Datafeed sites?

[deronsizemore]

I've seen numerous sites in peoples signatures that say they are "datafeeds" What exactly is a datafeed site? Just where you set up the template and the content comes from someone elses site?

Is it more or less an affiliate type program such as what Amazon has?

What kinds of topics are good for datafeeds? What sites offer such things besides Amazon? If in fact I'm on the right page here and understand what a datafeed site is. :confused:

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Thats about it, in a nutshell.

Most of the affiliate networks have programs that offer datafeeds, but there is little standardisation between the data supplied - which make Amazon so attractive - a wide range of products, a good range of data and the data is usually all int he smae format.

[agua]

Some more questions about Datafeed sites :):

How do you promote them regards Search Engines (Do the same principles apply as for a normal site)?

Do you not get penalized for duplicate content?

[chromate]

How do you promote them regards Search Engines (Do the same principles apply as for a normal site)?

Yeah, same rules apply. They're harder to promote though, because no one wants to link to a datafeed site. For that reason, unless you have some PR you can pump into your datafeed site, I wouldn't even bother starting ;)


Do you not get penalized for duplicate content?

Debatable. Many people believe, yes. But then, if you know what you're doing these sites take literally only a few minutes to setup, so it's worth a try.

One thing to note regarding duplicate content... I used to recommend adding these datafeeds onto existing sites. Now I wouldn't do that as I don't want the whole domain to get some kind of penalty. It's just not worth the risk.

[James]

if you know what you're doing these sites take literally only a few minutes to setup, so it's worth a try.
With the two I have, I've made back the cost of the domain name easily within a month or two. (Yeah, I don't have hella PR for the pumping, and suck at promotion). With the 2nd one, all I did was basically download then upload it to the account for the new site, and switch the layout up (using freekrai.net's script)

[Hylo]

Are datafeed sites worth spending money on Google Adwords for then if "normal" search engine optimisation techniques aren't as useful for them?

[chromate]

Well, that totally depends on what you're promoting and the bidding situation on adwords. If you're a skilled PPC advertiser then it can sometimes work out, just like any other affiliate program.

I'm promoting a couple of products on adwords that're making a nice return now. But I've also lost close to $1000 experimenting with PPC so far. I wasn't aware how difficult it was when I first started. I think it's worth it though. I got fed up exclusively playing the search engine game. I wanted some additional revenue streams and now I have a small one with PPC. Of course free traffic is best! But if I lost all that then I would be able to survive now (just about!) from my PPC traffic alone.

The other thing I LOVE about PPC is the instant results. I can come up with an idea and by tomorrow I'll be able to see if it'll work out or not. With the search engines these days it could well take 8 months or more to even get a hint of traffic.

[Chris]

One thing to note regarding duplicate content... I used to recommend adding these datafeeds onto existing sites. Now I wouldn't do that as I don't want the whole domain to get some kind of penalty. It's just not worth the risk.

Yup, not a great idea anymore.

[agua]

Thanks for the good info.