntrs.com/t/2-5708-9095-6619?url=kbforum.dragondoor.com/....">
		KBForum Post title
	</a>
	<img src="http://www.pntrs.com/i/2-5708-9095-6619" height="1" width="1" border="0">
	
	KBForum Post title is still the title and ?url=kbforum.dragondoor.com/.... the url
		

Simple substitution. All you need is an automated little tool to do that daily, without supervision. Read on.

There are two older variations of RSS feeds: RSS & RSS1.
Start with RSS2, the older formats are only for campatibility

Dragon Door Public Forum RSS2 Feed

Dragon Door Public Forum XML Feed

Dragon Door Public Forum Javascript Feed

Marty's Strength Column RSS Feed

Marty's Strength Column Atom Feed

Dragon Door Public Forum RSS1 Feed

Dragon Door Public Forum RSS Feed

Here is where the internet comes in. An indepth tutorial to get you started with links to tools of all kinds. Search on "rss feed affiliate marketing", or "rss affiliate syndication" to get affiliate specific information. For implementation GeckoTribe.com has tools like CaRP, Grouper and Tetra.

Of course you will have to generate your own deep linking affiliate links using your account at PepperJamNetworks.com.