Content Syndication

Content Syndication
by William Bontrager
http://www.newbiehangout.com/articles/content-syndication.htm

Imagine your articles, tips, or personal observations appearing on dozens or even hundreds of sites.

You might provide syndicated content at no charge for your byline exposure, domain name branding, and/or linking. Or, sites may be willing to pay a fee for your content.

Remote syndication sites must put some simple JavaScript on their site where they want your content to appear.

That's all they have to do.

With that JavaScript, whenever you change the syndicated content on your site, all remote syndication sites will be updated automatically -- instantly!

For example, if you put this JavaScript on your page

then the current WillMaster Possibilities featured article will appear right there. Every week, the article is replaced with a new one, like magic, with no further effort on your part.

Here are a few more syndication ideas: recipes, poems, source code, calendar events, boo-boo of the week, daily news -- anything that can be expressed with HTML and almost anything that can be expressed with JavaScript. You could even use it to serve banners and other advertisements.

I will show you how it's done. I will show you how you can do it for free, and I will recommend two commercial CGI programs for a more automated approach.

How To Do It For Free

First --

Decide on a file name for your syndicated content file (it should have a .js file name extension). Also, decide where it will be on your server.

Once you know the name of your content file and where it will be located, then you also know its URL. It will be something like http://www.yourdomain.com/contentfile.js

When you know your content file's URL, you also know what the JavaScript code for remote syndication sites will be:

Just replace [CONTENTFILE_URL] with your content file's URL. This is the JavaScript code that remote syndication sites put on their page.

Second --

Create your syndicated content file.

It's a bit easier said than done, but once learned it could become more boring than hard.

The thing to remember is that your content will be a part of a web page, not an entire page by itself. So you code your HTML tags with that in mind.

The less specific font styles you specify, the more design control you leave for syndicating sites. Unless yours is an unusual circumstance, it can be good for syndicating site owner relationships to let them fit your content into their site design.

Probably the easiest way to create a syndicated content file is to create a web page with the content and then copy the relevant portion of the source code and paste it into your syndicated content file.

You need to make the syndicated content JavaScript compatible before you upload the file to your server.

Do these steps in order:

Ensure all URLs are complete http://... URLs.
Relative URLs won't work.
Precede each backslash ( \ ) with another backslash:
\\
Precede each apostrophe ( ' ) with a backslash: \'
End each line with:
');
(The above code is --
apostrophe - close parenthesis - semi-colon
-- for those with indiscernible fonts.)
Begin each line with:
document.writeln('
(That last character is an apostrophe.)
Insert this line as the first line of your file:
<!--
Add this line as the last line of your file:
//-->
Save your file and upload it as ASCII/plain text.

Once your content file is uploaded, every syndicating site is automatically and immediately updated.

When you want to change the content on the remote syndication sites, do the above eight steps with the new content.

The above can be a bit of work if you change content often. But if you change content only once in a while, then you may not wish to invest in a commercial program to automate the process.

A More Automated Approach

The recently upgraded Master Syndicator provides a lot of automation for its $99 retail price. See http://willmaster.com/a/10/pl.pl?msyn

Just paste your content into a form and click the button. That's all there's to it. Master Syndicator automates the process mentioned in "How To Do it for Free," above, to make your content JavaScript compatible and store it on your server.

You can even tell Master Syndicator to insert HTML paragraph tags and to convert your URLs and email addresses into clickable links.

There is no limit to the number of syndication channels you can have.

We use Master Syndicator for both the weekly article and the weekly tip, always current with the most recent WillMaster Possibilities issue. We also syndicate those titles for folks who want to link to the article or tip using the current title in an index or introductory paragraph.

We have private syndication channels, too. For example, when I receive my emailed WillMaster Possibilities, I copy the email and paste it into the Master Syndicator form. This automatically updates the "Current Issue" page on our site.

You can use private channels for headers and footers on your own web pages. You can even use channels to display banners; when you're ready to change a banner just paste the new code into the Master Syndicator form. It's, well, easy.

For Some Control

The newly released Master Syndication Gateway I provides all the automation and ease of use mentioned above. In addition, you control which domains can display your content.

You can choose to make content available to everyone. Then, if someone abuses your property or refuses to comply with your terms, just put their domain name on the banned domains list. From that point on, they can't show the content anywhere on that domain.

On the other hand, you can choose to make content available exclusively for domains that are on your authorized list. No one else can get the syndication, not even if they copy the JavaScript code from the page of an authorized domain.

The content you upload for syndication can update remote sites either immediately or it can have a future activation date. There is no limit to how many content blocks you can upload ahead of time -- when an activation date arrives, the new content automatically replaces the old.

You can specify what content to send if a browser requests a syndication channel that is not available.

You can specify what content to send in place of the requested content when a banned domain or an unauthorized domain makes a request.

Master Syndication Gateway I will count the number of times content is served to the individual remote syndication sites. These statistics can be viewed as bar graphs of totals or as numbers in daily tables.

Read the manual and see a demonstration of the control panel at http://willmaster.com/a/10/pl.pl?msg

How To Choose

Both Master Syndicator and Master Syndication Gateway I are wonderful tools. But they work quite differently.

Master Syndicator generates a JavaScript compatible file and stores it on your server. The JavaScript code on remote syndication sites then directs the browser to retrieve the file directly.

Master Syndication Gateway I stores your original content in a database. The JavaScript code on remote syndication sites request content from a CGI script. The CGI script determines whether or not the site is allowed to have the content and, if okay, generates the JavaScript compatible content and sends it to the browser.

If you have articles or ads or advertorials or a viral thing (put this on your page to get ______ and tell all your friends to do it too!) or anything that you don't care how many people pick up and publish, then Master Syndicator can be ideal.

However, if you feel you want some measure of control over who may or may not publish your content, then Master Syndication Gateway I is the better choice. This program also has a built-in content delivery log and the ability to upload content ahead of time.

The program you choose will depend on what you want to use it for. Your needs might fit better with one or the other. Or, you might be able to use both, each for its own type of content.

Will Bontrager

About the Author
William Bontrager Programmer/Publisher, "WillMaster Possibilities" ezine possibilities@willmaster.com Are you looking for top quality scripts? Visit Willmaster and check out his highly acclaimed Master Series scripts. Some free, some for a fee.